Modified Lenses / Accessories that produce unique flares & bokeh

[Oliver Daniel]

Hey Lens Geeks, 

I went onto Mr. Gale's website and saw that his DSO Trump lenses have been removed and replaced with these really cool looking APOGEE lenses. They come as set and cost a significant amount of cash.

I congratulate Rich on making these lenses so awesome and sought after, but I don't have the funds for that set, even though they look perfectly featured. 

I'm looking for any other type of well constructed, modified vintage type lenses that portray unique flare, artefact and bokeh in the images. I understand there's loads of olds stuff on eBay, but I'm really looking at something more polished and solid to work with. Maybe also some people who change the bokeh look in Helios lenses (but not shit). 

Also, I'm wondering if anybody knows of any accessories that also add an effect, such as any lens filters. 

 

This is what I know of so far: 

Lomography - they have some cool looking lens sets, like he Petzval, and have a Kickstarter on this portable Neptune set. 

MotionSix - they have tinted and anamorphic flare filament lenses on offer. I've used a 29mm from them with a fixed 3.5 oval aperture. Flares are very nice, but lens was difficult to focus and extremely soft. 

LensBaby - never used their products, so can't vouch on the quality and features. 

VidAtlantic - they do lens filters and anamorphic oval mods. Don't know what they're like. 

MeyerOptikGorlitz - they are making modern versions of their legendary soap bubble bokeh lenses, like the Trioplan. 

 

Anything to share / know of / blah blah / etc etc ??

[Bioskop.Inc]

As far as the Meyer Optik lenses go - I've seen the new ones & they really come at a price! All their old lenses had that Soap Bubble Bokeh effect, it's just the Trioplan got all the attention. The good news is that they are cheap & really good lenses - made in the same place that made Zeiss lenses.

My personal favourites & the pick of the bunch are:

Lydith 30mm f3.5 - has a preset (fluid stepless) aperture ring at the front & loads of blades.

Orestor 100mm f2.8 - aperture ring at front (not stepless) & loads of blades (there are 2 versions, so get the one as described - the other has aperture ring at back).

Orestor 135mm f2.5 - nicknamed the Bokeh Monster, enough said!

You can pick up a Lydith for £30, but the Orestor is harder to find. Also, the original Trioplan is coming down in price now, due to these new versions.

Make sure they are M42 mount & not Exakta

[Cinegain]

Tito does his own mods (you find him here on the forum as well as): https://www.youtube.com/user/tferradans .

But yeah, it's a shame Rich doesn't have the capacity to cater for a larger audience and has devoted himself to the small production quantity, high quality lenses with a far better effort to profit ratio.

Couple of years ago I was close to hitting the PayPal buy now button on a customized DSO FF58 with Nikon mount, probably specced like this one:

Do have to admit that I jumped the Neptune set at earliest backer tier, I'm a sucker for cooky character lenses and these are sorta configurable too, curious how that will pan out. Other than that... vintage anything. Before you buy that Meyer Optik Görlitz hipster bullshit, look at the real deal from back in the day (-- in addition to the Lydith and Orestor mentioned before me as well the really affordable Domiplan!) and also anything Russian...

If you're in the market for a new Russian, check out the 40-2 85mm f/1.5: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?LH_PrefLoc=2&_sop=15&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=helios+40-2&_sacat=0 . Also take a look at the Mitakon 24 f/1.7 & 42.5mm f/1.2: http://www.mirrorlessons.com/2014/11/17/the-zy-optics-mitakon-24mm-f1-7-and-42-5mm-f1-2-micro-four-thirds-mount-complete-review/

...as well as their 25mm f/0.95:

Of course, it doesn't take Russian lenses to get a nice vintage classy character, low-contrast Tokina RMC or e.g. :

--- also, revisit the topics you started earlier xD

 

[Bioskop.Inc]

31 minutes ago, Cinegain said:

But yeah, it's a shame Rich doesn't have the capacity to cater for a larger audience and has devoted himself to the small production quantity, high quality lenses with a far better effort to profit ratio.

Couple of years ago I was close to hitting the PayPal buy now button on a customized DSO FF58 with Nikon mount, probably specced like this one:

 

Should have bought one of these too - still kicking myself!

If flares are your thing, then look for vintage lenses with a golden coating.

Also, check out http://forum.mflenses.com/

The only place to get great ideas for vintage lenses!

Heres a Bokeh thread (some truely amazing stuff in it): http://forum.mflenses.com/bokeh-only-t69142.html

[Cinegain]

Well, as a source, don't forget about Alan! http://www.vintagelensesforvideo.com/ & https://www.youtube.com/user/alanbesedin/videos

[Liam]

I love the imperfections of certain telephoto and wide angle adapters. I posted about mine with some photos here: http://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/20981-shitty-lenses/

 

Nice bokeh, edge softness, and distortion, imo. But they're maybe a little precarious and cheap

[Cinegain]

Concerning that... here's a silly test set-up with a perfectly fine Angenieux:

Here is one with a fungus (or something) infested Tokina:

It even has bokeh with a texture to it:

 

[Oliver Daniel]

3 hours ago, Cinegain said:

 

--- also, revisit the topics you started earlier xD

 

 

Haha, yes I've raised this before.... BUT....

I intended this topic to be more current and different, as I was initially talking about modified and re-housed lenses / modernised "vintage" lenses, cool accessories etc.... although i do appreciate the constant cheap vintage lens love. 

 

 

[BTM_Pix]

If you want to inadvertently gain some, erm, 'quirky' looks from your perfectly good Contax Zeiss lenses and make yourself £140 poorer in the meantime then I can't recommend the Fotodiox Excell+1 C/Y to MFT reducer enough.

You gain the extra field of view and a terrific 'shot through a bunsen burner' central blue flare whenever anything remotely considered to be brighter than a coal mine at night passes across it.

Not only that, if you don't close the lens down by three stops, you get a built in diffusion filter.

Not like a ProMist, more just like actual mist.

And not like shooting through a sheer silk stocking but more like shooting through woolen tights. That are covered in more tights.

Its some feat for a reducer to gain you one stop of light and then you have to pay it back with two more in interest if you're shooting anything other than 80s soft porn.

I'm selling mine if anyone wants one. 

Hardly used. 

As long as you count not hitting myself over the head with it whilst sobbing and gently repeating "stop buying crap because its cheap"

 

[Aussie Ash]

There is a guy in the Ukraine that sells customized lenses called "IronGlass".on ebay

His Helios 44-2 aluminium follow focus  gears are US $25.00 each and much better

than a lot of plastic ?hit

[Aussie Ash]

Oliver Daniel.Richard sure is a legend,it's only four years since he was selling lenses modified for flares on ebay for US $150 a pop.It seems

a pity that he closed this down in going for a much higher market.

Much of his old vimeo content is still up with various lens degredation/enhancement

[Cinegain]

Ah, good find. So that would be:

• http://ironglassadapters.com / http://www.ebay.com/sch/ironglassadapters/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=&rt=nc&_dmd=2 / https://www.facebook.com/pg/Ironglassadapters-180601889122103/posts/

[Zak Forsman]

I modded a set of Conax Zeiss lenses myself. Wasn't without its challenges as this was my first time tackling something like this, but 100% worth it. The set includes 28/2, 35/1.4, 50/1.4, 85/1.4, 135/2. Mods include:

1. seamless focus gears from Helicopter Sean

2. bolt on Canon mounts from Leitax

3. knurled step-up rings to 82mm from Breakthrough

4. 82mm push-on lens caps from Kaiser, Canon brand rear caps

5. and most importantly, I custom-made 2x fixed aperture cut from a .4mm thin sheet of stainless steel

After sourcing all the lenses from ebay (all are mint or near-mint condition AEG or AEJ), I opened up each one and took measurements for the aperture discs. designed them in adobe illustrator (making alternates that were smaller, and smaller still). When I received the aperture discs I auditioned the different sizes, selected the one i was happiest with, and finally mounted them inside with a semi-permanent adhesive so i can remove them later if i want to re-sell the lenses.

Haven't been able to shoot with them too much yet (busy at work). But I did take the 50mm pictured above for a spin. See below.

Surprisingly, I've taken some flack when i mentioned this project in various facebook groups because these lenses are highly regarded (and pricey). I don't know, maybe they see me as either incredibly stupid, or reckless... maybe I'm both. But I can definitely say I'm also completely happy with the results. 

[TheRenaissanceMan]

15 minutes ago, Zak Forsman said:

I modded a set of Conax Zeiss lenses myself. Wasn't without its challenges as this was my first time tackling something like this, but 100% worth it. The set includes 28/2, 35/1.4, 50/1.4, 85/1.4, 135/2. Mods include:

1. seamless focus gears from Helicopter Sean

2. bolt on Canon mounts from Leitax

3. knurled step-up rings to 82mm from Breakthrough

4. 82mm push-on lens caps from Kaiser, Canon brand rear caps

5. and most importantly, I custom-made 2x fixed aperture cut from a .4mm thin sheet of stainless steel

After sourcing all the lenses from ebay (all are mint or near-mint condition AEG or AEJ), I opened up each one and took measurements for the aperture discs. designed them in adobe illustrator (making alternates that were smaller, and smaller still). When I received the aperture discs I auditioned the different sizes, selected the one i was happiest with, and finally mounted them inside with a semi-permanent adhesive so i can remove them later if i want to re-sell the lenses.

Haven't been able to shoot with them too much yet (busy at work). But I did take the 50mm pictured above for a spin. See below.

Surprisingly, I've taken some flack when i mentioned this project in various facebook groups because these lenses are highly regarded (and pricey). I don't know, maybe they see me as either incredibly stupid, or reckless... maybe I'm both. But I can definitely say I'm also completely happy with the results. :D 

Very interesting! Might take apart a couple of my FDs I haven't used in a while and do some modding of my own...

Slightly OT, but what adhesive did you use to affix the aperture? I need to glue the filter thread ring back into my 35mm summicron, but I've read that many adhesives can give off vapors that fog up lens internals and/or destroy your lens coatings.

[Zak Forsman]

22 minutes ago, TheRenaissanceMan said:

Very interesting! Might take apart a couple of my FDs I haven't used in a while and do some modding of my own...

Slightly OT, but what adhesive did you use to affix the aperture? I need to glue the filter thread ring back into my 35mm summicron, but I've read that many adhesives can give off vapors that fog up lens internals and/or destroy your lens coatings.

yeah, i was a bit paranoid about that. I used a thin slice of double sided tape on the far left and right edge of the disc. People have also suggested Canadian Balsam to me for use in lenses.

[noone]

On ‎20‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 2:32 AM, BTM_Pix said:

If you want to inadvertently gain some, erm, 'quirky' looks from your perfectly good Contax Zeiss lenses and make yourself £140 poorer in the meantime then I can't recommend the Fotodiox Excell+1 C/Y to MFT reducer enough.

You gain the extra field of view and a terrific 'shot through a bunsen burner' central blue flare whenever anything remotely considered to be brighter than a coal mine at night passes across it.

Not only that, if you don't close the lens down by three stops, you get a built in diffusion filter.

Not like a ProMist, more just like actual mist.

And not like shooting through a sheer silk stocking but more like shooting through woolen tights. That are covered in more tights.

Its some feat for a reducer to gain you one stop of light and then you have to pay it back with two more in interest if you're shooting anything other than 80s soft porn.

I'm selling mine if anyone wants one. 

Hardly used. 

As long as you count not hitting myself over the head with it whilst sobbing and gently repeating "stop buying crap because its cheap"

 

Is that the Fotodiox Vizelex Light Cannon?

 

It started life as a cheaper Metabones Speedbooster substitute (actually more like a cheaper Lens Turbo substitute which is a Metabones Speedbooster substitute) but is obviously nowhere near as good so it "became" a "soft focus adapter" at a greatly reduced price and I think they were then giving them away with other purchases in the end.

 

I got one in Nikon to M43 mount when they became the "soft focus adapter"  for cheap but was still way over priced.

As it was originally intended, the Lens turbo is much much better (both being "dumb" focal reducers).

I was actually hoping to adapt it to my FF Sony with my M43 to E mount adapter but it doesn't fit in the adapter (adapter is too thin).

If you start with a REALLY sharp lens, it can be used I guess and it may well have some benefits for a soft look so I hang onto it instead of tossing it in the bin.

 

EDIT-     Just checked and it seems the Excel +1 is the IMPROVED replacement for the Light Cannon!!!!!!

[squig]

1 hour ago, Zak Forsman said:

either incredibly stupid, or reckless...

I've been thinking about ripping the mirror box out of a 5D MK3 and mounting a speed booster in it.

[BTM_Pix]

2 hours ago, noone said:

 

EDIT-     Just checked and it seems the Excel +1 is the IMPROVED replacement for the Light Cannon!!!!!!

Blimey, if this is the improved version then that Light Cannon must look like you're shooting through tear gas.

I'll post something up later as you never know the look it produces might be appealing for some people.

In which case mine is definitely for sale and because they're not available in most reputable dealers, they're now quite rare but I'll let it go for a bargain £500 for the good folks on here

[IronFilm]

This is rather unique bokeh:

 

http://www.43rumors.com/how-to-get-the-square-bokeh-with-a-weird-cheap-lens/

[Oliver Daniel]

Been shooting some stills on the Helios 40-2 85mm....... 

Oh my!!! Absolutely beautiful images. Bokeh is soft and swirly. Skin tones glow like they've been photoshopped to perfection. Is this witchcraft? 

Any lens that's like this, I want. Now.