102 year old lens on a Canon 5DmkII

http://www.cinema5d.com/viewtopic.php?p=133996

  Quote

I am a DP and photographer, 90% of the time i use my 5D for stills, professional and not. I have an upcoming photography project that needs a vintage look. Initially i was going to shoot it on 4x5 large format film, but found the equipment and processing cost prohibitive. My friend, a Russian lens technician, who loves nothing more than to frankenstein equipment, was assisting me in building the 4x5 camera. After we abandoned the 4x5 solution, i put the project on back burner. This morning he called me into his store on NYC. He has something for me.... He found in a box of random parts, hidden inside anther lens this gem. A circa 1908 ( possibly earlier) 35mm lens. Still functioning, mostly brass, and not nearly as much dust or fungus as one would think after sitting in a box for over a hundred years. This lens is a piece of film history people, and at this point rare beyond words. So i say to him, "Wow... what do you have in mind?" he smiles, and says, ( in the thickest russian accent you can imagine) " i can make this fit EF you know..." my eye twinkled, and then 6 nail biting hours later,he had it finished. My Russian Lens technician is a mad scientist and he took what sounded like an angle grinder to the lens to make its clear the flange distance and the mirror....... This lens' value is unclear. its sort of on loan. It's the only lens of its kind on a 5D... or any digital for that matter.

post # 3001

Fuck Yeah.

sometimes i love this world

i'm not into photography or anything, but this picture is awesome. it reminds me of the 1920s.

Looks cool, would be interesting to shot a whole movie with this look.

Not bad.

brilliant.

very cool

damn, this ones good

Thats some really cool shit :D

  On 9/18/2010 at 6:29 AM, vasio said:

Looks cool, would be interesting to shot a whole movie with this look.

 

with a couple more lens and some experimentation, yea it would be a great idea.

That's absolutely brilliant. I'd love to see a whole line of emotive portraits shot with that lens.

Awsome awsome awsome, I wonder what an open shutter with that lens would produce ?

  On 9/18/2010 at 3:48 AM, jefferoo said:

 

 

Love this one

  On 9/18/2010 at 6:50 AM, impotentwhitecapitalist said:

very cool

 

 

damn, this ones good

That one is my fave too.

good composition

Let the light one in.

Can someone explain me why this lens is so special compared to modern lens ?

  On 9/18/2010 at 7:56 PM, Babar said:

Can someone explain me why this lens is so special compared to modern lens ?

yeah can obviously see the photos have this special feeling. I want to talk about the lens.

  On 9/18/2010 at 12:26 PM, Craig Anderson said:

Awsome awsome awsome, I wonder what an open shutter with that lens would produce ?

wat

  On 9/18/2010 at 8:10 PM, Craig Anderson said:

  On 9/18/2010 at 7:56 PM, Babar said:

Can someone explain me why this lens is so special compared to modern lens ?

spill your knowledge, craig!

Vetty interestink.

This is great. Love this stuff.

  On 9/18/2010 at 8:10 PM, Craig Anderson said:

  On 9/18/2010 at 7:56 PM, Babar said:

Can someone explain me why this lens is so special compared to modern lens ?

Mr. Anderson your facepalm emoticon is actually actually more of a facepalm in itself. The thing is, and as Babar rightly questioned, there isn't really much difference between this old lens and a modern lens. Optics in photography really haven't changed that much over the years, it's still just light being affected by lenses, most of the work is still done by the camera itself. Note how the colouring etc. is completely different in almost every picture - this guy has just got a decent lens (for that era), put it on a good camera, then post-processed it to give these looks by adding vignetting, colour grading etc. etc.

It's a nice idea, but really not as revolutionary as you probably think it is.

he says they're unedited

Well I call bull on that. The first has that blue cross processing you get with polaroid emulation, the second is sepia tinted with mid level vignetting, and the third with the vibrance turned down and heavy vignetting.

I'd like to be wrong though ...