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Post by belgiumreporter on Sept 3, 2014 7:25:10 GMT -5
I hope you're all up to date with the latest trends, so you'll know what steampunk is (if you don't just google steampunk and find out). Well allow me to introduce my steampunk camera, it's a D3 with PB-6 bellows and a lovely brass unicum, bauch and lomb 105mm 5,6 lens with a rochester shutter. The flange of the lens fitted without any modification in the nikon bellows and it was just a matter of screwing it on to get it fitting. The best part is that everything actually works! Here's a few pics of the setup and my first results, i think bokeh freaks will love the bokeh on this one and oh yes for those trendy folks who don't want coating on their lenses as it will give better B&W performance, there's no trace of coating on the optics ( yes well maybe some dust coating :-) ) The pics of the fairy and rose were both shot wide open, i guess sharpness isn't a problem, to be honest i expected it to be a lot softer. In case you are wondering if it will focus to infinity, yes it will, with room to spare on the bellows.
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koenmol
Contributing Member
Posts: 14
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Post by koenmol on Sept 3, 2014 7:46:54 GMT -5
so your a steampunker? Nice to meet you, Niklas I. Moonsteem at your service Inventor extraordinaire
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Post by genazzano on Sept 3, 2014 17:00:31 GMT -5
I love the softness and especially the background in the flower shot.
I also use the Nikon bellows setup with a D70 to shoot with old lenses. Did you use the old shutter or the DSLR's?
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daveh
Lifetime Member
Posts: 4,696
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Post by daveh on Sept 3, 2014 19:01:21 GMT -5
I am not quite sure what you mean about uncoated lenses and black and white performance. Originally lenses were not coated. Some were noted to have acquired a natural bloom and on these lenses the results appeared better as the contrast was improved by the bloom. (I presume somewhere along the line that it was also found that lens shades helped with contrast as well.) Someone then had the bright idea of coating lenses to give them better contrast from the start, and at the same time this improved light transmission.
For me the lens works fine on the rose, but not for the angel. I have a soft focus filter (bought about 40 years ago) that produces a similar effect. I have very seldom used it.
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Post by belgiumreporter on Sept 4, 2014 3:32:28 GMT -5
@ Niklas I moonsteem, no i am not a steampunker myselve ( a little to old for this s**t) but i do have warm feelings towards the steampunk community as they keep on amazing me with nice and crazy stuff like the robot parrot and the steam powered rail gun to name just two.
@ Genazzo : i've used the D3's shutter as there was little point in using the Rochester shutter. Because the B&L lens was originaly intended for some 4x5 plates i wanted as much sensor surface as possible, the D3 had the largest sensor in my bag, but i guess any other sensor format will do, just as long as you don't mind the crop factor.
@ Daveh, i was a bit mocking with the B&W non coated lenses issue, everybody in their right minds knows that decent lens coating will improve contrast and sharpness, but some time ago Voigtlander (Cosina) released some of their bessa range M bayonet lenses as a special issue without coating. They said it would give you that "special" look in your images when shooting black and white. The "in crowd" was ready to jump on that wagon and hailed these lenses as the new "musts" in your photo bag. Marketing people at Cosina were even able to command a higher price on these "specials" as they were said to be exlusive and rare. So much for the hype, i haven't heard much of them lately and i've seen a lot of beautifull B&W pictures that were made by people who didn't have the right glass on their cameras. Now for the lens in my experiment, if your down to earth you would say it has low contrast, is soft,and it was bought at the flea market for 1$, if i was a marketing agent i would say it has an unique roundness in rendering the out of focus areas, the low contrast would become a beautifull pastel like reproduction of colors, then i would state that the optics are produced by the world famous Bauch and Lomb factory in very limited numbers, that it has an central shutter, and the lens itselve is made out of brass and metal of the likes you won't find in this plastic age, then i would ask a ridiculous high price for it, just to show it is not for the "ordinary" people but just for the happy few that would go any lenght to achieve the perfect picture. Anyway, for me it was a nice experiment, it was non destructive on the materials used ( evrything just bolted toghether, no tools needed) and was a lot of fun for 1€ ( not taking into account the price of the D3 and the bellows).
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hansz
Lifetime Member
Hans
Posts: 697
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Post by hansz on Sept 5, 2014 3:36:54 GMT -5
Haha, Francois, I like your 'salesman' approach:-)
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