4x5 lens that "swirls" ?

[Andrew]

I think there's a few designs that are capable of swirling so long as it's a fast lens and you're stressing it by using the limits of the image circle...
I'd have to do some searching to find the images again but I'm sure I've seen swirly images that were from fast tessar design lenses

[Emil Schildt]

I have a couple of lenses that swirl like crazy on 6x6.... and some small petzvals that swirls a lot on 4x5.

Frank is not right! small projection lenses can be found for far less money than a photoshop program, and it is so much more fun - and it looks real... and...

[RawheaD]

Am I swirly enough for you?


Angst by Dr. RawheaD, on Flickr


Bodhgaya by Dr. RawheaD, on Flickr


Peace by Dr. RawheaD, on Flickr


The Count by Dr. RawheaD, on Flickr

[parleton]

IMHO Helios' bokeh are unsightly compared to Noct's bokeh but i guess that's the len characteristics. There are plenty of lens that swirl ranging from 16mm to large format. There's a group on flickr dedicated to swirly bokeh check out http://www.flickr.com/groups/swirlybokeh/ and each picture might have more infor on the len

[jcoldslabs]

This was shot on 4x5 film with a small 4.25" B&L projection lens.



Jonathan

[goamules]

By the way, the swirling is caused by uncorrected coma, and was an aberration side effect of some early lenses. But a Petzval is the most usual with the effect. With a normal photographic petzval, the only way to get swirl is to use a smaller focal length than originally intended for the format. Also, the faster ones do it mostly, those below about F4.5. This is about a 5" F3.2 on 4x5:

[Frank Petronio]

Subject matter helps a lot too, a young topless woman in front of a Willow tree will almost always get rave reviews and improve the performance and resale value of the lens.

[parleton]

aha i seconded this by frank. that will certainly correct the optical aberration !

[benrains]

Other lenses to look at in addition to Petzvals would be the old landscape/meniscus lenses with their stops removed. I've found mine to have quite a bit of swirl (in addition to the expected softness you get when using the lenses this way):

[Frank Petronio]

Swirly lens without trees are kind of worthless....