Distorted lens

[natelfo]

Does anyone know of a lens that produces a distorted image, kind of like a Lensbaby for 4x5? I really like the tunnel like focus effect, but don't care for spot focus filters.

[Mark Woods]

Use a magnifying glass. The center is more or less sharp while the edges totally smear. At least that's the way the one I made looks.

[jp]

For a tunnel focus look, take the front cell off a tessar lens (the longer the better). Then you have a meniscus lens of a shorter focal length. Getting in closer will increase the tunnel effect.

[jp]

Pardon the imprecise focus. It is difficult when the image field isn't flat or sharp and I'm just playing around without anyone to please.

http://www.f64.nu/photo/tmp/lff/_DSC2670s.JPG

http://www.f64.nu/photo/tmp/lff/img312.jpg

This with a 210 tessar. This normally focuses at the end of the track for photos 2-3 feet away.

[Dan Dozer]

This was with the front half of an old Ilex Projection lens. I believe the lens is/was a petzval type, however the lens produced an image size much too small for my 8 x 10. I took the lens apart and used only the front glass and image size for this distance was easily large enough.

[kissssss]

Nice soft! I love its softness

[Vaughn]

Alex, Last Game of the Season
Alex Gets a Hit, Last Game of the Season

Magnifying glass lens, Type 55, Speed Graphic
Scanned contact prints.

[Louis Pacilla]

Very nice images Vaunghn. See what you can do w/ a magnifying glass natelfo.

I love the shot w/ the fence in the foreground. Very nice Vaughn.

[Vaughn]

Thanks, Louis. The fence does show the limited sharpness of the lens very well.

And the image shows how pathetic Alex's swing is (I taught him all I know about baseball!), yet he got a hit and a RBI!

No swirly bokeh, though...:rolleyes: