*** From the Archives ***
This article is from August 1, 2013, and is no longer current.
The Legendary Petzval Lens is Reborn for Modern SLRs
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What do you call it when a Kickstarter project raises ten times its initial funding goal with weeks still left in the campaign? It’s certainly not enough to merely call it a success. Maybe a Kick Slam? A Smashing Kickcess? Anyway, whatever you call it, the The Lomography Petzval Portrait Lens project is on its way to the Kickstarter Hall of Fame, having raised nearly (say it in your best Dr. Evil voice) One…Million…Dollars to reinvent a legendary lens from the 19th century for use with modern cameras.
In case you don’t know the story of the Petzval lens or why so many people are so eager to get their hands on one, here’s a bit of the description of the project from Kickstarter:
In the 19th Century, the vast majority of photos were shot with the extremely popular Petzval lens. The lens was invented by Joseph Petzval in Vienna in 1840 and had a huge impact on the development of photography. Photos shot with a Petzval lens are immediately recognizable for their sharpness and crispness, strong color saturation, wonderful swirly bokeh effect, artful vignettes and narrow depth of field. The totally distinctive look of Petzval photos is all about the fantastic lens design that gives you the satisfaction of the instant optic experience that goes far beyond using photo editing software and filters.
For this Kickstarter project, we are reinventing the Petzval Lens for 21st century photographers and videographers. It doesn’t matter whether you shoot analog or digital; the brand new Lomography Petzval Portrait Lens is designed to work with Canon EF and Nikon F mount cameras. So, for the first time, you can easily get the fantastic Petzval photographic look with 35mm analog cameras and DSLR cameras too. This will bring with it a whole new world of possibilities; from shooting Petzval photos with your 35mm SLR or DSLR, to creating amazing DSLR movies with the lens!
The Petzval Portrait Lens is a high-quality glass optic; it’s a must-have lens for anyone looking to enhance their creative potential and turn every photo into a timeless artwork.
Expected delivery date of the lenses is on February 2014. However, we are confident to have the first 1000 lenses shipped out by December 2013.
The retail launch price of the lens is currently planned as $499/€499 and the Special Edition at $599/€599, so you can make some great savings by backing us on Kickstarter!
In fact, the success of the project means that most of the best deals have been snapped up already. But as of this writing you can still save $100 off the retail price and get a lens that Jules Verne would be proud of by pledging $400.
To learn more about the project, and to see examples of the kinds of images you can capture, check out the Petzval lens microsite at lomography.com
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