Lomography Daguerreotype Achromat 64mm F/29 Art Lens Review

Lomography knows a thing or two virtually old, former lenses. Its Petzval series borrows its optical pattern from large format portrait lenses that were used starting in the 1840s. Its latest lens goes dorsum fifty-fifty farther. The Daguerrotype Achromat 2.9/64 Art ($499) traces its roots back to the 1830s, and while it looks a lot like the company's take on the Petzval, information technology doesn't evangelize the aforementioned signature swirl. The Achromat isn't a lens for the masses, but if y'all're a fan of its soft, glowing look and textured backgrounds, consider adding it to your kit.

Blueprint

The Achromat boasts contumely construction, and then information technology's relatively heavy for its size. It measures 5 past 2.5 inches (Hard disk drive) and tips the scales at 1.five pounds. You lot can buy it in bare brass, simply Lomo sells it in blackness and silvery as well. Unlike the Petzval series you don't need to spend a premium to cover up the contumely—all three versions of the lens cost the same.

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In add-on to dissimilar colors, the lens is bachelor for different camera systems. Nosotros received the Nikon version for review, only you lot can likewise get information technology for Canon and Pentax SLRs. Information technology's a purely manual design, so you tin can apply an inexpensive adapter to mount it to the popular mirrorless systems on the market place today: Canon EF-M, Fujifilm X, Micro Four Thirds, and Sony E/Iron. Lomography states that the lens projects a 44mm epitome circle, then with the right adapter, you lot can use it with the medium format Fujifilm GFX fifty South.

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The lens itself is a 64mm design with a maximum f/ii.nine discontinuity. There's no internal discontinuity control. Instead, similar the Petzval and Petzval 58, it uses removable plates to adapt the amount of lite passing through the lens. You get the standard circular plates—f/ii.9, f/iv, f/5.six, f/8, f/11, and f/sixteen—likewise as six plates with dissimilar shapes. In that location are iii with a central circle, surrounded smaller circles—f/4.5, f/4.8, and f/6.3—and three with star patterns—two f/half dozen.three and an f/6.7.

A soft dark-brown textile carrying case is included to agree both the lens and aperture plates. It closes with a drawstring and has two pockets for plates—information technology's the same pouch arranged with the Petzval lenses. I'm not a huge fan of its blueprint. I've endemic the original Petzval lens since its launch and found that the plates autumn out of the bag pretty easily, which tin lead you to lose them. I typically keep the plates in either a small-scale naught bag or in a mesh zippered pouch in my camera purse.

Unlike the Petzval series, where the plates slide in between the front and rear elements of the lens, the Achromat'south plates sit in front of any glass. Even though the lens has 2 drinking glass elements they are placed together in one group, then there'south no real infinite between the front and rear elements, as you tin can see from the cutout diagram at the correct.

Cutting light before it enters the lens certainly plays a part in the fashion the Achromat draws images. This is specially true when you employ 1 of the multi-circle or star aperture plates. At that place's some space for light to scatter over again before it hits glass, which probable leads to the soft edges visible in the patterns in out-of-focus areas when using one of the uniquely shaped aperture plates, and for the subtly soft glow visible in photos.

The lens can focus to nineteen.seven inches (0.five-meter). It'southward by no means a macro, but the working altitude lets you fill the frame with smaller subjects. I had no bug shooting irises in bloom, for example, filling the frame with the flowers without need for heavy cropping. But y'all can't get up close and shoot the textures of the petals or details in the beard. Focus is adjusted via a standard ring, rather than the oddball cycle and gear system used by Lomo's Petzval lenses.

The Images

Running our normal litany of lab tests on the Achromat would be utterly pointless. This isn't a lens you use if you desire clinically sharp results. I used the lens along with the full-frame, 36MP Nikon D810. When y'all look at images from the combination at full pixel-level magnification, it'southward clear that the lens doesn't deliver what information technology doesn't hope. Details aren't blurry, but they aren't tack abrupt either.

This goes to give the lens its character. When shot wide open up with the f/2.9 aperture plate in place, the resulting images bear witness a heavy soft focus result, as y'all tin can run into in the prototype above. It's pretty farthermost, so for nearly situations I opted to use 1 of the smaller apertures. You tin go with a standard circular plate, which doesn't practice anything crazy to the groundwork of images, simply does mitigate the amount of softness, without sacrificing the ethereal glow that permeates the frame.

I found that I was a big fan of the multi-circle aperture plates. The stars were a bit much for most cases, calling attention to the background and away from the subject field. Just if yous're shooting a portrait where you burnish points of calorie-free as function of the backdrop, you can use the star bokeh effect to your advantage.

The multi-circle aperture is a flake more versatile. It adds texture to backgrounds, but not to the point of distraction. I too found that the lens created some pretty intense, natural flare when shooting a sunrise and heavily backlit subjects. And because it also serves to stop down the lens by a stop or ii—depending on your choice of blueprint—information technology delivers a stunning rest of crispness, softness, and shallow depth of field when installed.

Conclusions

Y'all are either going to beloved the Lomography Daguerrotype Achromat two.9/64 Fine art or hate it. I enjoyed using it and am a big fan of the images it captures. On the other paw, a colleague described the star bokeh effect as a "bad Snapchat filter." I wouldn't go that far, but the point is articulate. If you lot similar the expect of the images the Achromat captures, and are willing to spend around $500 to add it to your kit, know that it's well built and a pleasure to employ. If you're looking for something similar, only perhaps aren't completely in love with what the Achromat delivers, consider some alternatives. Both the Lomography Petzval and Petzval 58 Bokeh Control are priced and built similarly. Lensbaby besides has the inexpensive Twist 60 and our favorite special effects lens system, the Editors' Choice Composer Pro II.

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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/lomography-daguerrotype-achromat-2964-art

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