DIY Your Own Special Apertures for Lomography Petzval Lens

The Petzval Art Lens is famous for its circular bokeh. In fact, you can even make you own DIY filters of special shapes!

A few months ago I tried the Lomography x Zenit New Petzval Art Lens for the first time, and it left quite a good impression not only because of its cool vintage-looking bronze body, but all the more because of the special spiral bokeh effects! After the easter holidays, I finally had a chance to bring it home and spend some quality time with the Petzval Lens. As a designer, the first idea that came to mind was: why not make my own set of filters with special shapes for the bokeh? I immediately obtained some black cardboards to make my first set.

With the F/2.8 aperture plate that came with the box, I cut out a circular aperture of similar shape. With experimentation I found that the aperture works best in this size; the bokeh also came out the most distinct and clear. For my first adventure into wonderland, I made more than ten filters of different shapes, with silhouettes of people, coffee cups, arrows and an umbrella one which i made while waiting for the rain to stop.

Having finished making these, I could not wait to test them with my friends. This time we used the Sony A7 and Nikon FE2 with the Petzval Lens.. The two cameras were quite heavy, but definitely lighter compared to bulky single lens reflex cameras and were manageable, even for the ladies. The cameras caught a lot of attention from passers-by. Some even approached us and said the lens were cool! We shared our photo results with them in delight. In a nutshell, the bokeh effects were better at night. What surprised us the most was the fact that Petzval Lens turned even the most ordinary city night view into a colorful wonderland! Every scene with light becomes a very special photo-worthy spot.

Though our cameras were not at a professional photographer’s level, the photo experience was surprising and satisfying! We look forward to creating more DIY filters the next time, and having another date with the Petzval Lens lens!

BOKEH is an effect that makes part of the image blurred or out of focus.

The new Petzval Lomography x Zenit lens is now available for pre-order on our Online Shop ! They will be delivered on a first come, first served basis so don’t miss out on the chance to secure your own piece of photographic history and pre-order now!

written by why_hailey on 2014-05-02 #gear #tutorials #test #girl #night #diy #portrait #hong-kong #zenit #filters #tipster #hk #hongkong #hong-kong-skyline #petzval-lens #lomography-petzval-lens