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There is no end to “old” stuff that’s brought (sometimes kicking and screaming) into the current day and age. Sometimes it works out great (say, the reissue of retro video game systems in new compact packages) and other times, it just falls flat. Will the new Petzval camera lens be the former or the latter? Time will tell, but funding levels seem to point it to being a success.
Never heard of Petzval? Well, that makes at least two of us. Apparently this is the dude who created the first lens specifically for portraits all the way back in 1840. What does that mean for you, today? Well, it’s a way of taking your photography back to it’s roots in a sense.
We’re so used to being able to let our cameras automatically control all the parts of our photography, we can lose touch with the creativity that’s possible with getting into what a camera (and lens) can actually do. With one of the versions of this Petzval lens, you can actually control the bokeh (the out-of-focus effect in the background of photos) at seven distinct levels.
You can also do stuff like put aperture plates in to have that bokeh effect take specific different shapes. It makes for some neat effects, for sure, and this lens was developed (with the assist of adapters) to be able to fit across a variety of camera bodies. Pricing starts at $290 for the black aluminum body and tops out at $384 for the one with the Bokeh control. The campaign wraps up on March 10th, and is currently sitting at almost 500% funded as of this writing. campaign page
