A lot of people have been following the exploits of Timur Civan as he plays with a 1908 Wollensak Cine-Velostigmat f5 lens that a friend of his – “a brilliant Russian lens technician and owner of Panorama Camera Center” – modified to mount onto his Canon 5D (although of course any camera with interchangeable lenses would be a candidate for such surgery). The results have a lovely combination of vignetting, glow, and flare. Here’s a few links so you can catch up on the fun, including still images plus video results:
- Timur’s blog where he explains the process and shares the results
- The Cinema5D forum post which includes a less-formal play-by-play of the process, along with comments from others (along with the requisite troll visit)
- Timur’s Vimeo page, which includes the above video plus more of Timur’s work (including a read-world demo of the 5D’s aliasing problems)
As a person who likes to print on unusual papers at the end of the photographic process, of course I also love the idea of someone who shoots video and film with an unusual lens at the start of the process.