Petzval 80.5 mm f/1.9 MKII Art Lens

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Geoff
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Anyone had and any experience with this lens? Pro's and Con's? Using with an SLR or DSLR?
 
I haven't used this lens, but I have used a genuine Pezval lens with a large format camera on a wet collodion course, and although the results are nice I think its very expensive for what you get. A Petzval lens has two defining features, either wafer thin depth of focus with creamy bokeh or circular aberration. Both can be emulated with modern lenses. for the shallow DoF, my ordinary 70-200 used wide open is excellent. My 50mm F1.8 pancake lens is pretty good too. That distinctive circular aberration is caused by the aperture being very slightly off centre. This can also be created by taping a piece of black card, with a large, not-too-perfect round hole slightly smaller than the objective, to the front of the lens. The vignetting is attractive too, or can be removed post. A piece of black card is a lot cheaper, although admittedly not as sexy :-D Anyway, it costs you nothing to try the cardboard before you make your mind up.
 
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