Topic: Got Lucky With This Lens

[Ed Wenn]

For various reasons I have recently drifted away from toy cameras and into the murky world of SLRs. It didn't take me long to start messing with lenses so that the output was more like a toy camera (yeah, I know, why bother, why not just stick with TCs if I'm going to go to all that trouble? Well, it's a long story and I'm not going into it now). One of the few lenses in my posession that I haven't messed with so far is a cheap 28mm that I bought for my k mount Pentax. I used it a couple of times, but wasn't really happy with it, so I stuck it in a bag and left it for a year.

I finally used it again this month and...WOW the results are great. It would seem that the lens has decided to try and please its master by going all blurry on me before I reached for the pliers and the screwdriver to take it apart. Weird beard or what. Has this happened to anyone else? Leave a lens in a bag for a while and it suddenly goes blurry at the edges? Not exactly sure what the cause is, but I'm not complaining.

Used with shallow DOF and long-ish shutter speeds (i.e. 1/30th sec) the results are great. Subtle blur and a great feel. The first is my fave from the recent series, the second shows the edge blur rather nicely. I know it's no big deal, just a badly made lens, but I like what it does:

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[Skorj]

My 'eck, them's sweet results Ed. Perhaps it had to do with that jar of vaseline you left in the bag with the lens?

[This-is-damion]

very sweet indeed!!  i actually posted about this on flickr,  confused me a bti for a while!  great resulst though, it alsmost adds motion blur to the shot of the dear lady wife,    looks like you were sitting on a revolving table....well it does after youve eaten the same smarties as me

[Ed Wenn]

Now that you mention it, Damion, the cafe is the famous South London Revolving Cafe..I'd completely forgotten that. Cheers for the reminder.

:-)

BTW, we must go there when you and Kelly come to visit in a couple of weeks. It's a cool place and is at the bottom of our road.

[Tammy]

Did you leave the lens in the bag with some old socks?     

Perhaps a combination of poor construction and a bit of fungus starting?  Or some separation around the edges of the optics..?

Very nice results though.  Colors are fab and the bit of softness is pleasing.  A great feel, indeed!

[LT]

it does look pretty good, made all the more impressive by the Wenn eye of course.  Let's hope it doesnt keep changing just as you got to like it.

[Francois]

Pretty sweet for the price!
The blur is pretty surprising for a 28mm... unexpected (yet the distortion is really cheap 28)

I have to re-start hacking lenses
Love the slight motion blur.

Perhaps a combination of poor construction and a bit of fungus starting? 

I know a girl who voluntarily grows fungus on her optics (or buys them pre-grown if I could say)...
It gives pretty clumpy and rough results... and costs her next to nothing.
She gets exposed in many galleries and "tried" to sell her prints for an arm and a leg. She says she works on decay and destruction...

[warren]

Beautiful samples Ed. Great results indeed.
I'd hang on to that bag, throw some other lenses in there!