Barbed wire sky fire 46

Exposure Date: 2013:12:18 17:39:23;
ImageDescription: Unedited JPEGs from camera, resized and copyright added.;
Copyright: Lex Jenkins 2013;
Make: NIKON CORPORATION;
Model: NIKON D2H;
Exposure Time: 1/800.0 seconds s;
FNumber: f/4.0;
ISOSpeedRatings: ISO 200;
ExposureProgram: Other;
ExposureBiasValue: +715827881 2/3
MeteringMode: Other;
Flash: Flash did not fire;
FocalLength: 100.0 mm mm;
FocalLengthIn35mmFilm: 150 mm;
Software: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.4 (Windows);

Spiratone Portragon 100mm f/4 fixed aperture soft focus lens.

No pixels were harmed in the making of this photo. This is a downsized version of a JPEG straight from the Nikon D2H, in-camera sRGB III setting. A bit of underexposure helps emphasize the natural deep red sunset.

The Spiratone Portragon soft focus lens predated the first Lensbaby by a decade or so. It was too far ahead of its time, in terms of the recently trendy retro-chic. And it's not any better than the original Lensbaby - just a simple single front element. You can mimic the effect with a 10x or so closeup diopter on a bellows, or focusable tube - even a simple tube within a tube trombone style focusing doodad would work.

Aesthetically it's not quite as effective on a crop sensor digicam as on 35mm film (or, presumably, full frame digital, which I don't have). Crop sensor digicams crop out the super-soft periphery, leaving a semi-sharp center, which often appears just plain unsharp without the context of the full image circle. Even with the full image circle you won't see a Petzval effect with swirly out of focus edges. The soft focus effect is closer to the Plasticca. It's just simple spherical aberration. The chromatic aberration is nice in color photos in bright, contrasty lighting as well.

For some reason I tend to prefer it on digicams at higher ISOs, perhaps because the grit and lower dynamic range suit the overall lo-fi look. This was on the Nikon D2H at ISO 1600. My D2H barely works anymore - it freezes up after any delay in use. But it's okay around the house where I don't have to depend on it for anything important.