Lomography has introduced a new lens for its “art” range of lenses designed to work in conjunction with digital cameras.

The Daguerrotype Achromat, like several other Lomography lenses will be launched via a Kickstarter campaign to get it launched before becoming available for regular purchase in shops once the required funding has been achieved.

It is based on an optical design dating back to 1839, where a Chevalier Achromat lens was mounted on a Daguerrotype camera. The main characteristic of the lens is that at wide apertures it produces a soft effect.

The new lens has a focal length of 64mm, making it ideal for a number of subjects including portraits. The maximum aperture is f/2.9, and it will be available to buy in Canon EF and Nikon F mounts - you can also use it with other cameras via mount adapters.

Lenses bought via Kickstarter are likely to start shipping in August, with availability in normal shops some time after that.

Ease of Use

The Daguerrotype Achromat will be available in a brass finish, or black. The pre-production model we tried used a matte effect brass, but the finished version is more likely to be a shiny finish - similar to the finish already seen on Lomography’s Petzval lenses (See image).

For those who are not used to working with analogue lenses, something like the Daguerrotype Achromat may take a bit of getting used to, however if you’ve worked with manual focus lenses before - or indeed any of Lomography’s other lenses it may not be quite such an adjustment.

You attach the lens to your camera just as you would any other Canon EF or Nikon F mount lens, but of course if you have a different kind of camera then you’ll need to make sure you have an adapter, i.e. for Canon mount to Sony mount - something you’ll need to purchase separately if you don’t already have one.

Once the lens is attached then you’ll be able to use it, again, just as you might do any other lens. Bear in mind that you won’t be able to automatically focus with the lens, but that’s not really the point of a lens like this. Towards the base of the lens is a ring which you can turn to focus the lens - it may be helpful to turn on focus peaking in your camera if it has it to assist you. The ring itself is smooth and fluid, with a satisfying amount of give to allow you to focus slowly and accurately.

The main characteristic of this lens is that it produces soft images, so when you’re focusing it takes a little bit of judgement to decide when the lens has fully focused since the resulting image will be soft anyway. You can get sharper images by shooting at narrower apertures, if you prefer, but again, that’s not really the point of the lens.

One of the most interesting aspects of this lens is that it uses a Waterhouse Aperture Plate system. You’ll see that there’s a small slot towards the front of the lens which allows you to place various aperture plates which come with the lens. There’s a range of plates which already existed (you can use them with the Petzval 58 lens), but there’s also been a couple of new plates designed for the Daguerrotype lens.

The effect of the aperture plates is that any bokeh which appears in the image will take on the shape of the aperture plate. So for instance, it might create a star shape, or circular patterned shapes. This is particularly effective when shooting with small light sources in the background of a shot (such as bulbs) and could make for some lovely portraits. It would also work well when shooting sunlight through leaves or trees.

It will be interesting to test the plates further once a full review sample becomes available as two of the new plates have been designed to give a specific look. The Lumiere plates are supposed to “soak images in a radiant, soft glow” while the Aquarelle plates “blend colours to produce a textured, painterly effect.” If you choose to shoot without any kind of plate then the resulting bokeh should be a simple spherical shape.

Using the plates means that less light will make it through to your camera’s sensor, so you may find you need to up the exposure compensation as images will appear darker than normal, or if you’re shooting in manual mode, using a slower shutter sped and/or a higher ISO to allow for additional light.

On the front of a lens is a filter thread of 40.5mm. The lens is shipped with a lens hood which attaches to the filter, but you can remove this to attach a filter if you wish.

Image Quality

At the moment we’ve only had time to use the Daguerrotype Achromat lens very briefly, but so far it shows promise for what it’s intention is.

If you’re looking for something that offers ultimate sharpness you’re going to disappointed with this lens, but there are plenty of other lenses available on the market that will do that for you. This lens’ speciality is a soft effect with the added bokeh effects which come from inserting the plates.

It’s well worth experimenting with the different plates on offer to see which effect suits you the most - some you may like, others you may not, it’s all down to personal preference and some work really well to create an interesting effect - this is probably the aspect of the lens we’re most looking to trying out a bit more.

Early Conclusion

As with most Lomography products, the Daguerrotype Achromat won’t be for everybody. Lomography has crafted a careful niche audience, perhaps reflected by the fact that it makes good use of Kickstarter to back such projects.

If you like the look of old style analogue lenses, this is another interesting piece of kit to have in your bag - you’ll certainly get some glances when using it attached to your camera. The effects it produces are fun - whether you believe that merits a high price tag will be down to personal taste and how much of a budget you have to spend on such an item.

It’s pleasing to see Lomography building up a steady collection of these different lenses as they bring something a little unusual and different to the market, and judging on the popularity of previous Kickstarter campaigns, it’s likely the company will have another hit on its hands.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lomography/the-lomography-daguerreotype-achromat-29-64-art-le

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