Swirly bokeh lenses offer a distinctive look and ability to produce artistic images. If you're interested in photography that goes beyond technical sharpness and explores creative possibilities, this lens might be worth a closer look.
Coming to you from Neil Redfern, this fantastic video showcases the TTArtisan 75mm f/1.5 lens, a manual focus lens specifically designed to create an unusual swirly bokeh effect. Redfern emphasizes that this lens isn’t meant to replace your standard professional lenses but instead offers a unique aesthetic that sets your images apart. The lens produces a distinctive swirling pattern around subjects, particularly when shot wide open at f/1.5, ideal for portraits or artistic shoots where background detail enhances the visual appeal. Because it’s manual focus only, Redfern recommends using your camera’s focus peaking and magnification tools to assist in achieving sharp focus.
In practical terms, Redfern shows how deliberate and patient you need to be with manual focus, especially wide open at f/1.5. If you shoot fast-moving subjects or prefer spontaneous photography, this lens might present a challenge. However, with patience and precision, it can yield striking and memorable images. He particularly emphasizes the importance of the right lighting conditions and backgrounds rich in detail to maximize the lens’ swirling effect.
Key Specs
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Focal Length: 75mm
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Maximum Aperture: f/1.5
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Lens Mount: M42 (adapter required)
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Lens Format Coverage: Full frame
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Minimum Focus Distance: 2.5' / 75 cm
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Optical Design: 6 Elements in 4 Groups
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Diaphragm Blades: 13
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Focus Type: Manual Focus
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Image Stabilization: None
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Filter Size: 58 mm (Front)
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Angle of View: 32°
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Aperture Range: f/1.5 to f/16
As Redfern illustrates, composition and positioning play critical roles when working with such specialty lenses. Background choice significantly impacts how pronounced the swirly bokeh appears—busy backgrounds filled with small points of light or detailed textures enhance this effect. Conversely, plain backgrounds or skies will minimize the swirliness, making the lens’ unique properties less visible. He also notes the importance of subject distance, suggesting you experiment with varying distances to achieve optimal results.
Redfern shares practical tips about adapting the lens to modern cameras using an M42 mount adapter, something crucial if you’re considering this lens. He walks through using focus magnification and focus peaking functions, demonstrating how these tools greatly improve accuracy and reduce frustration during shoots. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Redfern.
11 Comments
"Because it’s manual focus only, Redfern recommends using your camera’s focus peaking and magnification tools to assist in achieving sharp focus."
Because heaven forbid we ever do anything for ourselves.
Most people lack the eyesight to see critical focus through the viewfinder and a lot of electronic viewfinders lack the capacity to even show it to begin with unless you are zoomed in. Why not use the best tools at yohr disposal that allow you to free up your mental focus so it can be more allocated to creative imagination?
Indeed. Why not use auto-focus? Why not use auto-exposure? Why not use auto-ISO? Why not just send your camera out in the world without you and let it take pictures by itself? It's 21st century photography, after all...
Hard to use auto focus with a manual focus only lens. I suppose you could get a follow focus and hook it up to a LIDAR, but thats expensive and cumbersome.
I feel like you are just trolling for the sake of trolling. Do you drive a horse and buggy around? Do you heat your home with a clay fireplace lit by a bow drill? Are you typing your comments by inputting using binary punch cards? Do you wash your clothes using a washboard? Do you hunt your own food with a spear?
Technology advances. Thats what it does. Why not take advantage of it? The magic of photography isn't in turning a focus wheel, its in the application of your creative vision. I'd rather offload mechanical stuff that only acts as distracting factor to technology so I can focus on being creative.
I get it, though, you are stuck in the past so just want to act all elitist. Its kinda a grumpy way to live your life. You love a form of photography that was obsolete 150 years ago. Nothing wrong with that. You probably love the process, and the chemicals and the mechanics of it. Again, nothing wrong with that. I'm happy you have found a medium that speaks to you. Why go around trying to tear down others for loving their own mediums?
When I pick up a lens like the one above, I do it because of the optical characteristic which allow me to communicate a specific creative vision. Not because it is manual focus only. If all I wanted to do was turn on hard mode, I'd flip an existing lens I own into manual mode.
Finally, just so you know, that original comment you were referring to. The one where Redfern recommends using focus assist. Its not because they actually care if you use focus assist, its because they get tired of dealing with customer service complaints from people who think they got a soft/bad copy of the lens because they keep missing focus. It saves them money. You don't actually have to listen to the advice...
Personally, I don't really care what you think, I'm confident enough in my work and my expertise that your validation more or less means nothing to me. The reason I will debate this sort of thing is because I don't want new photographers to have their love of the art stripped away before it ever grows because some elitist gatekeeper tries to pressure them into the idea that there are "right" and "wrong" ways to engage in the art.
Do what you love. Keep loving it. Celebrate others doing the same, even if it isn't the same as how you approach it.
For someone who doesn't care what I think, you sure are writing a lot about it.
Yes, I use an 8x10 camera and the wet plate process. I also use a Canon 6D. I appreciate the difference in the skill set each requires, and the end result of each. And I like doing things for myself, especially in creative ventures, regardless.
"Vive la difference" works best when there is a difference to vive. But enjoy keeping your camera on auto-everything.
I explained exactly why I engaged in the discussion. Views like yours are poison to the community and its important to point it out so that it doesn't stamp out the passion of new photographers.
The way you speak is so volatile and passive-aggressive. I highly recommend spending some time looking in the mirror.
I've taught photography at the high school, community college, and university levels, and spent yesterday teaching wet plate to a group of young people, most who'd never used large format cameras before. I don't consider that "poison to the community".
What I don't teach is "let the camera do everything for you so you don't have to pay attention to the technical side". Knowing what you're doing and doing it for yourself doesn't "stamp out the passion".
Hopefully you're not a photography teacher, because you seem to have little to offer beyond "buy more gear" and "let technology do it for you".
Heaven forbid that anyone gets old, loses their eyesight, or has any sort of physical disability where technology might improve their quality of life.
The article doesn't recommend using those features for the old, visually impaired, or disabled. It recommends them for everybody. Maybe we all need to spend our healthy years getting penis enlargements and dosing up on Viagra too? Heaven forbid we miss out on technology that might "improve our quality of life"...
Personally, I will focus my own camera for as long as I can.
That is an incredibly stupid thing to say.
That's an incredibly empty insult. Care to explain your reasoning? If technology improves our quality of life, why not use it wherever we can, whenever we can? Or is sex less important than photography?
We could take an internet poll on that...