New (old design) lens

New (old design) lens

As you probably know, I am a huge fan of using old, vintage glass on my modern mirrorless cameras, and one of the lenses I have long wanted to try for its “soap-bubble bokeh” is the Meyer-Optik Gorlitz Trioplan 100mm. This is an old, German lens which some love and some hate, but they have gotten extremely expensive on eBay; they have actually brought out a new version of them from the same manufacturer, but they go for $1,000!

Enter TTArtisan, a Chinese company who make fairly cheap but fairly good niche lenses who brought out a lens using the same internal design specifically to produce the same effect for $155. It’s an M42 mount lens (like most of my vintage stuff), so it needs an adapter (I have a few!), and when I discovered I could get it for just over $100 I jumped 🙂

I’ve actually had it for a few weeks, but what with one thing and another this morning was the first time I had a chance to take it to the woods to see what it can do- and it doesn’t disappoint!

These are pretty much straight out of the camera, a little tweak to contrast or exposure here and there, but the dreamy bokeh is all the lens!

It’s probably an acquired taste, but I love it! I don’t know if I would spend $1,000 to get it, but for just over a tenth of that I’m super happy to have this in my arsenal.


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