Now That’s a Vintage Lens

The first vintage lens I loved was an Angienux 25-200 T3.9 that one of the co-producers on our first feature owned.  We used it to shoot the end credits with a “vintage Italian cinema feel,” (live, quick, super-zooms, lens flair, etc.).  This is actually the same lens that Kubrick used quite a bit on Barry Lyndon.

Incidentally, here’s an article from American Cinematographer where John Alcott (Barry Lyndon cinematographer) discusses the Angienux). [I’ve actually copied the article in its entirety to this blog, for fear the valuable information might disappear at some point, since that link is the only source I could find for this article.]

I thought that Angienux was pretty old tech to be using for 4K digital footage.

However, Vimeo user Ignacio Sanchez found this 1919 Toledo lens at a flea market in Madrid and adapted it for his 5DmkII and 550D running Magic Lantern.  Now THAT is old tech… and it looks awesome.  Perhaps a little “soft” (HA! –what an understatement), but gorgeous nonetheless.

110 years old lens in 5DmkII - Tessar 1º design. UPDATE: from 1919 from Ignacio Sanchez on Vimeo.

TOLEDO lens TEST#1 from Ignacio Sanchez on Vimeo.

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