Sorry this is not Leica related, but I find the answers here more helpful than on photo net.

I've been following the postings of a photographer named Dima Zverev on photo critique.com.

He sometimes posts shots taken with a "Monocle" lens. Would anyone know where to get one of these.

Here is one of Dima's shots taken with it. If you have some time, look at Dima's work. It's great stuff, mostly done with an old Practika.

Monocle Lens Example

-- Jim Tardio (jimtardio@earthlink.net), June 01, 2002

Answers

Here's another example:

Monocle Lens #2

-- Jim Tardio (jimtardio@earthlink.net), June 01, 2002.

Jim, I've never seen any of these lenses anywhere, including camera shows or even from the various big time Russian sellers on ebay. You may want to contact this fellow I've listed below and see if he can find you one. He seems to have one of the better selections of interesting Soviet era photo stuff. Maybe you could get the same affect by removing an element or two from a Summicron? (just kidding)

http://cgi6.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll? ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=zenitar&include=0&since=-1&sort=3&rows=25

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), June 01, 2002.

Looks like links to these types of pages at ebay don't work. Do a search for a seller named zenitar.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), June 01, 2002.

Jim, very interesting images. There is also one of a couple standing across the river from two large cranes. The cranes seem to be mimicking them to some extent.

The effect, is close to that of the Zeiss Softar III, in case you can't find one of those single element lenses. I wonder if the effect in color is weird color fringing, as in... cheap magnifying glass.

I also wonder where they put the aperture in a one element lens....

-- Charles (cbarcellona@telocity.com), June 01, 2002.

http://homepage.mac.com/mattdenton/photo/cameras/agfa_cadet.html

Is a review of a box camera with a similar lens

-- Charles (cbarcellona@telocity.com), June 01, 2002.

Jim:

I suspect these images are made with the SIMA (not SIGMA) soft-focus lens we were discussing in an earlier thread. It has a 100mm focal length with only a single uncoated element, has an f4.0 aperture wide open, and produces images that look just the ones you linked to. To adjust the F-stop, you are given two optional disks for f5.6 and f8 that snap inside a front cover. In addition to reducing the aperture, they also significantly increase shaprpness, so at f8 you have just the slightest amount of the look you see in these images at f4.

I'd try a search on eBay for SIMA soft focus. BTW, it uses T mounts to adapt to any camera.

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), June 01, 2002.

BTW it is a push-pull focus and the element does look exactly like that from a cheap magnifying glass!

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), June 01, 2002.

Did some sniffing across the net, and found that meniscus monocle lenses were very popular in the old days, with the shutter and aperture being in front of the single element. Meniscus lenses being concave on one side, convex on the other, are positioned with the concave side toward the subject, so I suppose users of an old Brownie, and users of a 35 Asph Summicron would feel right at home.

-- Charles (cbarcellona@telocity.com), June 01, 2002.

Thanks guys for the info.

Thanks, Jack, there is one on Ebay right now. I did write Dima about it a few weeks ago.

Some language is lost in the translation from Russian to English, but his advice was to find a cheap lens and remove some elements. Just which elements is a mystery to me!

-- Jim Tardio (jimtardio@earthlink.net), June 01, 2002.

Jim:

A correction to my above post; the mind is just not what it used to be! I pulled it out of the closet, blew the dust off of it and here is what it is: 100 f2.0(!) marco focussing(!) soft-focus lens. My accessories include an f4 and an f5.6 aperture disk, and what appears to be a 3-stop ND filter. I expect there was an f2.8 disk at some point that has been lost. No matter, it would be simple to make a replacement.

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), June 01, 2002.

I also found, and promply lost... a page on the net that described in simple terms, how to make what is essentially a Sima lens.

The idea was to find a set of tubes that fit inside each other fairly well (mailing tube?, craft store?, model shop?) take a 52mm +10 diopeter (side may vary), reversed, stick it into the larger tube, and stick the smaller tube onto a T mount of your choice. Flat black the inside of the tube before assembling. Push pull focus, like the Sima.

A simple opaque disk with a hole cut in it will reduce the aperture from f/2.0 (+10 diopeter=100mm/50mm diameter=f/2.0) to whatever you like, and sharpen things a bit in the process.

This has got ME intrigued, and I might just go down to the hobby shop on Monday and see what they have (I'm thinking model rocket tubing would be great for this).

Entire expense... oh... probably about $40, most of it being the Tmount and diopter!

-- Charles (cbarcellona@telocity.com), June 01, 2002.

Or you could buy that one on eBay for $35...

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), June 01, 2002.

Jim. There's no big mystery. The images look like those you could get with a soft focus lens, of which many manufacturers have examples. The degree of soft focus effect can be varied by aperture (wide open=maximum effect, closed down = less effect). [Leica made one (the 90/2.2 Thambar), but this is a rare collectible.] You don't even need a special lens to get this effect (diffusion of image and "glowing" highlights). There are soft focus effect filters in different strengths. Actually, the cheapest way of getting a soft focus effect is to smear vaseline on a UVa filter, but then you can't control the effect.

-- Eliot (erosen@lij.edu), June 02, 2002.

Have you tried asking Dima directly? Her/his email address is provided by the link you gave us and he/she seems to master English...?!

-- Lutz Konermann (lutz@konermann.net), June 02, 2002.

Yes, I did ask Dima directly. He either made his own or someone made it for him by removing elements from a lens.

The images seem a bit different than just being softened and highlighted. They have a certain "twilight zone" distortion to them...for lack of a better term.

Thanks for the suggestions. I have a couple of old E series Nikon lenses that I may perform surgery on.

-- Jim Tardio (jimtardio@earthlink.net), June 02, 2002.

Charles: FWIW, I have never found any soft-focus filter -- and I've tried Tiffen's, Nikon's, Cokin's and Softars -- or netting, cellophane, etcetera, that produced the same result as this litle SIMA lens. I've even tried to reproduce the effect in filters I have made myself with no luck, which is why I still have the little SIMA tucked away in a closet. (FWIW the Softar or Nikon combined with white netting make the best soft filters, IMO. Cokin's "Sunsoft 2" isn't bad either.)

Elliot: I have seen some images from the Thambar, and while they are indeed unique and beautifully soft, they don't have the grittiness of the Dima images above -- not to mention the lens costs about $2500. Rodenstock makes an IMAGON for LF use that uses aperture disks that look like sink strainers -- multiple holes puched around a central aperture -- and this is the closest thing I have seen to the type of results above, but they are still way more refined. I have considered trying to adapt one of these in a sliding tube arrangement for use with my Contax 645. I have also heard great things about Canon's 135 SF lens, but have not seen any results from it. For the money, I think the little SIMA SF lens is hard to beat! I'll try and get some images from it over the next few weeks and share them with the group -- but I need to find an EOS T-mount first!

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), June 02, 2002.

Jack can you confirm that the meniscus lens is concave side toward suject?

Also... I got an F/Eos mount adapter for $20.00 on Ebay (Russian and nicely made), so its an F Tmount I'll be trying to get locally. I did find some phenolic tubing, but need to check the size. Also, found some really retro looking Nikon stickers (black on yellow) from the mid 70's. I'm gonna build up one of those (too much time on my hands?).

And they say photography gets boring... phooh-phooh to them (whoever they are).

-- Charles (cbarcellona@telocity.com), June 02, 2002.

Sima is a great toy! Here are two of my images. I hope I will post them correctly the first time.

Igor

-- Igor Osatuke (visionstudios@yahoo.com), June 04, 2002.