Olympia, WA – If you shoot with a Hasselblad 500 series or other medium format camera, there’s a new lens on the horizon. On September 12 2015, Denys Ivanichek launched a Kickstarter campaign for the Petzvar 120mm f/4 Petzval pictorial lens.
“Years ago, when I was building my first lens prototypes, my goal wasn’t to pursue the creation of the sharpest lens ever made. No, I wanted to create a lens completely different from the modern lenses we see from any number of manufacturers today,” says the creator, “I wanted to create a lens that would produce an image resembling the kinds of images we saw in the first years of the photographic era. I wanted to produce a lens that would be unique for our time.”
The Petzvar lens uses a genuine Petzval scheme: two achromatic groups of elements. This classic design has not been redesigned or improved and it retains the design’s inherent flaws and imperfections. The Petzvar lens was designed primarily as a portraiture lens, but can be used as a pictorial lens for landscape photography as well.
This is Denys Ivanichek’s second successful Kickstarter project, which has raised over $30 thousand with fifteen days to go. The Petzvar 4/120 incorporates a leaf shutter and is being made specifically for Hasselblad 500 series cameras. As it’s still a standard Hasselblad V-mount, the 2nd generation Petzvar can be mounted and used on 200 and 2000 series bodies. Also, two additional mounts are offered besides the original 1st generation Pentacon Six mount: Mamiya 645 and Pentax 645.
“By today’s standards, this primitive design can’t compete with or be compared with modern lenses in any respect. It has lots of known optical flaws, which are corrected in the contemporary lens schemes,” Ivanichek explains, “But it’s those imperfections which are exactly what makes the Petzvar such a fun lens to use. It creates a feeling completely missing from lenses designed today, it is unpredictable and absolutely bursting with its own character.”
In exchange for pledging to the project, backers can gain access to a variety of rewards including a Petzvar 3.8/120 lens with your choice of three mounts (Pentacon Six, Pentax 645 or Mamiya 645) for as little as $450, a Petzvar 3.8/120 lens with Hasselblad mount for the early bird price of $480 and more.
For more information, please visit the Kickstarter project here or contact the creator below.
Contact Information
Denys Ivanichek
Email: ivanichek@hotmail.com
Website: www.ivanichek.com
Phone: (360) 990 1876
