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Mathieu Stern (otherwise known as the weird lens guru) has a wealth of knowledge about rare and vintage lenses and he shares his wisdom via The Weird Lens Museum at . Here are five excellent optics from his cabinet of curiosities. It looks like a rocket ship, but the Jupiter 11 135mm f/4 is certainly not a novelty lens – it offers amazing image quality, super sharpness and lovely warm colours.

It’s also a great lens for video because the aperture ring doesn’t make a clicking sound. Mathieu describes the Helios 40 85mm f/1.5 as the ‘legendary swirly bokeh king’ and it’s easy to see why.



When used wide open this lens will create a swirly effect around your subject that will give your images an attractive dreamlike quality. It’s a great lens for portraits. The contrast and colours produced by the FD series are a big draw, but the Canon FD 50mm f/1.

4 SSC deserves a special mention. You’ll get some spectacular flare when shooting towards the sun with this lens, but the results can be pleasingly cinematic. The Minolta 50mm f/1.

4 is a cinematic lens, which makes it easy for you to isolate your main subject from the background. It has been described as ‘Minolta’s sharpest prime lens’ and doesn’t disappoint on that front. Its resolution and contrast are exceptional and the bokeh is beautiful.

You’ll find several versions of the Pentax Super Takumar 50mm f/1.4 on the market (some of which are radioactive due to the thorium glass used in their construction). It.

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