Last week, Meyer Optik Görlitz (MOG) announced their latest Kickstarter for their APO Plasmat 105 f/2.7 lens. Like all MOG lenses, the Plasmat 105 is a handmade, specialty lens that’s a reproduction of historically significant lens. According to MOG, the new lens, which is based on the original construction plans of famous photography pioneer, Dr. Paul Rudolph, is known for its exceptional plasticity, depth and picturesque imagery from focus to bokeh. In layman’s terms, you can expect sharp focus of your subject contrasted by velvety smooth bokeh (blurring) around it.
Technical Data:
Focal length: 105 mm
Aperture: f2.7-f22
Mounts: Canon EF – Fuji X – Leica M – Nikon F – Sony E
Medium Format Mounts: Fuji G – Hasselblad X1D
Angle of view: 12,5° / (22° medium format)
Minimum focusing distance: 1,1 m
Filter diameter: 52 mm
Optical design: 6 elements in 5 groups
Aperture blades: 15, steel, special anti-reflective coating
Weight: ~ 350g
*Rangefinder coupling for Leica M is not supported
The original Plasmat 105 typically sell at auctions in the tens of thousands of dollars and are coveted by experimental photographers and collectors alike. The new reproductions promise to give today’s digital photographers a more affordable means to recreate some of the magic of the original.
While the Plasmat 105’s pitch mention of “image plasticity” as one of the lens’s key features may only be marketing-speak, it doesn’t take away from the colors and sharpness that the lens is able to capture. While there’s no real technical definition of “image plasticity,” you can think of the Plasmat as a lens that’s flexible enough to provide beautiful bokeh (softness in an image) while still being tack-sharp. Where many of today’s digital photography lenses are built for realism, lenses like the Plasmat aim to recreate the soul of film photography in a digital medium.
As of this post, the Kickstarter campaign for the Plasmat 105 has raised nearly 4x its initial funding goal and MOG has a longstanding history of fulfilling their Kickstarter obligations to backers. From the sample images provided by MOG, we look forward to the color reproduction and smooth bokeh.
