Lomography knows a thing or two about old, old lenses. Its Petzval series borrows its optical design from large format portrait lenses that were used starting in the 1840s. Its latest lens goes back even further. The Daguerrotype Achromat 2.9/64 Art ($499) traces its roots back to the 1830s, and while it looks a lot like the company's take on the Petzval, it doesn't deliver the same signature swirl. The Achromat isn't a lens for the masses, but if you're a fan of its soft, glowing look and textured backgrounds, consider adding it to your kit.

Design

The Achromat boasts brass construction, so it's relatively heavy for its size. It measures 5 by 2.5 inches (HD) and tips the scales at 1.5 pounds. You can buy it in bare brass, but Lomo sells it in black and silver as well. Unlike the Petzval series you don't need to spend a premium to cover up the brass—all three versions of the lens cost the same.

In addition to different colors, the lens is available for different camera systems. We received the Nikon version for review, but you can also get it for Canon and Pentax SLRs. It's a purely manual design, so you can use an inexpensive adapter to mount it to the popular mirrorless systems on the market today: Canon EF-M, Fujifilm X, Micro Four Thirds, and Sony E/FE. Lomography states that the lens projects a 44mm image circle, so with the right adapter, you can use it with the medium format Fujifilm GFX 50 S.

The lens itself is a 64mm design with a maximum f/2.9 aperture. There's no internal aperture control. Instead, like the Petzval and Petzval 58, it uses removable plates to adjust the amount of light passing through the lens. You get the standard circular plates—f/2.9, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, and f/16—as well as six plates with different shapes. There are three with a central circle, surrounded smaller circles—f/4.5, f/4.8, and f/6.3—and three with star patterns—two f/6.3 and an f/6.7.

A soft brown cloth carrying case is included to hold both the lens and aperture plates. It closes with a drawstring and has two pockets for plates—it's the same pouch bundled with the Petzval lenses. I'm not a huge fan of its design. I've owned the original Petzval lens since its launch and found that the plates fall out of the bag pretty easily, which can lead you to lose them. I typically keep the plates in either a small zip bag or in a mesh zippered pouch in my camera bag.

Unlike the Petzval series, where the plates slide in between the front and rear elements of the lens, the Achromat's plates sit in front of any glass. Even though the lens has two glass elements they are placed together in one group, so there's no real space between the front and rear elements, as you can see from the cutout diagram at the right.

Cutting light before it enters the lens certainly plays a part in the way the Achromat draws images. This is especially true when you use one of the multi-circle or star aperture plates. There's some space for light to scatter again before it hits glass, which likely leads to the soft edges visible in the patterns in out-of-focus areas when using one of the uniquely shaped aperture plates, and for the subtly soft glow visible in photos.

The lens can focus to 19.7 inches (0.5-meter). It's by no means a macro, but the working distance lets you fill the frame with smaller subjects. I had no problems shooting irises in bloom, for example, filling the frame with the flowers without need for heavy cropping. But you can't get up close and shoot the textures of the petals or details in the beard. Focus is adjusted via a standard ring, rather than the oddball wheel and gear system used by Lomo's Petzval lenses.

The Images

Running our normal litany of lab tests on the Achromat would be utterly pointless. This isn't a lens you use if you want clinically sharp results. I used the lens along with the full-frame, 36MP Nikon D810. When you look at images from the combination at full pixel-level magnification, it's clear that the lens doesn't deliver what it doesn't promise. Details aren't blurry, but they aren't tack sharp either.

This goes to give the lens its character. When shot wide open with the f/2.9 aperture plate in place, the resulting images show a heavy soft focus effect, as you can see in the image above. It's pretty extreme, so for most situations I opted to use one of the smaller apertures. You can go with a standard circular plate, which doesn't do anything crazy to the background of images, but does mitigate the amount of softness, without sacrificing the ethereal glow that permeates the frame.

I found that I was a big fan of the multi-circle aperture plates. The stars were a bit much for most cases, calling attention to the background and away from the subject. But if you're shooting a portrait where you brighten points of light as part of the backdrop, you can use the star bokeh effect to your advantage.

The multi-circle aperture is a bit more versatile. It adds texture to backgrounds, but not to the point of distraction. I also found that the lens created some pretty intense, natural flare when shooting a sunrise and heavily backlit subjects. And because it also serves to stop down the lens by a stop or two—depending on your choice of pattern—it delivers a stunning balance of crispness, softness, and shallow depth of field when installed.

Conclusions

You are either going to love the Lomography Daguerrotype Achromat 2.9/64 Art or hate it. I enjoyed using it and am a big fan of the images it captures. On the other hand, a colleague described the star bokeh effect as a "bad Snapchat filter." I wouldn't go that far, but the point is clear. If you like the look of the images the Achromat captures, and are willing to spend around $500 to add it to your kit, know that it's well built and a pleasure to use. If you're looking for something similar, but maybe aren't completely in love with what the Achromat delivers, consider some alternatives. Both the Lomography Petzval and Petzval 58 Bokeh Control are priced and built similarly. Lensbaby also has the inexpensive Twist 60 and our favorite special effects lens system, the Editors' Choice Composer Pro II.

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