Spiratone Portragon 100mm F/4 Soft Focus
Short telephoto prime lens • Film era • Discontinued
- Announced:
- · No data
- Production status:
- ● Discontinued
- Country of design:
- · No data
- Original name:
- · PORTRAGON 1:4 100mm
- Class:
- · Slow full-frame short telephoto prime lens
- · Soft Focus lens
Abbreviations
| SOFT | The lens features soft focus effect control. |
Specification
| Optical design: | |
| 35mm full frame | |
| 100mm | |
| F/4 | |
| 1 element (Singlet) | |
| Interchangeable mount (T) | |
| 24.4° (35mm full frame) | |
| Diaphragm mechanism: | |
Diaphragm type: | Fixed |
Aperture control: | None |
| Focusing: | |
| 0.90m | |
| <No data> | |
Focusing modes: | Manual focus only |
Manual focus control: | Focusing ring |
| Physical characteristics: | |
| 142g | |
| <No data> | |
| Accessories: | |
| Screw-type 44mm | |
| Screw-type round | |
| <No data> |
Sources of data
- Spiratone camera accessories, lenses, darkroom, viewing and projecting equipment catalogue (No. 803) (Summer 1980).
- Spiratone photo & video accessory catalog No. 852 (Fall/Winter 1985).
Manufacturer description
Rediscover the unique beauty of the portraits and landscapes of the early photographers with the Spiratone 100mm PORTRAGON for Nikon, Minolta, Canon, Olympus, Pentax, most other modern 35mm SLR's
Even with the various diffusion attachments and special effect filters that are available, today's highly corrected, contrasty lenses cannot reproduce the nostalgic quality of yesteryear's optics.
Spiratone's PORTRAGON is a modern recreation of the primitive single element lens, mounted in a precision focusing mount which fits most any 35mm SLR.
Unlike diffusers, fog filters and other soft focus devices, the PORTRAGON produces a reasonably sharp center image with noticeable fall-off towards the edges characterized by increasing chromatic aberration. This adds emphasis to the important central portion of the picture, while suffusing the surroundings with a most pleasing, soft and romantic frame for the subject.
The Portragon's focal length is ideal for portraits, providing an image twice as large as that obtainable with your normal lens when used at the same distance. The aperture is f/4 fixed - you are always shooting wide open to achieve the desired effect; exposure control is automatic with aperture preferred cameras or controlled manually by adjusting your shutter speed. Focusing is from infinity to 3 feet; weighs only 5 oz.
From the Popular Photography magazine (March 1985)
At one time, entering the fascinating world of soft-focus photography required a considerable cash outlay for special optics.
But with the advent of the Spiratone 100-mm Portragon f/4 lens at $34.95 and the Sima 100-mm Soft + Macro f/2 at $60, you needn't break the bank to try your hand in this medium of delicate dreams.
Both lenses are fitted to an SLR via a simple "T" adapter. The Portragon has a fixed aperture of f/4. If you are working in bright sunlight, a slow film such as Kodachrome 25 or Kodak Panatomic-X is recommended. At ISO 25, the exposure, set automatically by your aperture-priority SLR, will be circa 1/500 sec. If you must use faster film, you can regulate the length of exposure with a neutral-density filter. These are available from Spiratone and other filter sources in a Series VI size to fit the Portragon.
The Portragon focuses continuously to 0.9 m (about three ft.). Closer focus may be obtained via screw-in supplementary close-up attachments.
You can also create Waterhouse stops for the Portragon by cutting holes in stiff black cardboard or plastic. A 12.5-mm hole will result in about f/8, while a 6.25-mm hole will give about f/16. (The latter size will also give f/16 with the Sima lens.) But be aware that if you go to f/16, you won't get very much diffusion, although the images will not be nearly as sharp as ones made with a normally corrected lens.
The absolute limit for truly soft images is about f/5.6, with f/8 reserved for pictures with an almost-sharp look.
From the editor
The Portragon 100/4 is a fairly old lens: the year of its announcement is unknown, but the lens was mentioned in the Spiratone SLR lenses and accessories catalogue 1968-1969, as well as in newer Spiratone catalogues.
Notes
- Independent-brand lenses were made for 35mm film SLR cameras by companies that competed with the camera manufacturers. Some came from factories that made lenses under their own brand names (Angenieux, Kiron, Sigma, Tamron, Tokina). Many others were national and international marketing organizations (Kalimar, Panagor, Rokunar, Soligor, Starblitz) that bought lenses from anonymous manufacturers. One firm — Vivitar — actually designed its own lenses and accessories, which were then subcontracted to manufacturing firms. Still others were private labels, sold only by specific photo specialty shops (Cambron, Quantaray, Spiratone).
Frequently asked questions
What is a Soft Focus effect and what are its benefits?
Spherical aberration has been purposely introduced into this lens to produce photographic images that are sharp yet which have an alluring softness.
Because of the ethereal glow that can be achieved by using Soft Focus, the lens is ideal for creating scenes with a dreamy feel. It is also good for masking blemishes in portrait photography, leaving the model's skin looking flawless.
The effect of Soft Focus is a complex phenomenon that depends on focusing distance, distance to background, relative aperture etc. It is not the same as an out-of-focus image, and cannot be achieved simply by defocusing a common lens.
The effect can be approximated in post-processing but it is not as trivial as just applying a blur filter over the image.