The first first element focusing lens I stumbled on was a Ricoh Riconar 55mm f/2.8 four element 4 group design lens. It's a strange beasty in terms of lens design, but these seem eminently useful for soft focus work near wide open. Stopped down the lens is as sharp as anything in the Toy Bin. Versatility is strong in this one.
Since this is a Pentax K-mount I can't use the first element separation to manage softness level the way I do the m42 thread mount Cosina, Steinheil, and ISCO lenses. I don't have a helicoid for K-mount. However, at wide apertures there are plenty of optical imperfections no matter the focus distance.
Here's how to read the following graphs. Please keep in mind that these are for Full Frame digital. APS-C is slightly different, as we may see in future posts.
Comments ~
To me it's interesting to see how aperture effects blur. Bare lens or filtered, aperture can help manage softness levels.
Many of the Ricoh lens/filter combinations are well within old brass-era soft focus lens ranges. This helps explain why, intuitively, I've felt this was a good Soft Focus lens on Full Frame digital formats.
While there may never be one lens "to rule them all", this little Ricoh seems well up to the task.
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