{"id":23764,"date":"2024-01-05T20:00:35","date_gmt":"2024-01-05T20:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/garfnet.org.uk\/cms\/?p=23764"},"modified":"2026-01-20T18:26:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T18:26:39","slug":"120-year-old-bausch-lomb-beck-lens-in-action-on-portsdown-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garfnet.org.uk\/cms\/2024\/01\/05\/120-year-old-bausch-lomb-beck-lens-in-action-on-portsdown-hill\/","title":{"rendered":"120 year old Bausch & Lomb + Beck lens, in action, on Portsdown Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Regular readers may know that my 2023 Christmas project<\/a> was to make this 120 year old Bausch & Lomb + Beck lens fit on my \u00b54\/3 cameras and actually capture some pictures with it. Unfortunately, at the time, the weather was too wet to take the thing outdoors. Fortunately by early January the weather became cooler and drier. Moreover we have the beautiful Portstdown Hill a few km drive from here.
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Making a 120 year old lens work on a modern mirrorless camera, series…<\/h2>\n
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  1. Making a 120-year-old Bausch & Lomb + Beck lens work on a modern mirrorless camera.<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. 120 year old Bausch & Lomb + Beck lens, in action, on Portsdown Hill. (You are here.)<\/li>\n
  3. How I mounted my 120-year-old Bausch & Lomb + Beck lens.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    Here’s the official Portsdown Hill information board, actually taken through the Beck lens…<\/p>\n

    [Please click on images to enlarge<\/em>]<\/p>\n

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    Local authority sign on Portsdown Hill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    The image of the sign was sharpened slightly using “local contrast enhancement” in order to make the text more legible. The rest are SooC, mostly developed from raw files, including this snap of the the RT tower at Fort Widley, taken roughly 25 metres away…<\/p>\n

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    RT Tower Fort Widley, Portsdown Hill @25 metres.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    In addition to being quite a special place for me personally, Portsdown hill is also an 80 Hectrare SSSI and home to the increasingly rare red-tailed bumblebee. It also rises some 120 metres and offers stunning views across Portsmouth, Southsea, the Solent and the Isle of wight…<\/p>\n

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    I checked the local VOLMET. which said, “Visibility one-zero kilometres or more, cloud scattered, temperature 3<\/em>“. So up I went, armed with my Lumix DMC-GX80, my trusty Benbo Trekker tripod and my freshly-assembled ‘vintage-lens testing kit<\/em>‘. Remembering also to take my thermal gloves and a woolly hat! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

    Looking across the city<\/h2>\n

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    Of course, an uncoated 120-year-old lens is not going to be as sharp or precise as a modern lens. It was also designed when the notion of colour film was in the realms of science fiction. So there is chromatic aberration that one would not get on a modern lens. This is especially noticeable if you click on the following images and enlarge them. Nevertheless, despite its various flaws and imperfections, I have to say, I really, really like this old lens, and its almost dreamlike quality…<\/p>\n

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    Its night-time performance was interesting too. The chromatic aberration was even more apparent, especially if one zooms in on the street lights.  Yet somehow, it doesn’t seem to detract from the overall image. In fact I think this flaw actually adds to the dreamlike quality that images produced by this lens seem to possess…<\/p>\n

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    Granted, bringing this old relic back to life is a fairly trivial achievement on the overall scheme of things. But it has bought out what my wife describes as my “inner six-year-old<\/em>“, and I am absolutely chuffed-to-bits<\/em> with it. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

    My photo kit for this session<\/h2>\n