Rare 'soft' lens

Found this for sale:

http://www.acecameras.co.uk/asp/web/recorprod/1/product/13999/cat/1579/ph/cat/keywords//recor/1/SearchFor//PT_ID/1/product.asp

I haven't seen a 'soft' lens before - seems to go against the 'sharper is better' grain that so often pervades lens discussions.

I take it they were designed for potraiture?

I got one and I love it!

what a weird websit... I clicked that link once and saw a pentax 85 soft, went back and got locked into a main page with no way to go back to the pentax...

I noticed that out of 29 posts most are of items for sale... are you affiliated with that company you linked to?
Just curious....

No I am not affiliated in any way. Just interested after doing search on google for 'used camera lenses'.

I've put a few things up for sale on here yes, I thought that was okay. I read alot, post a little. I guess I rarely think I have anything to contribute.

I'm not sure I like your insinuation

No need for ruffled feathers, have you checked the link you posted to see if it still works?
I click on it I get the main site, no lens. which is weird because the first time i clicked there was a lens...

Consider my feathers smoothed

Just clicked again and your right, it seems to go straight to their home page now. Weird as you say; it definitely went to the 'soft lens' when I posted it.

I'm genuinely interested what you use the lens for - I honestly don't know what I would do with one.

Their website appears to be a bit broken at the moment. I've browsed it several times before, it normally works. That soft lens has been on sale there for at least the last four months.

Dynamosh you're right they are portrait lenses. I don't really understand the necessity myself in these digital times, but from what I understand you change the aperture to adjust the softness of the image. The idea is that overly-sharp photos show too many unattractive features like pores in the skin.

portraits.
the main things to remember are :

A: hard light works better than softlight....

B: compose so the area you need sharpest is dead center, it is sharper in the center and softer towards the edges, so you do your real composing by cropping after shooting, with people portraits you usually want the eyes sharp..

C: it is manual only, wider aperture are softer, stop it down and it gets progressively sharper...

D: you want a lenshood and nd filters to go with it.

I use mine with the af 1.7 teleconverter and it auto focuses...

Boke is unique and creates almost 3d orbs of light off specular highlights...

I also use mine for macro abstract shots it does focus remarkably close, and for dreamy landscapes esp at night where the boke adds some interest to the nightlights.

One of these went on ebay for £419.99 on Christmas Eve. Perhaps someone was desparate for a Christmas present.

K.

Unusual in construction too - two elements cemented together in a single group just like a Lensbaby. The results look similar to a Lensbaby too but I'd imagine the Pentax lens is a lot easier to use and get repeatable results with.

Sounds interesting, thanks for the info.
As I already have a FA 50mm 1.4 and the Tammy 90mm macro for potraits I think I'll give this one a miss.