Hermagis Paris 375mm f4.5 Eidoscope No. 2 Lens
SKU: DXE0924/510939
Availability: 1
Six months - used equipment that tests to specs
Introduced by French lens makers Hermagis in 1903, this 375mm f4.5 Eidoscope lens is an anachromatic rapid rectilinear design and attains its famous soft-focus effect from chromatic aberration. It has about 8x10 inch coverage. The 375mm focal length on 8x10 is roughly equivalent to a 50mm lens on 35mm.
Unlike earlier petzval-type lenses, these later soft focus lenses were able to achieve a full field "sharpness" if stopped down, but purposefully provided a diffuse, soft focus effect when opened up: a favorite of pictorialists and portraitists. Sharpness of lenses had been attained by this point in history, but in the Eidoscop, it was besides the point. This lens was produced for photographers who believed that an overly sharp lens was detrimental to their artistic vision and who sought a lens which re-introduced the "defects" which the industry had sought to eliminate. In fact, the very name "Eidoscope" is derived from the greek "eidos/skopeo", meaning form/observer... in other words, a lens which empowered the photographer to bring her artistic vision and interpretation of subject matter into the foreground of image making, instead of relying on the world to objectively present itself. A famous french portrait studio famously said of the lens: "The Eidoscope does not photograph, it draws."
More Items from 8x10 Coverage
Related Items
Blue Moon Camera and Machine llc
- sales@bluemooncamera.com
- (503) 978-0333
- (503) 978-0370
-
8417 North Lombard Street
Portland, OR 97203
All rights reserved ©2025, Blue Moon Camera and Machine llc