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Rare Vintage Kinoptik Paris Grand Angle Special F=12.5mm 1/2.5 Bokeh Test and Review



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This vintage Kinoptik Paris Grand Angle Special F=12.5mm 1/2.5 (or T2.5) is the rarest lens we've tested so far for bokeh quality. It's a cine lens specifically for 16mm cinematic cameras manufactured by the French lens producer Kinoptik, most likely sometime in the mid-1950s to mid 1960s. Kinoptik produced a plethora of custom lenses mostly in low quantities, and that is what makes this lens rare and valuable, but in the meantime, that's why there are not many documents about the designs of such lenses. By looking at the lens, it seems that there should be at least 4 or 6 elements in it, which means it enjoys the then-advanced chromatic correction designs, and the color of the light reflection on the elements tells us that it is also coated. This lens has a partially - and only partially - different design compared to the Apochromat lenses made by Kinoptik Paris, which are even rarer and are sold for thousands of dollars on the market.

From what we know, this lens covers the whole area of a 16mm film without vignetting, but when mounted on a 35mm full-frame sensor of a Nikon Z7, it creates a rounded image. Perhaps next time we should mount this on an APS-C sensor. Anyway, we decided against cropping the photos, and instead shared the whole frame to demonstrate what you will see if you take shots with it on a full-frame camera. The f/2.5 is impressive considering the 12.5mm wide-angle focal length of this Kinoptik Paris. Note must be had that because of the mount we used for testing, the circular image does not always sit exactly in the middle of the sensor, especially when focusing back and forth with the helicoid. This can be fixed using different helicoids and different cameras in the next trial.




Color Shots and Bokeh

Since the effective part of the images is relatively small, you will need to click on them to enlarge them and see more details. As you can see, the images are very sharp. Bokeh is considerably swirly and bubbly, and the subject is softly separated from the background. With a good composition of the background, the bokeh can be dreamy.





Black-and-White Photography

The combination of coatings and advanced chromatic correction creates a beautiful contrast in black-and-white photos.





Flare

Since the image is smaller than the sensor, the diffracting light rays beautifully create a ring of fire around the round image. Refraction of light creates rounded rainbows that repeat themselves in certain angles of light.



Flare in Videos

Looking at the videos below, you can see the transition of flare in different angles, and how the ring of fire plays around the circular image on the sensor.



Videos

I believe that these videos show the curvature of the edges of the image and the swirliness of the bokeh better than the photos above. There are a thousand ways to use this lens for artistic videography in different fashions.



Remember that you can always write us comments and shoot us an email for further information about this lens and every other lens that we post on this blog. Thank you for reading the whole blog post!

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