Vintage Bell & Howell 16mm 2inch f/1.6 Projection Lens Bokeh Test and Review
- Mohsen Jalali
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
The next lens in this row is one more US-made Bell & Howell 16mm 2inch projection (or projector) lens, but this one is different, with a bit slower f-stop of 1.6. If you're following our posts, you should know that the latest lens we tested and reviewed was a Bell & Howell 16mm 2inch f/1.2. Both lenses were produced at the same time period in early post-WWII years, and the only difference, besides the obvious difference in the elements and design, is the f-stop. Although the barrels of the two lenses share the same diameter, the f/1.6 variation is shorter, lighter, and has noticeably smaller front and rear elements.
To avoid repeating ourselves, we won't write again about the background and history of Bell & Howell here, but you can read a brief introduction to Bell & Howell HERE in our previous blog post.
Like the previous lens, we mounted this one on a Nikon Z7 with a helicoid barrel that helped this lens gain macro characteristics, and a slower f-stop in practice increased the depth of field to a scale just about right for great macro photography. It's easier to focus this lens in macro mode, and as you scroll down, you will see how surprisingly great shots are taken with this lens on.
Like the other variation, focusing farther on objects causes the image to become smaller than the sensor, maximizing vignetting so much that the image becomes a circle in the rectangular full-frame sensor. As you enjoy the photos below, remember that we did a very light edit in terms of partially adding contrast, lighting, etc., but refrained from any other editing touches to preserve the authenticity of the image we captured through this lens. This means that the depth of field is actually as shallow as you see.
Color and Bokeh (and Macro Photography!)
We took so many awe-inspiring shots with this lens that I had a hard time selecting some of them to post. Therefore, I decided to share 20 color shots. As you see, the bokeh is considerably swirly, bubbly, and soft, and the vignetting effect adds to the character of these shots, rendering shots that are sharp and have artistic tinges in them. Depth of field is still very shallow. Make sure you click on the photos below to see larger photos with higher details.
Black-and-White Shots
It's all the same for black-and-white photos; just the contrast that you get in B&W shots is slightly lower than you'd expect, which can be compensated in post-production. Take a glance.
Flare in Still Shots
The flare that we got from the f/1.2 variation of this lens was noticeably different from this one. You can see the flares of the previous lens HERE. However, it's not a surprise considering the smaller elements in this variation.
Videos
The color and black-and-white videos below can show you how the swirliness and bubbles interact and play to create the image that passes through this lens.
Flare in Videos
Last but not least, here you can see how the flare appears at different angles of sunlight. Even though the image is roughly the same size as the f/1.2 variation, the flare is completely different.
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