Let's talk about parrot's beak and an X-ray lens

We got an interesting flower pot at the farmer's market in Saratoga, California. It looks like the flower pot is on fire with the lotus berthelotii plant, also called parrot's beak, and lotus vine flower.

I took this shot with an ultrafast f/0.75 vintage X-ray lens, a German made Rodenstock XR-Heligon 50mm f/0.75. The center is surprisingly sharp within the narrow DoF band of 3 mm. The outside is blurry, and has strong vignetting, even when mounted on an APS-C camera. I added some vigentting on the left to balanced it out after crop.

This vintage lens was used for X-ray machines before the digital age. The flange focal distance is less than 10 mm, e.g. too short for Sony E-mount, which has 18 mm. I adapted (aka abused) a Leica M39 to E-mount adapter for this X-ray lens. I gained 5 mm by placing the lens inside the E-mount, resulting in a 13 mm flange focal distance. Close enough, but still not to the point where I can focus to infinity. With this setup the focus distance is 36.5 cm as measured from the front of the lens. This lens has a fixed focus distance, e.g. I have to focus with my feet or tripod, which can be challenging with the very shallow depth of field of 3 mm. The lens is always fully open since it has no diaphragm. See photos of lens on Facebook at bit.ly/2VIsvJe

I processed a balanced and a paintery HDR photo from two RAW exposures, blended them selectively, and carefully adjusted the color balance and curves. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.

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-- ƒ/0.75, 50 mm, 1/800, 1/3200 sec, ISO 200, Sony A6000, Rodenstock XR-Heligon 50mm f/0.75, HDR, 2 RAW exposures, _DSC5621_2_hdr2bal1pai5f.jpg
-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography

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Taken in: United States / California / Cupertino (show map)

Taken on: August 8, 2021

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Groups appears in: • Bokeh Galore (No BOrders) • California's Bay Area Group more » • Favorites: 200 • California Photography • California Photographer • BokehLicious • Creative Photography Inspirations • Rodenstock Lens Users Group • Sony a6000, 6300, 6500 • Sony A6000 • Sony Alpha 6000 • !Bring me the Bokeh! • Shots from your Sony A6000 • BOKEH of VINTAGE PRIMES ⭕ • X-Ray Lenses « less

Camera: Sony ILCE-6000, f/0, 1/800 sec, 0mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Sony ILCE-6000
Lens:	Sony 0mm F0.0
Aperture:	f/0
Exposure Time:	0.001 sec (1/800)
Focal Length:	0mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto bracket
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Pixelmator Pro 2.1.2
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