Update: The giveaway is now closed. The winner will be announced soon.
How does Lomography relate to Nikon? It did not until two months ago when Lomo introduced the Diana F+ lens adapter for Nikon DSLR. The original medium format Diana camera was first introduced in Hong Kong back in 1960 and it was produced all the way until 1970 (wiki link). The whole concept was rejuvenated a few years ago and now you can enjoy some of the quirkiness of the original with your Nikon camera. The Diana F+ adapter allows the use of the 20mm fisheye, 38mm super wide, 55mm close-up and the 110mm telephoto lenses on any Nikon F-mount digital DX/FX or 35mm film camera. The NikonRumors giveaway kit contains the F mount adapter and all four of these lenses:
The lenses are small and really light (100% made out of plastic) – here is a size comparison with the Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 DX lens:
Each of the lenses comes in a separate box with a pouch, instructions and a viewfinder that can be used if you have the Diana camera:
The first thing I have to mention is that those lenses are initially designed for medium format and the actual focal length will vary based on the camera you use (unless Nikon comes up with a medium format camera):
- The DianaF+ 20mm lens is equivalent to 38mm on FX and 60mm on DX
- The DianaF+ 38mm lens is equivalent to 72mm on FX and 115mm on DX
- The DianaF+ 55mm lens is equivalent to 105mm on FX and 170mm on DX
- The DianaF+ 110mm lens is equivalent to 200mm on FX and 320mm on DX
credit: Lomography
There is no need to examine MFT charts here. The Diana F+ plastic lenses can create flare, blur, chromatic aberration, low contrast, weird distortions and some color saturation – basically everything that makes Lomography popular. However, for good or for bad, there is no vignetting when using these lenses on an APS-C size senor and as you can sees from the picture above – don’t expect any vignetting on a full frame sensor either. There is no aperture diaphragm, focus is manual (with three marked positions).
Since I was using a Nikon D300s with the Diana lenses, my favorite choices were the 38mm and 110mm lenses. The 20mm fisheye lens shows almost no fisheye distortion when used with the D300s. The 55mm lens comes with a close up add-on which is basically a slide-on lens that you put on top of the 55mm lens for taking close up pictures. The good part is that the close up lens can easily be removed and added when needed, but you will have to hold it with your finger if you point the camera down to make sure it won’t fall. The close up lens is calibrated to take pictures from 6 inches (15 cm) and that distance cannot be adjusted.
How to enter the giveaway
This time we will do things differently. Enter your email in the box below. If you select yes, you will receive the free Lomography newsletter. You don’t have to choose this option in order to participate in the giveaway. Your email address will not be used for any other purposes. One entry per person. As aways, the Lomography kit will be shipped to the winner world wide. The giveaway will close one week from today. Good luck!
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The giveaway is now closed. The winner will be announced soon.
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Ok, enough talking here are some pictures taken with the different Diana lenses (all pictures are straight out of the camera, no post-processing, click on the link to continue):
Here is another set of samples from one of the NikonRumors Forum moderators (thanks NikoDoby) – some of the photos in this galery were post processed with Nikon ViewNX in order to get closer to the “Lomo look” – see the comments under each picture for more details:
Fine print & full disclosure: The contest is void where prohibited by law. All taxes are the responsibility of the winner. NikonRumors.com is not responsible for anything. Idid not get paid from Lomography or any other party to run this giveaway. I received a free Lomography kit that was used to better illustrate and describe the products.
