Some years ago, I made another blog that was about film cameras, vintage lenses, and digital cameras. That blog is long since gone, but having discovered a few recent archived posts, I’m resurrecting some of them:
Before the digital camera takeoff, before Adobe Photoshop, before the Holga was a thing, before Lomography, and before plastic lenses were considered trendy, there was the Sima Soft Focus lens. It’s a 100mm f2 all plastic affair with a versatile T-mount (for maximum compatibility), deeply recessed single plastic lens element, and a manual trombone type focussing mechanism (otherwise known as – two cheap plastic tubes sliding over each other).
Mine is in pretty good condition but didn’t come with the original aperture disks. Still, they’re easy enough to make out of black card and can be slotted into the screw on plastic ring at the end of the lens. Sliding in smaller apertures will increase depth of field and cut out some of the dreamy effect of the soft focus shenanigans. But where’s the fun in that? The real retro charm of this lens is in using it for wide open dreamy photos that can’t be easily (if at all) reproduced in a program like Photoshop. Here are some gorgeous sunset photos from a garden:
The photo above almost looks like a multiple exposure doesn’t it? The highlights bloom and bleed and contrast is low, but the thin depth of field, chromatic aberration and ghosting lend this image an unusual character.
Resurrecting this post makes me want to use the Sima lens again! My apologies for the smallish example photos.
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I will confess that I totally saw this article, researched the lens for ten minutes, and decided to throw 30 USD at the problem on eBay. I am hoping to get some silly results from this absolutely not professional lens. Maybe even before the world ends, if I’m fortunate enough. You never know.
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Oh, great! Hopefully yours comes with the aperture disks! If you use it before the world ends, please do let me know as I’d like to see the photos.
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It does, actually, bought it off someone who hung onto them. I’ll put a link here and post to my blog when I get stuff done with it.
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Yes, please do so 🙂
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Here’s the first experiment (just some casual shots in my back yard): https://driftwoodimagery.wordpress.com/2025/06/18/toy-lens-time-d60/
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Nice! Thank you for sharing. Mind if I link to your post in one of my future posts? I have a pinhole lens too. Not especially useful unless a tripod is to hand, though the shutter speed gets to usable numbers in strong light.
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You’re welcome, and be my guest about linking to me!
Yeah, I figured the pinhole wouldn’t be doing much of anything without a tripod but I was feeling too lazy to mess with one today, I’m habitually averse to using tripods.
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Thank you. Yes, I’m averse to the tripod too! I just got a cheap foldable Neewer one to take on holiday, just in case.
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I find almost everything through serendipity I think, just aimless wandering. They’re really useful but I always feel like it gets in the way and slows me down.
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I can relate to that. The times I want one are rare, but when I need one I really need one!
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That’s how it works, I think. Though I think the only times I’ve extensively used a tripod were for night photography of city streets and skylines.
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Yes, for sure. Mostly for night stuff here. But have not done that for ages.
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Me too. I stopped doing night stuff because it was getting a little sketchy at times. Might do it if I can find people to do it with me in the future.
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Had one of those encounters at night myself. Best to be careful.
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Yeah, it really is…
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