Lomography's Achromat lens may be based on a design from the 1830s, but it can produce some dreamy effects that your iPhone can't.
Lomography's Achromat lens may be based on a design from the 1830s, but it can produce some dreamy effects that your iPhone can't.
Geoffrey Berliner knows a thing or two about old camera lenses. A photographer and the executive director of the Penumbra Foundation in New York, he exudes professionalism as he pulls an antique brass lens from his bag, peers down through his square-framed glasses, and easily rattles off facts about its architecture and history. The lens is called the Achromat, and when it was developed in the 1830s, it was one of the first camera lenses ever used. At the time, it allowed photography pioneers to create sharper images in the tedious photo-making process known as daguerreotype, a time-consuming technique that was used before the advent of film. Berliner collects vintage lenses like this one, sometimes using them on modern cameras. But increasingly, he can keep his valuable antiques stored safely on a shelf where they belong.
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