Okay, here you go. Note ALL of these are SOOC as-shot jpegs, resized in PS to 1200 px for web view. (I know these are not artistic, but chosen as a quick way to show off how the lenses perform at PoF and background rendering at people portrait distances.)
First image is a lens I've mentioned above, the LensBaby 35 "Burnside." I have the vignette set to 3, and aperture at f4. This lens is a petzval design, but it surprised me that it was so sharp -- and in fact too sharp for my liking. It also rendered a bit cooler than my native Nikon glass, so in addition, this lens has a Tiffen ½ gold diffusion filter over it, which IMO quite pleasantly smooths the sharpness and warms it up just enough:
Next is another modern 60mm petzval design, also surprisingly sharp, also at f4:
Final lens is the mystery 58. I'm going to show you a wide open capture, then an f2, where I think it sings sweetest -- but there is a rather significant clue as to what this lens is showing in these two images as you compare them
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And here it is at f2.8 -- note contrast and sharpness has come up, and background is still relatively pleasant:
But now here's the mystery 58 at f4 to be fair to the old petzval designs above -- you can see just how well contrast and sharpness has improved. But then the ugly -- while the foreground bokeh remains very pleasing, the formerly pleasant background bokeh has pretty much evaporated with the smaller aperture
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End of day, I like the way the modern petzval renders, and the fact it fits the family with the 35 better, I will likely not keep the 58. But I can see it would be a sweet portrait lens, especially for older people at f1.4 and 2 and even 2.8 if you want a bit more sharpness and contrast. If anybody else want's it, send me a PM -- it's a $200 lens in very good condition optically, but needs a focus ring re-lube if you're going to shoot regularly with it. Oh, it is in native Nikon F mount
(OTOH, as an admitted gear whore, it is only a $200 lens... So maybe I'll just tuck it away in the cabinet dry focus ring and all as a just in case I want it portrait lens -- decisions, decisions!
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Feedback welcome!