SIMA Lens Stop

There is a lens, used to be made decades ago, known as the SIMA 100mm f2 Soft Focus portrait lens. It came with waterhouse style stops. If you buy such a lens now, from EBay, you often may not get any of the stops. The stops are useful in toning down the effect. Now, you don't want to tone it down too much, because if you want sharp photos you are better off buying a different lens. But, if you want soft focus, and find it to be too much wide open, then you'll want stops. Myself, I prefer it at about f4. *Update* I've added one more size, which is about f5.6.

Since my EBay lens came without stops, and I wanted something more durable than cutting black paper, I decided to 3D print some stops. The smallest opening was made to be approximately f4. The other two styles I just made at arbitrary sizes. This is no problem, as these days cameras will autoexpose intelligently - and you can preview the image you just took to see if the histogram shows a good exposure. And in making the models, I realize I could get them in any color or material - further influencing the final, artistic outcome. Frosted plastic, black, or anything. All worthy of experimenting with.

And now, you get to experiment the same way. If you need stops for your Sima lens, here they are. You should be brave, and try something other than black.