Best method for giving modern lenses a vintage touch:

[omar robles]

Hello group:

So I own a set of Sony Cinealta Primes and I recently shot a lens tens against my buddies Lomo spherical lenses.   While I found the Lomos a tad too soft for my taste they did have a certain quality I really liked, and made my Sony footage look too clean without character.  Just wondering if there was a method to give my lenses a touch of the vintage look such as Lomos?  I am thinking perhaps a filter like the Hollywood black magic?  

[Phil Rhodes]

Something like that. I recently spoke with someone who'd shot a feature on Master Anamorphics, because they stay far sharper when opened up than older designs - to the point where they reckoned they could get another half hour out of a dusk setup. It was exactly the scenario you describe. Trying to do that on what we might call classic glass might start to reveal the rather abrupt border between "expressive" and "bad."

The problem is that it was a period piece, so they were very keen not to have it look all modern and, well, Zeiss. So they used pearlescent, black pearlescent and black satin filters, in several grades, chosen to suit the scene.

Pretty much exactly what you seem to be thinking.