Shooting Cinematic Video with a 65 Year Old Plastic Lens that Costs 50 Cents

The Weird Lens Challenge just keeps on getting weirder.

In case you've missed the first two episodes of the series, which is the brainchild of Paris-based photographer Mathieu Stern, you can go back and watch as Stern captures cinematic video with a 105-year-old lens and conjures breathtaking bokeh with a vintage Soviet lens and a tilt-shift adapter.

Today's episode, however, is even crazier than the previous two. The weird lens in question comes from a 1950's toy camera made entirely of plastic that Stern picked up for less than a dollar. Plus, the lens is actually not detachable, so Stern took the camera apart, then mounted the front half of the toy camera to his Sony A7II with a pair of rubber bands.

As always, the results are pretty damn cool. The footage isn't quite as sharp or contrasty as the previous two tests, but the lens causes some really interesting blooming effects with the specular highlights in a few shots. Check it out:

Here's what Stern had to say about how he put this together and his impressions of the lens:

For this episode we will test a 1950 french plastic camera: the Photax Heanar Type V. After I managed to open and separate the front and the back of the camera, I blocked the shutter and then just had to plug the camera directly on the A7II sensor, it was fitting perfectly.

This was shot on a rainy dark day, so before everyone gets crazy, the ISO was very high, as the light was low and the camera is also very dark. The lens is not sharp or great, or even easy to use, but it’s pretty cool looking and gives a certain vintage look to your shots.

If you're interested in being the first to see Mathieu's new Weird Lens Challenge videos, be sure to subscribe to his YouTube channel.