TT Signature Soft Focus Pictorialist Lens

The TT Signature lens is a single-element meniscus design by Tri Tran. Its custom-turned barrel system allows you to exchange elements from 9″ to 30″ in the same barrel.

As the photos below show, you only need one lens barrel with various single elements. This is a gamechanger in every way. I can carry one single lens barrel with six focal lengths from 9 to 24 inches. It truly is impressive.

This lens’s unique optical characteristics set it apart from other soft-focus lenses. It has an even soft-focus glow across the entire focal plane, and the contrast is unlike any other ULF soft-focus lens I have ever used.

The Tri Tran Signature Pictorial Soft Focus Fine Art Lens is a meticulously engineered single meniscus lens inspired by the Pictorialist Era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Designed by fine art photographer and optics expert Tri Tran, this lens embodies the dreamy, ethereal aesthetic cherished by historical Pictorialists while incorporating modern optical advancements to refine performance.

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Crafted from high-definition glass sourced from premier American and French suppliers, this lens achieves an exquisite balance between soft focus and sharpness, allowing for delicate diffusion while maintaining essential contrast and tonal separation—ideal for both silver printing and alternative processes. Unlike many vintage soft focus lenses that produce flat contrast or excessive uniform diffusion, this lens provides controlled chromatic aberration and spherical distortion, enhancing its versatility and image quality.

The lens competes favorably with some of the rarest soft focus lenses in photographic history, including Pinkham Smith Synthetic, Struss Pictorial, Spencer Port-Land, Kodak Portrait, and Hermagis Eidoscope. However, whereas those legacy lenses are exceedingly rare and prohibitively expensive, Tri Tran’s lens is available in multiple sizes (4×5 to 16×20) and customizable focal lengths, making it a viable and powerful tool for modern fine art photographers.

The handcrafted aluminum barrel, designed by master machinist Den Thoi Ngo, is both functional and elegant, featuring integrated iris control, Copal 3 shutter compatibility, and a threaded interior to minimize reflections. It can also be customized with an engraved owner’s name and selectable serial numbers.

Why This Lens Aligns with Solitary Witnesses

The Tri Tran Signature Soft Focus Lens perfectly matches my Solitary Witnesses project, which seeks to evoke a sense of timeless solitude and quiet reflection. The lens’s painterly rendering, controlled diffusion, and rich tonal separation make it an ideal tool for capturing lone trees and atmospheric landscapes with an emotional depth that modern sharp lenses cannot achieve. The ability to fine-tune the softness while preserving contrast ensures that each print retains the expressive qualities I strive for in my work. This lens is a modern interpretation of a Pictorialist masterpiece, allowing me to push the artistic vision of Solitary Witnesses even further.

Additional Lens Information

This lens and its various elements, from 4×5 to 16×20, is my secret weapon for creating ethereal pictorialist-style handmade prints.

The Lens board hole Ø 72mm, and the Flange Ø 98mm.

With the integrated aperture control, I can control the degree of soft focus effect, creating images that range from dreamlike to slightly soft and emotional.

No other lens has ever been made with a single barrel and a variable aperture that accepts lens elements covering from 4×5 to 20×24.

I currently own the following focal lengths: