Zone Plate

" A zone plate diffracts light; consequently zone plates are closely related to pinhole. Zone plates render soft-focus imagery, yet they are not like soft-focus lens imagery, and their look is not at all like pinhole imagery. The beauty within a zone plate image is the recognizable halo or glow that surrounds any strong-contrast edge ... "

~by Eric Renner~

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A zone plate consists of a serious of concentric rings, with each ring alternating between transparent and opaque.



A zone plate is different from a pinhole for it renders soft-focus imagery and allows more light to get to the film, i.e. allowing a shorter exposure time. The more the zones in a plate increases the glow effect, and decreases the required shutter speed.

Zone Plate Gallery

• Summer Breeze
  
  
  Zone plate images by field camera with Zero Image Zone plate



• Image Transfer
  
  
  4 x 5 field camera, Polaroid type 59, image transfer.



• Busy Life
  
  
  Zone plate version of Zero 2000 6 x 6 format, hand-held and all exposure time is by guess.



• Beautiful Hong Kong
  
  
  Zone plate version of Zero 6x9 format, 45 minutes exposure with girlfriend.



• Dating
  
  
  Zone plate version of Zero 6x9 format, over 20 minutes expousre, also with girlfriend.



• Old Workshop
  
  
  6 x 6 format Zero 2000 zone plate camera, with tripod.



• The First Touch
  
  
  Flash zone plate photography with zone plate mount on Hassebald camera.

Pinhole Vs Zone Plate

   

Where you can see the difference between pinhole images and zone plate images ...

Zone Plate Adapter

Zone plate installed in a Copal Shutter. Adaptor ring is machined by our camera designer, this adapter is no longable available!

Kiev Converted to Zone Plate

To test the zone plate, we convert a Kiev to a zone plate camera with extension tube for different focal length testing!

Kodak Retina Conversion

To test the zone plate, we convert a Kiev to a zone plate camera with extension tube for different focal length testing!

Zone Plate Set (Sold Out!!!)

After doing a lot of experiments and testing, we re-launch the zone plate set with with focal length of 90mm, 135mm, 150mm, 180mm, 240mm and 300mm.

This zone plate set is special designed for our Copal adaptor but you can use it with any of your own-made camera. It is not compatible with the our Zero camera!!!