Olly398-
Those old soft focus lenses are great
I think I never "got" these.
In the examples above (no offence Ghibli) I think it doesn't look good at all, the outer areas of the image that are blurred do not appear calm to me but rather fidgety, or like they're swirling around the center.I would love to have a play with these "DC" lenses Nikon did (actually they still make them today, pretty pricey though), like the 135mm f/2 DC...
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As a rule all old lenses are (much) more compromised compared to their modern equivalents - simply there is technology today in design and manufacturing that was undreamt of for the most part of 20th century.
But precisely in those optical compromises (and the nature of films) lie part of image's character, and that can be used as an artistic tool. I am not interested to produce images akin to scientific registration of reality as most modern equipment strive to. If I want to see reality as it is I can just look out of the window, why bother to take pictures besides sentimentality?
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salad
Ghibli
In these particular photos the look is due to the lens (and the choice of aperture setting since the softening effect and aberrations are linked to the aperture value)- the first version of Pentax 85mm "soft" (135). On other lenses I use sometimes the Softar filters, but their effect differs and is not really comparable to this lens. If you are curious about the Softar I could dig up an example or two to post.