Somehow, a lens with unique attributes has a great appeal to me...  Once I've seen some amazing photos done with (now rather expensive) Meyer Optik Trioplan, it spoke to me, and I'm not exaggerating, it really did!

I've done my research, and fortunately there were few options to what generally people called "Poor Man's Trioplan", and those alternate lenses were also made my the same company, shared the same simple design of only 3 glass elements.  These tend to produce very similar results when it comes to "bokeh bubbles"  because design involved overcorrection spherical aberration.  And included in the list of alternatives are:

Diaplan 80mm f/2.8

Diaplan 100mm f/2.8

And their identical versions from Pentacon:

Pentacon AV 80mm f/2.8

Pentacon AV 100mm f/2.8

Now the unfortunate part, these lenses were made for projectors, and have no physical "ready to mount" to any camera parts, and have to be "adapted" to use with DSLR or Mirorrless...  There are many option from stuffing these lenses into gutted old lenses, free lensing, stuffing them into extension tubes or into inexpensive Chinese made focusing helicoids (and that is the my personal choice)

Not going to reinvent the wheel here by any means, but merely a notes on production of

Bubblelicious bokeh and some tips on how to get it...

This lenses "thrive" on any highlight in production of bokeh balls. There are 3 variables:

• Lens to subject distance, subject to background object distance and direction + intensity of the light would make this bokeh balls of various sizes with the right lens.
  
  
• Basically, any object that can reflect a spec of highlight will be used bu this lens to make that bokeh ball. Closer this background object to the main subject - smaller the ball. Further from the main subject - larger the bokeh ball
  
  
• Some of the easiest objects to use to make those bokeh balls are: Christmas Lights, glass bids, shiny decorative stones, Christmas Tree shiny "furry strings" (gold, silver) - each one reflects soooo much, water troplets, morning dew on the grass, bubble wrap!!! And my personal favorite -aluminum baking foil, like in this one 
  
  
   
  
  
  
  Now to how these bokeh balls are made....  For this series, we will use the same object, but will move things around and add the background objects to produce the desired bokeh.  This set has lens to object distance is closup/macro range.
  
  

  30cm object to background, 1 glass bid:

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  20cm object to background, 1 glass bid:

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  5cm object to background, 1 glass bid.

  
  

  

  
  
  
  Notice the difference in the intensity and overall appearance of bokeh... Now lets take it step further, I think an upper portion of the frame is lacking something... Let's add n extra glass bid.
  
  
  20cm object to background distance, 2 glass bids (staked)
  
  

  
  
  
  20cm object to background distance, 3 glass bids (staked)
  
  

  
  
  
  Ok, I think it would work (as a starting point) if I wanted the “portrait” orientation. But lets try “Landscape”...
  
  20cm object to background distance, 2 glass bids (staked) and 3 more glass bids to the right of the subject
  
  

  

  
  
  
  Ok, getting somewhere. But something is missing from the left side of the frame. So lets add another glass bid...
  
  20cm object to background distance, 2 glass bids (staked), 3 more glass bids to the right of the subject, 1 to the left of the subject:
  
  

  
  
  
  Ok, but what if we wanted a bit more “minimal” appearance? Lets move our lens back a little, and note how appearance of bokeh changes as well:
  
  

  
  
  
  So here is the shot from above, the “ultra complicated setup”
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  Our current setup is a simple table top, mate dark brown finish, natural light from the balcony door:
  
  

  

  
  And that is were I could stop the experiment, but why...? How about the lighting?  Let's take the lens, and change our point of view a little, and point the camera a little more to the right:
  
  
  

  
  
  
  Lets move it back to the left just a bit:
  
  

  
  
  
  Now, using the same setup as before, we in the “higher key” presentation of the same subject with softer and a bit brighter pastels. And the only thing we've done - we moved a lens a little to capture the light differently...
  
  

  I don't want to sound cheesy, but some while back, I've seen a video from Joe Edleman “Remember the EGG” but I honestly believe it is very useful 4 minutes lesson, particularly when paying attention how table top surface merges with the background/disappears, or creates an ultimate separation, where either one can be uniquely used to create the final look you desire:

  
  

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYqcd0lBObM

  
  
  
  
  Light – direction, intensity, Reflections and Surfaces can change the photo quite a bit...
  
  Hope this helped, have fun experimenting!
  
  Regards,
  D