Question regarding 35 Summicron ASPG

[x-ray]

For those of you that have experience with the 35 Summicron ASPH I have a question regarding out of focus highlights at F2. I just received the retro 35 asph that I won in the LHSA raffle. Excellent construction in this lens. I guess being chrome it's all brass with quite a chunk of glass packed inside. First I was stunned at how heavy the lens is. I don't remember my v1 35 summicron being that heavy but the weight gives it a very solid feel. It appears the construction is much better than my v4 summicron but only time will tell. My question is about out of focus highlights, point sources, at F2. It appears from my early test roll that it draws donut highlights. Have others observed this in their 35 asph? I don't object to it, I'm just curious.

I'm looking forward to a head to head with my v4 and Biogon. My first impression is it's very sharp and has smooth tonality.

Any comments?

Thanks!

 

[Ken Ford]

I've never noticed donuts with my 35 Cron ASPH - I just looked at some stuff I shot at night on New Year's Day that I haven't processed for posting and some older street night shots from last year.

This is the only one I have posted here at the moment - do you see the same thing you saw in yours?

 

[x-ray]

I'll have to scan the negs but I shot a headshot in a restaurant at F2 and the background specular highlights started to show donut shapes but not very strong. The background was quite diffuse. I'm going to do do a few other tests and see if it was something about the particular lighting and not the lens. It's not like a mirror lens but just a different look. I don't even know if it bothers me. To me bokeh is secondary to the primary image. I'm more concerned about what's in focus.

 

[jja]

Here's one, I'll see if I can find some others. I don't think I've seen donuts in point source lighting. The big light on the right in this photoo has a halo, but I think this is different than what you are talking about.

 

[Ken Ford]

My bad. I just found donuts in one of the images from the 1st - I did a quick process of three pics and put them in my gallery. Here's the donuty one:

 

[Mazurka]

I'll have to scan the negs but I shot a headshot in a restaurant at F2 and the background specular highlights started to show donut shapes but not very strong.

I hope your subject had a very small nose. 😀

And if I'm not mistaken, there is a ring on the lens by which you can control the aperture. 😛

The fact is, given the right condition, any 35mm lens will give you bright-ring highlights wide-open. Try shooting the same scene at 1/2 or 1 stop smaller. More likely than not, things will smoothen out.

 

[Mackinaw]

Here's one I took last summer, 35mm Summicron ASPH, wide open at F2.0.

If you want to see donut highlights, take a look at the LTM Canon 35/2.0. The bokeh of this lens is so bad wide-open I've stopped using it.

Jim Bielecki

 

[jaapv]

Yes-donuts. Apart from lenses that really render ring-shaped oof highlights like catadioptric systems and some others, highly corrected lenses seem to do so as well to some extent. In fact it can be an optical illusion by the eye, and if one actually measures the brightness across the spot it turns out to be evenly lit. Less corrected lenses that have a light center and fall-off to the edges of the disk appear to have uniformly gray oof highlights. This edge effect is generated by both the eye and in some extent the film, depending on the developer used. I think this is the explanation of the donuts in the Summicron asph. Having said that, we must never forget that lens designers go for maximum correction in the plane of focus, and the out-of-focus areas are a bit of a byproduct.

 

[x-ray]

I hope your subject had a very small nose. 😀

And if I'm not mistaken, there is a ring on the lens by which you can control the aperture. 😛

The fact is, given the right condition, any 35mm lens will give you bright-ring highlights wide-open. Try shooting the same scene at 1/2 or 1 stop smaller. More likely than not, things will smoothen out.

This was only a test to see how it performed wide open. When I get a new lens or equipment I test it before using it on a job or something important. Over the years of shooting I don't think I've ever seen donut out of focus highlights except in a mirror lens.

My wife was the subject and she has a very small nose. She's a beautiful woman and I don't think I could make her look bad if I tried.