Canon LTM 85/1.5 under-rated?

Canon M39 M39 screw mount bodies/lenses
ampguy said:
Here is what I think might be a better lens than the 85/1.5 - it is a shorter focal length, but dof is still very thin, due to very close focusing (mine focuses to about 10", don't know if it was modified or not - Hexanon AR 57/1.4 (no hood needed).
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Cat vs cat, hehe

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Ted, the Konica is a perfectly fine, sharp and moderately fast lens. I already have two 55s and I don't know how many 50s--from 2.8 to 1.1. So I don't have much interest in a Konica, but glad you like yours.

As your konica is to the 58 rokkor 1.2, so the plethora of sharp f/2+ 85s are to this lens.

I have yet to test alot at f/2, but I can say that at 2.8, it's so sharp you will need some serious study to demonstrate the superority of any other 85---I mean the 85/1.8 HAS to be sharper--but I can't see it. The 1.5s sharpness at 2.8 seems to go right accross the frame, but this is 1.5x so I can't say for sure. Many of my other lenses like the J8 and the Canon 50/1.4do show softer corners than centers.

5980749696_3bae7bfb40_b.jpg

In this shot the sun has set and the light is from a still blue eastern sky.
DOF is still a handfull, though

Back to 1.5:
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missed again :) but I still like it

note her shirt under the arm on the lower right for focal point.

this one must be around 5.6 or more:
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and one last, again wide open, which I like:

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Another funny aspect of this one: it's an impressive thing to have hanging off the end of your camera, and nobody wonders if you're serious ;)
 
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Well the lens is not a dog, IMHO, but it's not a value either, unless it costs less than about $40 USD, which is what I paid for my Hexanon AR 57/1.4.

Uhoh - to test for soft corners/field curvature, take a shot of a taut textured string at min focal distance, focusing on the center, straight on, edge to edge, and diagonal, check the corners and sides at 100% crops and see if both sides go in or out of focus, relative to the center.
 
ampguy said:
Uhoh - to test for soft corners/field curvature, take a shot of a taut textured string at min focal distance, focusing on the center, straight on, edge to edge, and diagonal, check the corners and sides at 100% crops and see if both sides go in or out of focus, relative to the center.
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Better yet, put it on a full-frame sensor camera like the M9. Or shoot some pics on film. That's where the flaws really show up.

Jim B.
 
This lens does well on a camera with a crop, Jim.
I did not use this lens much with film cameras, but I use it more often with my EP-2.
It brought the lens back to life. It is a lens with a view of a 170mm lens, having depth of field of an 85mm/1.5 lens.
The 10x magnification in the EP-2 with SI makes photos very sharp with such a lens. On a film camera, the depth of field is very shallow at 1.5, and focusing is a major challenge wide open.


I find it to be a very nice portrait lens with a softer but not a soft focus, look when used open. This is maybe what Roger said above. Such a lens costs around $400-$500 when sold in very clean condition. It is a rare lens, and it is very well built. It is also a beautiful lens.
 
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Here's one from tonite, last of the sharp sun at f/4

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Since I missed them, I'll call it a table arrangement shot ;)

The Rabbi
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Conversation
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I'm impressed by the sharpness of that Canon 1.5 !!!
of course, correct focusing such a lens wide open is a challenge, more so on an LTM rangefinder camera, where lens or rangefinder may need correct adjustment !
with a digital liveview that should be no problem , just use your screen magnification ....and a hood over that screen !
I own the Leitz Summarex, Helios 40, Helios 40-2, Jupiter-9, Sonnar 85mm f/2, Nikkor 85mm f/2, Canon 85mm f/2, but envy you owners of that fine Canon f/1.5 !
Cheers
 
The 85/1.5 can be focused quite easily with a 10X magnifier in a digital camera, such as the EP-2.
 
I loved mine. It was very sharp in the middle, wide open, with a depth of field shorter than an eyelash, so focusing was difficult, and in portraits you literally had to choose eye pupil and let the lashes go. Also, I had to adjust infinity on my cameras to that lens, because it was the one that really mattered. I never got into using it much, because it was so darned HEAVY. But the overall quality wasn't real different from the 85/1.8 I had before it.

I can imagine that some of the unhappiness had to do with pictures being out of focus, not unsharp, and mine wasn't great at the corners at infinity, either, so it definitely wasn't a landscape lens.
 
I'm not familiar w/ this lens, and also would like to see some shots w/ film (only because that's what I shoot), but the shots uhoh7 posted look very nice indeed. I certainly wouldn't expect the lens to image like a Summilux (we all wish), but other than the round circles in the bokeh of some photos, which drive me nuts, I like what I see.

As I was typing I see that Thomas78 postd some film shots. Looks good to me.
 
uhoh i just stumbled across your thread, and i cannot agree more with your original position, that 'wide open' shooting was never intended to be 'razor' sharp! thats why god and lens makers created NUMEROUS apertures! so that the photographer can achieve DIFFERENT effects at different apertures! frankly this present obsession with both wide open shooting, and razor sharpness at 1.5 is pretty freaking annoying to me. its like painting with only one color.

lenses like this canon are beautiful and lovely in their rendering at various apertures, getting different results, achieving something besides absolute clarity at every conceivable aperture. god forbid you have to use your mind to think about what you want to achieve!

i recently obtained a used fuji x100 and when i asked the owner if it suffered from the 'sticky aperture' problem, his reply was 'oh i never shot at 5.6 or 8.0. i mean shooting at 2.0 is why you buy this camera, right?'

what have we wrought???!!!
 
rbelyell said:
uhoh i just stumbled across your thread, and i cannot agree more with your original position, that 'wide open' shooting was never intended to be 'razor' sharp! thats why god and lens makers created NUMEROUS apertures! so that the photographer can achieve DIFFERENT effects at different apertures! frankly this present obsession with both wide open shooting, and razor sharpness at 1.5 is pretty freaking annoying to me. its like painting with only one color.

lenses like this canon are beautiful and lovely in their rendering at various apertures, getting different results, achieving something besides absolute clarity at every conceivable aperture. god forbid you have to use your mind to think about what you want to achieve!
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I think that it is not bad at all that the canon 85 1.5 is not that razor sharp wide open, because the DOF at 1 m is only +/- 5,7 mm and the transition between perfect focus and OOF would be to dramatic and showing even minor focus errors which are not completely avoidable when using such lens with a RF.



raid said:
I have posted these before on RFF:


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....
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Raid, these are very nice pictures.

Do you observe a partial blockage of the RF of your Leica IIIf BD?

I used mine (chrome version) two weeks ago with my Leica IIIf RB and had a difficult time while trying to get the focus because the lens did block about 50% of my mirrored image at the RF.
 
I now use the lens mostly on tne EP2 or on the M6. I used the IIIf only to hold the lens for a few photos of the lens.

Thanks.
 
I think I should try my 85 mm f/1.5 on my M3 next time.

Using the rangefinder of my Canon IV Sb (with 1.5x magnification) is seems that the focus of the lens is between 142.5 and 145 cm while the rangefinder was set to 150 cm:


Canon IV Sb_Canon 85 1,5_03_PAN F_023b von thomas.78 auf Flickr

I have to check the rangefinder and maybe send the lens for a CLA and calibration.

Anyway, here some pictures:

at f/1.5:


Canon IV Sb_Canon 85 1,5_03_PAN F_003 von thomas.78 auf Flickr

and at: f/5.6


Canon IV Sb_Canon 85 1,5_03_PAN F_001 von thomas.78 auf Flickr

probably at f/5.6:


Canon IV Sb_Canon 85 1,5_03_PAN F_011 von thomas.78 auf Flickr
 
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