Acceptable method to "see" lens character?"

[gregarpp]

I have been buying various lenses to start using a RF camera.

Most of these are older lenses...

I would like to do a quick test to see how they perform.

I was planning on shooting them wide open, as I will probably use them mostly this way, and this should be the worst case condition.

I was planning on shooting a roll of 100 speed Kodak Gold (I like this film)

I don't have a scanner, I will probably get 5x7 proofs made..
I am just worried that the lab will adjust each photo, and I will loose out in seeing the various contrast of the lenses.

How does everyone else determine the performance of their lenses??

 

[denishr]

Well, if you use a lab where they follow instructions, you could tell them not to correct anything 🙂

That's where doing your own processing helps - but it's easy for me, since I do mostly B&W.

Since one of the important things for me in judging lenses is bokeh, I have a "standard" test for lenses - I take photos of my kids in the yard, with light coming behind them through the branches of a tree in the background - it gives lots of specular highlights, which is a very demanding bokeh test 🙂

It all depends what you are looking for in a lens. Decide what's important for you (sharpness, lots of detail, contrast, color rendition), and find a subject and surroundings which will demonstrate those qualities in a photo....

HTH,

Denis

 

[Finder]

Negative film is not a good way to see differences in optics mostly because prints add so many variables. Shot slide film. That will give you a better yard stick to make comparisons.

 

[VinceC]

A roll of slide film is good for testing lenses. You can use an 50mm lens wide open for a good loupe.

For negative film, most of the time, smaller neighborhood one-hour photo shops are small operations where you can talk to the person running your film and, for instance, ask them not to tweak anything. You might also want to get it scanned to a CD for an extra $4 or $5. This usually results in pix equivalent to a 1.5 MB digital camera. This allows you to study images larger than 5x7 on your computer screen. You'll probably see a lot more meaningful detail that way than peering at slides with a loupe.

 

[gregarpp]

I do have B&W equipment to process film, but I can't print it.
I also sold my 35mm scanner when I bought my DSLR.

I do have some Fuji slide mailers I can use..
I do have an Epson 4870 flatbed scanner, which I have used for some 6x6 negs, not sure how 35mm film will look.

 

[pvdhaar]

I was planning on shooting them wide open, as I will probably use them mostly this way, and this should be the worst case condition.

Yes, worst case with respect to measurable lens defects, but it doesn't tell what happens if you close down one or two stops.

There are lenses that change character completely between f2 and f4. The 50/2 Hexanon is an example, at f2 it's very pleasing while still having high resolution and constrast. But from f2.8 to f4 it gets wicked sharp all over. I bet there are scores of lenses that exhibit similar or even diametrically opposite character changes over the first 2 stops.