Fast 50's and noktons!

[sychan]

In the tradition of optical lens tests involving young ladies, I invited one of my more photogenic friends over to pose for a shootout between these lenses:

1) Nokton ASPH 50/1.5
2) Original Prominent Nokton 50/1.5
3) Canon Sonnar 50/1.5
4) Canon 50/1.2
5) DR Cron, recently CLA'd
6) Nokton 40/1.4 MC
7) Contax Planar 50/1.4

I took 3 photos, at F1.4/F1.5, at F2.0 and at F4.0. In the late afternoon sun, F1.4 was overexposed

All shots were RAW, on my R-D1, converted in the latest version of Adobe Camera RAW, with color temperature manually set to 4200 and no other "tweaks" applied, except to exposure level which was adjusted to get all of them equiv to around 1/600 sec for the F4 shots (I was dummy and left it on AE).

Mainly I think these shots will give you an idea of contrast, bokeh and color. Not absolute sharpness. The Canon sonnar and Prominent Nokton have wacky, wacky bokeh, but are both nice lenses in their rendition of colors (imo). The shots aren't the best in terms of photographic composition, but hey, its just a lens test, right?

The Contax Planar is a conversion I got on EBay and has some focus issues - I'm going to send it off to Ken Ruth to adjust, unless I got inspired by Brian Sweeney's Camera-Macgyver adventures 🙂

You should be able to figure out the lens/aperture used in the photo by either the filename or the sheet of paper my test target is holding.

I hope you enjoy the test - my friend was a little dopey in some of the photos, hopefully folks don't mind!

 

[sychan]

Hmmm...only 3 photos per message?!

Hmmm...only 3 photos per message?!

Here's more shots.

 

[sf]

I totally mind. Dopey models are unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable.

 

[sychan]

more...

more...

Here are the photos at f2

 

[sychan]

more more more

more more more

more at f2

 

[sychan]

Lone MC Nokton 40/1.4 @f2

Lone MC Nokton 40/1.4 @f2

Wow - this 3 images per message is problematic...

 

[sychan]

And at F4

And at F4

Here are 3 at F4

 

[sychan]

More at f4

 

[sychan]

Last one...

Last one...

MC Nokton 40/1.4 @ f4

 

[sychan]

I totally mind. Dopey models are unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable.

Ahhh well, if helps any, she's a computer engineering undergrad and a current grad student at UC Berkeley - way too bright, but tired from the late semester crunch...

 

[wrenhunter]

Sorry, sychan, which photos go with which lens? Even if they are in order from your first post, perhaps you'd be kind enough to edit each photo-bearing post with lens details.

Unless we're meant to guess? 🙂

 

[furcafe]

"You should be able to figure out the lens/aperture used in the photo by either the filename or the sheet of paper my test target is holding."

Sorry, sychan, which photos go with which lens? Even if they are in order from your first post, perhaps you'd be kind enough to edit each photo-bearing post with lens details.

Unless we're meant to guess? 🙂

 

[furcafe]

How are you mounting the Nokton on the R-D1?

2) Original Prominent Nokton 50/1.5

 

[Marc-A.]

Thanks for this impressive test. I'm knockout the Original Nokton. What a bokeh, I can't believe it.
I've got a new Nokton Asph and have the same result as yours ... it is sharp but I find the results quite average, no charm, no character. How would compare the results of your Noktons (Asph, Orig, and 40mm)?
The Canon Sonnar is pretty impressive too, much better than the Planar, according to me. I'm a bit disappointed by the DR Cron.
Marc

 

[sychan]

How are you mounting the Nokton on the R-D1?

I picked up one of the Contax -> M-Mount adapters from a Hong Kong EBay seller, and have a Prominent -> Contax adapter.

I really like the overall color and look of the original Nokton, but in terms of sharpness, it can't compete with lenses like the Nok ASPH, or even the Canon 50/1.2 (it seems comparable to the Canon 50/1.5). I wonder how much the additional focus error from the 2 adapters is effecting this? I may do some tests on this. Crazy bokeh aside, I really like the look of this lens.

I got the Prominent Nokton from a Prominent kit that I picked up a year or two ago, sold the body, kept the lens 🙂

In terms of pixel peeping sharpness, of the 50's I tested at wide apertures, the ranking would be Nokton ASPH, Canon 50/1.2, the DR Cron, Orig Nokton and Canon 50/1.5 tied. By F4, sharpness ceases to be an issue (to my eye).

I may do some more tests with the Sonnarish lenses to try and control for focus error and see what happens. I forgot to put the Zeiss Opton 50/1.5 into the mix the other day 🙂

 

[Will]

I picked up one of the Contax -> M-Mount adapters from a Hong Kong EBay seller, and have a Prominent -> Contax adapter.

I really like the overall color and look of the original Nokton, but in terms of sharpness, it can't compete with lenses like the Nok ASPH, or even the Canon 50/1.2 (it seems comparable to the Canon 50/1.5). I wonder how much the additional focus error from the 2 adapters is effecting this? I may do some tests on this. Crazy bokeh aside, I really like the look of this lens.

I got the Prominent Nokton from a Prominent kit that I picked up a year or two ago, sold the body, kept the lens 🙂

In terms of pixel peeping sharpness, of the 50's I tested at wide apertures, the ranking would be Nokton ASPH, Canon 50/1.2, the DR Cron, Orig Nokton and Canon 50/1.5 tied. By F4, sharpness ceases to be an issue (to my eye).

I may do some more tests with the Sonnarish lenses to try and control for focus error and see what happens. I forgot to put the Zeiss Opton 50/1.5 into the mix the other day 🙂

Using a Kern Switar with a Japanese adapter, again to LTM, and used a no name adapter on it, hadn't shot anything below f/2.8 (yet). (At f/8, the colour is great, need to shoot it more)

Got that german adapter from Arsenall in Hong Kong throught "General Camera", Prominent to LTM, so I use a LTM to M adapter, got the lens for 3 weeks, haven't shoot it yet. I think stacking Prominent to Contax and Contax to M adapters will be alright. It's just as bad as stacking it with bad LTM to M adapters. I wanted the lens for the crazy bokeh also, how many people buy a prominent nokton for that reason? 😀

My most resent purchases are a Contax to M adatper (from Rudy, HK), and a CZ 50/2 Sonnar Black Nose (#17xxxxxx???), haven't shoot it yet.

I think I might just have more time late next week (either getting fire, or I quit type of situation).

Oh oh.. My DR need a recoat/replacement rear element, and I found another bad DR, can I just swap the rear element???

Also, is your contax planar sitting on a contax rf internal (standard lens) mount?

 

[sockeyed]

This is great. Thanks for sharing.

What are your pixel-peeping thoughts on the Nokton-40 vs. Nokton-50?

I don't believe that you can swap lens elements between earlier Leitz lenses. My understanding is that these lenses have elements that were hand-tested to match each other due to the inherent variation in production. Now that systems are all computerized, you can simply get replacement elements.

Have you considered a recoat by ARAX in the Ukraine? They will polish and multicoat a lens element for $30 US. www.araxphoto.com

I currently have the front element from a 1957 'cron there for a recoat.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Good. Very good. This, however, will not be good for my wallet...

 

[taffer]

Impressive test !!!

I've got a main single and certain conclusion from it.

I'm in love !!! 😱

 

[sychan]

Maybe this weekend I'll do a 4 way Nokton test, correcting for the 35/40/50 focal lengths - since I've got all of them (to the detriment of my bank account) and include pixel peeping tests.
My test target will be out of town though, so maybe folks will have to suffer with something more clinical to examine.

Based on the images in this set, I put together 3 100% magnification center crops of roughly the same subject. At f1.5 and only 4-5 feet distance, focus error may account for a good amount of variation in sharpness, so take this comparison with a grain of salt.