How about starting a 50mm/1.5 lens test?

I have sent a pm to Mark, William, Michael, John,and Fred with my address. If anyone else needs the address, just send me a pm.

Brian,

The lenses have been listed, so you can decide which additional [even as replicate] lens you want to contribute. Thanks.
 
The current list:


1. Canon 50/1.4 ..........................(Raid)
2. J-3 LTM .................................(Raid)
3. Nokton Prominent 50/1.5 ...........(Raid)
4. Zeiss Opton 50/1.5 Contax mount (Raid)
5. Nokton 50/1.5 CV .................(Michael)
6. Canon 50/1.5 ...........................(Fred)
7. Uncoated old Zeiss Sonnar 50/1.5 (Fred)
8. Nikkor 50/1.4 ............................(Mark)
9. Canon 50/1.4 ............................(Mark)
10. CZJ 50/1.5 LTM ........................(Mark)
11. Summarit ................................. (John
12. J-3 ......................................... (William)
13. "transitional" CZJ Sonnar in LTM..... (John)
14. "Tokyo" Nikkor SC f1.4 .................. (John)
 
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jmkelly said:
Raid: What body do you plan to shoot on? Are you willing to add some f1.4 lenses to the test? Otherwise you are limited to the Zeiss Sonnars and clones, plus maybe the Xenon and Summarit - if you can find sharp/clean examples. As noted above the Nikkor SC fits here if you accept f1.4, which is a lot more common in the community than the nearly unobtainable f1.5 (though if someone were willing to lend one it would be cool to see how it compares). And if you accept f1.4, what about three or four of the Summiluxes? And the current 50mm Nokton?
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Hi John,

I don't know who has a Summilux here. I would like to test it too. I may have to use more than one camera body to accomodate the LTM/M and the Contax and Nikon lenses.

******** I need a Nikon body loaner. *************

With 35mm lenses, the difference between contax and nikon was small, but with 50mm lenses, we need separate bodies.
 
Xenon

Xenon

LeicaTom said:
Raid,

I`ll be doing a TEST of these FOUR classics soon, ALL are mint or near mint glass, top condition and ALL have hoods

1936 Leitz Xenon f1.5 50mm *Results in real "dreamy" looking photos like a 50mm version of the Thambar 90mm*

1953 Nikkor Nippon Kogaku f1.4 50mm *Great lens sharp and very close to the performance of the Canon f1.5*

1956 Leitz Summarit f1.5 50mm *Sadly underrated, great "art" lens in either color or black and white film*

1956 Canon f1.5 50mm (one of the last made) *Quite possibly the BEST lens of this group*




Tom
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Hi Tom,

If you were not planning your own testing, I would have asked you to loan me the Xenon!

I may get a Summilux as a loaner.
 
I just got the idea to have a test of at least 5 J-3 samples in this test as a side product. We can compare different production years and logos on the lens.

There are at least that many J-3's offered for the test.

Let's add J-3 lenses please. Thanks.

I have a J-3, John has one, William has one, Robin has one,and Brian has one.
 
Raid, depending on when we ship I may have two J-3's to contribute - supposedly I have one "in the mail" but it took opening a PayPal dispute to get the seller to communicate, and who knows if what I recieve will be even close to what was listed (yeah, it was that kind of transaction). I will also drop a type 1 Summilux into the box. It would be great if Tom were to loan his Xenon but not necessary - aside from sample variation lens-to-lens the only difference with the Summarit is that the Xenon was uncoated. His Xenon is also something like 20 years older than my Summarit - I have to think that there are some differences in glass formulation as well, though AFAIK the changes were not big enough to alter the optical formula. Your testing matrix is getting fairly complicated!
 
jmkelly said:
Raid, depending on when we ship I may have two J-3's to contribute - supposedly I have one "in the mail" but it took opening a PayPal dispute to get the seller to communicate, and who knows if what I recieve will be even close to what was listed (yeah, it was that kind of transaction). I will also drop a type 1 Summilux into the box. It would be great if Tom were to loan his Xenon but not necessary - aside from sample variation lens-to-lens the only difference with the Summarit is that the Xenon was uncoated. His Xenon is also something like 20 years older than my Summarit - I have to think that there are some differences in glass formulation as well, though AFAIK the changes were not big enough to alter the optical formula. Your testing matrix is getting fairly complicated!
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Thank you , John. The Summilux would make the comparison set more complete. All contributions here are joint RFF efforts, and this makes all of it fun.

As for shipping cost, some of you are repeat contributors in lens tests and you know the estimated cost. ups.com will give you the estimated shipping cost. Take into account whether you want insurance or not. It is your lens, and you need to balance cost with risk.

Always ask for delivery confirmation as it is very inexpensive and useful.

You don't have to include return shipping cost when you mail the lenses. I will mail the lenses back and email/pm you what the cost was, and then you can mail me a check.

Sometimes, insured shipping of valuable lenses can reach $30+. A $4000 group of lenses is not cheap to insure. Uninsured parcels with priority mail are not costly, but the cost can reach $10 if you live in California or Idaho.

I have never had a problem in any of my previous lens testing. The lenses were returned as they were sent to me. I keep all boxes and I place the lenses back in the same baox that was sent to me.

Keeping order of things in such lens testing is the most time consuming part of the test. The rest is mechanical in nature.

If it makes you feel uncomfortable to part with a lens this way, please do not feel pushed into it. It is supposed to be both useful and fun.

I hope that contributors can mail the lenses on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday so that I can start the lens testing on time with all lenses included.

Last time, our Roland played a major role in making the test results more useful by singling out certain areas on the scans and by arranging the results on his website. It is a time consuming effort, and I don't know whether he will have the time to do this again for this test. He is a good man, so if he can, he will.
 
Hi Raid,

to make things more interesting I will contribute an RF coupled OM/M adapter and a Zuiko 50/1.4 :) I also have a ZK 50/1.5 if you are interested (very similar to a good J3).

I'll also help post-processing again if you like.

Cheers,

Roland.
 
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The lens test will be similar to my earlier tests.

1. A flare and bokeh test inside the house by shooting against a light source [bare bulb].

2. I will take multiple images at same settings to ensure in focus photos.

3. Portrait session with Dana at window light. Being inside the home lets me more easily
arrange the 15-20 lenses on a table, with a specific ordering. I also need a note pad
to write all settings. This can be confusing at times and very time consuming if the
scanned negatives don't appear to match what is written on the note pad.

4. Outside shots. In our Florida summer days, this will be a sweaty experience. I will see
what the best way turns out to be. It has to be either the front porch or back yard.
The latter means lots of mosquito bites for me!

I will use C-41 color film. here, I have to use the same type of film for all shots to allow direct comparisons. I am out of XP2, which was my favorite for lens testing.

For a 1.4 lens, I would usually shoot at 1.4 2.0 2.8 4.0 8.0, but at the 8.0 setting all lenses are great performers. I may limit it to 1.4 2.0 2.8 this time.

I may [if I have the time] throw in a few shots at 2.0 and 2.8 for other 50mm lenses that may be of interest. I am thinking of the Summicron and the Tessar 50mm/2.8. As you know, I take into account all suggestions here.


OK folks, this is what I have this Saturday morning.

I wish all fathers and all people who still have fathers a Happy Father's Day for tomorrow. My Dad passed away several years ago, so may he rest in peace.
 
I have set as the latest return date July 14th. Once I have the lenses, I will do all testing and then quickly return all of them to their owners. You can help me by mailing them quickly.
 
Raid: The last test stimulated me to try out some of the lenses I am contributing to this comparison, as well as some lenses I have bought and sold in between. This comparison has the potential to be even more interesting. You are taking on a big task here, but what the heck - school's out for summer, right? :D

Roland, where on earth did you find that coupled OM/M adapter, and where can I get one? I see an 85/2 comparison in our future.
 
jmkelly said:
Roland, where on earth did you find that coupled OM/M adapter, and where can I get one? I see an 85/2 comparison in our future.
Click to expand...

Stephen used to sell those, John. You need to focus twice though ...
I adjust, say to 1m, and then move my body for RF alignment.

Cheers,

Roland.

157017107_guJS5-M.jpg
 
ferider said:
Hi Raid,

to make things more interesting I will contribute an RF coupled OM/M adapter and a Zuiko 50/1.4 :) I also have a ZK 50/1.5 if you are interested (very similar to a good J3).

I'll also help post-processing again if you like.

Cheers,

Roland.
Click to expand...

THANK YOU Roland.
I did not see your comment. :eek:
Your contributions make our team work more complete.
The ZK would be welcome too and the Zuiko!!!!!

Thanks.
 
1. Canon 50/1.4 ..........................(Raid)
2. J-3 LTM .................................(Raid)
3. Nokton Prominent 50/1.5 ...........(Raid)
4. Zeiss Opton 50/1.5 Contax mount (Raid)
5. Nokton 50/1.5 CV .................(Michael)
6. Canon 50/1.5 ...........................(Fred)
7. Uncoated old Zeiss Sonnar 50/1.5 (Fred)
8. Nikkor 50/1.4 ............................(Mark)
9. Canon 50/1.4 ............................(Mark)
10. CZJ 50/1.5 LTM ........................(Mark)
11. Summarit ................................. (John
12. J-3 ......................................... (William)
13. "transitional" CZJ Sonnar in LTM..... (John)
14. "Tokyo" Nikkor SC f1.4 .................. (John)
15. Olympus Zuiko 50/1.5 .................... (Roland)
16. ZK 50/1.5 ................................... (Roland)
17. J-3 ............................................ (Robin)
18. J-3 ............................................. (John)
 
John,

I hope that all contributors to this lens test will send me the lenses within a few days.

I think, I have a Minolta-LTM adapter without RF focusing, but that would not be useful here.
 
ferider said:
Stephen used to sell those, John. You need to focus twice though ...
I adjust, say to 1m, and then move my body for RF alignment.

Cheers,

Roland.

That's still better than using a separate external RFand have no RF coupling.
Click to expand...
 
This is just a bump.
I will meet Robin at Starbucks in a few moments, and he will most likely loan me his J-3 for the test.
 
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