How about starting a 50mm/1.5 lens test?

All lenses performed well in open shade when no major light sources were directed at the lenses. This is good to know. You don't need to spend a large sum of money to get a fast lens for portraits. A well adjusted and clean J-3 is a great performing lens. We had several J-3 lenses in the test, and at least two of them did amazingly well.

The Summilux and the Millenium Nikkor may have been the top performers, and maybe also the CV Nokton. No surprise here, since many people here have used one of the three lenses and have loved them.

A sleeper lens is the Zeiss Opton. It surprised me for standing up to modern design lenses in extreme light situations. There is no need to insist on a Leica lens. There are many options available. The Zeiss lenses are great lenses, as you know. I will use my Opton more often. The test showed me how good the lens is when compared to several first class lenses.

I hope that some of you have somehow benefited from the test results.
 
raid, it is very long thread which I will look through when I have time. By judging your last comment, Opton looks as an interesting alternative. So glass type plays roll or what (regarding flare supression)? I agree that Jupiter looks pretty good. Though I would love to compare Opton to Jupiter myself but it looks like it is hard to find Opton at LTM mount, hmm.

I think it will be easier for me to judge lenses characters at B&W pictures. For color, I have to try harder to find some differences, hmmm. Can you post B&W by chance?
 
tomasis said:
raid, it is very long thread which I will look through when I have time. By judging your last comment, Opton looks as an interesting alternative. So glass type plays roll or what (regarding flare supression)? I agree that Jupiter looks pretty good. Though I would love to compare Opton to Jupiter myself but it looks like it is hard to find Opton at LTM mount, hmm.

I think it will be easier for me to judge lenses characters at B&W pictures. For color, I have to try harder to find some differences, hmmm. Can you post B&W by chance?
Click to expand...


My Opton is in Contax mount.
I took mostly color film, but I have one B&W roll with the Sumilux only.
You can remove the color with PS. maybe this helps.
 
raid said:
My Opton is in Contax mount.
I took mostly color film, but I have one B&W roll with the Sumilux only.
You can remove the color with PS. maybe this helps.
Click to expand...

desaturating color film will provide a very poor expectation of what will happen with a proper black and white emulsion if you are the slightest bit critical.
 
WoolenMammoth said:
desaturating color film will provide a very poor expectation of what will happen with a proper black and white emulsion if you are the slightest bit critical.
Click to expand...

I just provided a possible solution to having B&W images, given that the lens test is over.
The lenses are packed into parcel and soon will be sent back to their owners. I am aware of the limitations. :bang:

Past lens tests used XP2 super film.
 
Last edited:
raid said:
I just provided a possible solution to having B&W images, given that the lens test is over.
Click to expand...


since everyone(?) in this community seems to have experience shooting film and since you are treating this as a "test" I figured it would behoove people here to be the slightest bit critical about this. Or not. Desaturated color is still a color image, the way your lens will effect contrast on black and white film is wholly different than with color film, if you leave the color in or otherwise. There was some discussion about this idea in that bw movie thread recently.
 
WoolenMammoth said:
since everyone(?) in this community seems to have experience shooting film and since you are treating this as a "test" I figured it would behoove people here to be the slightest bit critical about this. Or not. Desaturated color is still a color image, the way your lens will effect contrast on black and white film is wholly different than with color film, if you leave the color in or otherwise. There was some discussion about this idea in that bw movie thread recently.
Click to expand...

Criticsm and suggestions are always welcome here.


All I said was that the test is over and that the lenses have been packed up. This test was not about B&W images. Someone here asked me about B&W test images. What could I respond to his request other than suggesting removing the colors?


When the test was planned, the door was open to anyone here to suggest how the test would be conducted. If someone had at that time suggested to use B&W film and given a good reason for doing so, I would have listened. Scroll up to the first two pages of this thread.
 
didn't you say that you were looking for Wartime CZJ in LTM mount ?

O fcourse they are in Belgium but if you give me a good procedure I could give you examples done with those lenses

My little collection
- contax mount
- LTM mount
 
photovdz said:
didn't you say that you were looking for Wartime CZJ in LTM mount ?

O fcourse they are in Belgium but if you give me a good procedure I could give you examples done with those lenses

My little collection
- contax mount
- LTM mount
Click to expand...

I have a war-time Sonnar 50/2 LTM. Do you a 5cm/1.5 Sonnar LTM?
In the test, there were several CZJ Sonnar lenses included. Thanks for the offer. Why don't you start a thread in which you show us some results with the Sonnar?
 
Last edited:
Candle Light at f1.4 and f2.8

Candle Light at f1.4 and f2.8

Here is the comparison of Raid's last test, cropping out some of the candles and written text. Again, some contrast & color balancing and little sharpening was performed (identical for all pictures):

335968546_fjJXD-X3.jpg


Higher resolution picture available in

http://ferider.smugmug.com/gallery/5400486_MBmzg

This is how I cropped:

335968404_YjFQH-L.jpg


Thanks again for doing this additional test, Raid.

Best,

Roland.

PS: personal note on the Nikkors: remember that the Nikkors are faster than the other lenses. IME, when you close the Nikkors just a little down, the unsharpness ("veiling flare") disappears and pictures get rather sharp.
 
Last edited:
Hi Roland,

Thanks for your work. The side by side comparisons are easy to follow now. Maybe we could post all of the side by side images in a separate thread so that viewers can readily see all results presented in a compact form.

Your comment on the Nikkors makes sense. So, closing down to 1.5 from 1.4 makes a difference. Next time I will try this.

Of course, ULTRON should be NOKTON.
 
raid said:
Hi Roland,

Thanks for your work. The side by side comparisons are easy to follow now. Maybe we could post all of the side by side images in a separate thread so that viewers can readily see all results presented in a compact form.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your work, Raid, and again the patience of your daughter and wife.

Feel free to refer to my assemblies however you like, they are all collected in

http://ferider.smugmug.com/gallery/5400486_MBmzg

at various resolutions.

Best,

Roland.
 
Your website offers all we need on the test results.
With many people supporting this test and also with others finding minor/major flaws, this reflects differences of what people here like and dislike. I say that this is fine, as long as the people who sent me their lenses are satisfied.
What do you think? Did we deliberately cut corners or ignored suggestions given at start-up?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom