Lens Distortion

[Zack]

Which bessa lenses have Linear distortion? In particular does the 21mm f/4 skopar keep straight lines straight, or do they curve at the edges? Any photo examples would be very helpful as i am thinking about getting the bessa L with the 21.

Thanks, Zack

 

[oscroft]

Which bessa lenses have Linear distortion? In particular does the 21mm f/4 skopar keep straight lines straight, or do they curve at the edges? Any photo examples would be very helpful as i am thinking about getting the bessa L with the 21.

Hi Zack,

I've got the 21/4 and the 15/4.5. I'm pretty pleased with the very low linear distortion of the 15, and have actually just added a few test shots from it to my Gallery (link below, in my signature). Unfortunately I haven't got any suitable samples from the 21, because all I've shot with it so far is trees and other crooked things, with no straight lines near the edges of the frame. But the link below is to a gallery of images from the 21/4 which you might find useful
http://kazuyank.plala.jp/archives/album/31431_cs214exp.php

 

[Fred]

One from the 21 http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=33589&cat=500&ppuser=1521

Not the ideal image to check distortion though.

Here's an example of the 15, a better shot that turned out with lower distortion than I would have thought. The lines at the edges are nearly straight.
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=10714&cat=500&ppuser=1521

 

[KoNickon]

Check out Erwin Puts's site -- he can give a fair amount of test detail on the CV lenses. I do recall specifically that either he or someone else reported a noticeable amount of barrel distortion with the 50/2.5. I have not noticed that myself, but then I'm not using it for subjects where that would be obvious.

 

[sockeyed]

If you are looking for rectilinear lenses, I believe that ALL of the Cosina Voigtlander lenses are rectiliear, i.e., straight lines remain straight (as opposed to a fisheye, where there is a pronounced curve). Some lenses will show barrel or pincushion distortion, but this is quite minor. This is the beauty of non-retrofocus rangefinder lenses.

I borrowed a CV 12/5.6 - the perspective was obviously very dramatic, but straight lines remained straight. Stunning!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sockeyed/tags/cv1256/

 

[Zack]

Im thinking this whole guess focus thing could be a good expierience, and i want a lighter camera compared to the fuji, and the meter is a plus. Im glad to hear that the distorion isnt bad on these lenses, has anyone had any problems with the lenses being too slow ?

 

[BrianPhotog]

Im thinking this whole guess focus thing could be a good expierience, and i want a lighter camera compared to the fuji, and the meter is a plus. Im glad to hear that the distorion isnt bad on these lenses, has anyone had any problems with the lenses being too slow ?

Faster apertures would introduce a lot of vigenetting. Anyway, I've the 15/4.5. 99.9% of the time it's at f5.6 or f8 and hyperfocal. Wide lenses weren't meant for narrow DOF 😉

 

[RML]

Im thinking this whole guess focus thing could be a good expierience, and i want a lighter camera compared to the fuji, and the meter is a plus. Im glad to hear that the distorion isnt bad on these lenses, has anyone had any problems with the lenses being too slow ?

Zack,

I've used my 25/4 to shoot Indian city life after dark (easy to do as sunset is around 6pm) with good results on iso400 film. Being able to shoot longish shutter times with the L (and any rangefinder really) is a great boon.

On _my photo portfolio blog_ you can find many examples of the 25/4 in action, especially in the PAWs of 2004.

 

[thafred]

Which bessa lenses have Linear distortion? In particular does the 21mm f/4 skopar keep straight lines straight, or do they curve at the edges? Any photo examples would be very helpful as i am thinking about getting the bessa L with the 21.

Hi Zack,

I bought the Skopar 21/4 last Thursday and ran serveral rolls of Film through it...none of the photos had any distortion as far as I can tell..

Not the best shots but I think they demonstrate very well the straightness of this lens ... (framing is kinda tough for me....need practice)

 

[BrianPhotog]

Here's a shot of the Taipei 101 building from the base up (tallest in the world at the moment). For this I used the CV 15/4.5 Heliar. It has converging lines as (obviously) the film plane wasn't parallel to the building lines, but there is no noticeable barrelling.

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