Sunday Poll: Three Fifties, One Wall

Sunday Poll: Three Fifties, One Wall

  • Total voters
    35
  • Poll closed .
MCTuomey

MCTuomey

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Yet another phrivolous poll, but what to do since I stayed out late, drank too much, overslept, and didn't get out this AM.

Three fifties in a wide open shoot-out:
1. Leica Summilux Pre-ASPH E46
2. Zeiss ZM Planar
3. Zeiss C-Sonnar

My phun-loving Aussie neighbor's convenient wall and birdbath, each frame taken at maximum aperture on tripod, focus-bracketed, remote shutter. Cropped in LR and saved for web use without any adjustments or sharpening (slight manual variances in crop down to LR and me).

Match the pic to the taking lens in the spirit of amusement.

Pic 1


20111105a-001-crop-Web by Mike Tuomey, on Flickr

Pic 2


20111105-009-crop-Web by Mike Tuomey, on Flickr

Pic 3


20111105-004-crop-Web by Mike Tuomey, on Flickr
 
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3 has more DOF so it has to be planar as its max aperture is 2.0 while the others are 1.5/1.4 I guess Sonnar for 1 and Summilux for 2.
 
regarding exposure, they vary by less than 1/3 stop, all taken in late afternoon shade. i did not adjust for any differences in exposure, contrast, or white balance - the files were cropped and exported to web-size without any sharpening. in other words, as close to out-of-camera as i could get in LR3.
 
1- Summilux
2- Sonnar
3- Planar

As others have said, 3 is easy to pick as the Planar as the background is sharpest. I chose the Sonnar for #2 as the OOF rendering is extremely smooth, which is not a strong point of the 'lux, plus, the background is very slightly less blurred, suggesting a teeny bit smaller max aperture.

Lastly, and I'm probably grasping at straws here, but the color balance in 2 & 3 seem very similar (at least on my monitor) which suggests the same lens coatings/manufacturer.
 
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I can't tell which is the Summilux but I'm comfortable in knowing that it has to be the best because it costs the most and is made by Leica! :angel:

😀
 
Let's wrap it up early. Hope you find the results interesting or at least amusing.

Pic 1 is the Summilux (6 of 19 guessed right)
Pic 2 is the C-Sonnar (5 of 18 guessed right)
Pic 3 is the Planar (14 of 20 guessed right)

Thanks to all who took part.
 
Paul: the Planar shots were actually taken first. It's probably the greater DOF at f2 and the stronger corner performance of the Planar at any aperture compared to the faster lenses. Also I think that Planar is generally a higher contrast lens.

Keith: a lot of my favorite pics have been taken with the Planar. It seems to me equally pleasing on film or digi capture too.

If there was any point to this poll other than fun, it was that the lenses all performed similarly on Sam's wall and birdbath.
 
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Erik, picture 3 was taken with the Planar. The Planar's datasheet indicates a fair amount of barrel distortion, at least compared to the C-Sonnar's slight pin-cushion.
 
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I'm still a little surprised that A is the Lux.

I thought it was the Sonnar because I assumed that that lens would have worse corner performance but I think I got thrown off.

would someone please comment on flatness of field for these three lenses?

FWIW I ordered a Planar 50mm last week and this test doesn't make me regret that in the slightest.

although I have to complain, yet again, at the miniscule sizes of the test pictures. if it's really such a giveaway at 1024 on the long side then I think it's even more important to post larger samples. I think of these as a learning opportunity to compare two lenses in a similar situation instead of one to try and see how well we can pixel peep an image not even the size of a post card on my screen.
 
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