The beauty of Sonnar lenses - Post your pictures.

FujiLove said:
What are the characteristics and rendering of Sonnar lenses?
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It's what you see in that image. I do not know how to explain it exactly but will give it a shot. To my way of thinking there can be (of course it is not always present as you cannot control for all factors and variables) a certain "smoothness" in gradation that I like. And if you look at the image in question, the shadow areas provide nice variations in lightness and dark without any hint of harshness.

Sonnars can also display a characteristic I have read about in old magazines from the 1950s where the image is described as being sharp but having a certain softness in the rendering (which I think has to do with the way Sonnars can depict transitions from one tone to another as mentioned above). These features may be more apparent when the lens is shot open or fairly open. More modern lens designs tend to err towards being almost excessively or clinically sharp. But I like "character" lenses which add a certain something to images. We have lost that to some extent with modern highly corrected computer designed lenses which have removed some of the critical residual aberrations upon which those characteristics rely.

This color image of my cat was shot with a Sonnar and I think it displays (some of) the kind of tonal qualities I am talking of.

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Here are a few examples of what I look for the modern 50/1.5 ZM to deliver: wide open, sharp focus point, then a dissolve — more or less sudden or gradual depending on how tightly I frame the subject, and whether it faces forward or is in profile.

A7 1/250 @f1.5 iso 50

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M5 1/250 @1.5 iso 250 (Arista Premium 400)

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Zeiss Sonnar 250mm f/5.6 for Linhof (4x5)

Zeiss Sonnar 250mm f/5.6 for Linhof (4x5)

Made with the largest (and possibly rarest) Sonnar of them all:
The 250mm f/5.6 Zeiss Sonnar on a Linhof Technika V:

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I was incredibly lucky to get this lens after an estate sale. After using it for more than a year, and the "new shiny" factor has worn off, it's still the most amazing lens for large format that I've ever used.

In the enlarger (grain focuser) I can see that, shot wide open (as all the above are) it resolves down to individual grains on Ilford FP4. The only other lens I've seen that comes close is a Rodenstock APO Sironar-S, but I think the Sonna is slightly better.

Oh, and just to throw another Sonnar in here - the 50mm f/1.5 C-Sonnar on a Leica M3, and Kodak TMY2-400:

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Enjoying playing with my Nikkor H.C. 5cm F2 on my newly acquired Fuji X-T10. Between the close focusing capability of this lens + the leica M adapter's additional close focusing feature, there are some interesting opportunities for macro shots...
FUJI0934 by Ben Sandler, on Flickr

And portraiture...

FUJI0984 by Ben Sandler, on Flickr
 
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