Through the haze?

[merciful]

My Canon 50/1.2 (otherwise lovely) is dreadfully hazy: it went that way after I sent it off to DAG for eradication of fungus. I'm certainly not blaming Don: he said, when I mentioned it to him, that sometimes they come completely clean for him, and sometimes they don't.

Anyway, I'm going a big party on Friday night, and there will be plenty of good portraits to be made. What sort of results might I expect if I decided to use the Canon lens? If flare is the main concern, I'm not troubled; there'll be little light to worry about shooting into, and I could well use the super-fast glass (as it is, I'll probably be rating my TX at 12,800.)

Any thoughts? Besides the one I've always got lurking, of course, "buy the Noctilux".

 

[taffer]

Did you see some of my examples with that lens ? Mine (which is now on its way to Joe) had the dreaded haze in the rear element but nonetheless delivered some very nice shots.

Also, have in mind that some of those lenses, even if the rear element is completely cleaned, will fog again after some time, something to do with the grease used inside, and a real pity.

My honest recommendation, don't be afraid of using it with the haze there, being who you are, I'm looking forward to some outstanding portraits.

Edit: Check here, there are two entries sort of reviewing the behaviour of that lens
http://singlecoated.blogspot.com/2005_05_01_singlecoated_archive.html

 

[merciful]

Ah, great, thanks. That was both kind and encouraging; the choice of lens is now fixed.

It'll all be in light something like this, unless they've remodelled without telling me.

I'll have a look for some of yours.

 

[raid]

My flare test for eight lenses showed the 50/1.2 to do quite well in it.

 

[merciful]

Excellent, Raid: thanks. I'll be sure to post some results, provided they're up to standard.

 

[Mackinaw]

The Canon 50/1.2 is my favorite 50mm and spends most of its time on my MP. Mine, too, has a rear element (directly behind the aperture) that fogs, but this is an easy fix and something that I can clean myself in less than ten minutes. For what it's worth, these lenses are easy to take apart and reassemble.

As for image quality, you'll find that, wide-open, the central 1/3rd of the picture area is sharp with the rest of the image relatively soft. I ilke this "tunnel effect" which is one reason this lens has become my favorite 50. Stop this lens down as little as a half-stop, and corner-to-corner picture quality improves dramatically.

The attached pics show what I'm talking about. The "train" shot is at F1.2 while the shot of young Maxwell sitting on the steps is at F1.6. Like I said, this is my favorite 50mm.

Jim Bielecki

 

[merciful]

Thanks, Jim. I've had the lens for a good while now, and like it a great deal for just the reasons you mention. Attached are a couple of samples: Juliana is at f1.4 while the bar shot is at f1.2.

How would one go about cleaning the rear element?

 

[Mackinaw]

This is cut and pasted from an earlier exchange (last summer) on cleaning the Canon 50/1.2

"The 50mm F1.2 is very simple to work on. If disassembled from the rear, just unscrew one retaining ring with a lens spanner and the entire focusing mount and distance scale part of the lens comes off in your hands. No need to worry about scribing anything, it only goes back in one way (has a notch which lnes up with a metal "block" on one side of the interior). The rear most lens group can be unscrewed using two fingers which exposes on more retaining ring. Unscrew that with a lens spanner and the lens group that sits immediately adjacent to the aperture comes off. For some reason, the rear element that sits next to the aperture blades tends to fog up on my lens over a period of about a year (hard to believe that a 40+ year old lens is still outgassing but I guess it is). I've forgotten the amount of times I've cleaned this one element, thankfully it's something that is easy to do and can be completed in about 15 minutes. The coatings seem to be hard as nails, I've never had a problem with scratching anything or with wipe marks. Why spend $75.00 to clean a lens (at least this one) when you can do it yourself?"

Hope this helps,

Jim Bielecki

 

[back alley]

oh, i am so looking forward to this lens arriving soon.

 

[MCTuomey]

And to think I just missed one at keh ... lovely pix, gentlemen

 

[merciful]

Thanks, guys. I'll try that cleanup when I can.

 

[taffer]

oh, i am so looking forward to this lens arriving soon.

And looks like I'll have to start looking for another one, lol ! 😀