Now I think you may have a point here. The photo you’re referencing was shot at a wide aperture (although maybe not f1.5) in bright sun and the colors are definitely desaturated. This may in part be a designed-in feature of this lens when shot at wide apertures. It’s being marketed as a “soft focus” lens, after all, and with lens imperfections combined with modern coating. It could also be a result of the light and angle of the sun; other wide open photos I took that day don’t display the same washed-out colors. Robert Blu’s photo above, taken in what looks to be more controlled light, doesn’t display the same desaturation as the photo of mine you’ve referenced, but it does have a unique look to the colors. It’s a funky lens. I will need to live with mine a lot more to get a handle on how it performs at different aperatures.
For comparison purposes, here is an early bw photo I took with the Heliar Classic not long after getting the lens. It was taken at f1.5. When I look at how the lens rendered tones wide open, I wonder whether the results would be similar to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk photo had I taken the coffee shop photo in color.
