menos
Veteran
Yes Erik, I think more words have been written about "bokeh" than about distortion since the first digital Leica M has been introduced to market ;-)
I have not seen a tread dedicated to this aspect of lens characteristics, maybe I overlooked it and I personally rarely mind as I mentioned earlier (except when with some lenses distortion is very complex or bothersome).
As at some step all my photographs involve the use of Lightroom a touch up of distortion is never an issue though.
I do keep though any distortion and vignetting correction completely disabled in Lightroom except for the very few photographs I want to use them - I like my photographs to be unaltered and rather like to see a bit of lens character (also commonly known as optical imperfection).
I am truly surprised to hear the difference between the S vs LTM mount 50/2.5 Skopar in distortion levels - one would have thought Cosina just mounted an identical optical design in different lens bodies for the sake of cost saving during production.
Maybe a slight change in focal length was made between the versions to correct for possibly different lens register / focus mechanics between the internal fixed focus mount in the Nikon bodies vs the shorter throw Leica mount?
I could imagine that Cosina might have fine adjusted the lenses focussing behavior in the factory by altering focal length (but I could not know this as the 50/2.5 Skopar has not been be apart by my own hand).
The v4 and v5 Summicron lenses are as optically perfect as they come but they never really inspired me as I did not really like their imaging character.
I also found that one really should always use a proper lens hood with the Summicron v4/5 as they are very susceptible to flare and the flare characteristic is not beautiful.
I sold a beautiful silver chrome v5 (because it's imaging just didn't inspire me) but kept a black v4 as of it's lightweight barrel and focus tab and to have a modern Summicron around just in case. I rarely ever use it though.
Your scanning method resembles approximately what I do for final re-scans (if I can, I use one of my Minolta 5400 scanners without glass holder as these generally scan at higher quality, but if I must I use my Minolta Pro scanner with full glass holder).
With re-scans I also do scan individually with properly adjusted exposure to eek out as much detail from the negatives as possible. It is not a process I enjoy very much, hence my flickr photos are mostly done with just the quick pre-scan method.
It surprises me that you see a difference in grain between the Color Skopar and the Summicron v4 - I would first and foremost think this to be exclusively a factor of exposure + development and scanning method.
The Color Skopar does however come with it's very own peculiar contrast characteristic, which is the very main reason why I kept it although barely using it. It does have a very pretty way of handling contrast and I especially liked it's look with the Leica M9 CCD sensor.
This may have some influence on how grain can be perceived in the final image but it would not be the first thing that comes to mind ;-)
Yes, the many different confusing versions of the Leica 50/1.4 lenses ;-)
It is interesting to trace through the time line of the last 80 years how Leitz/Leica lens design philosophy has changed through the generations. Back in the 1950's those Leitz lenses indeed had high resolution and seem low distortion but very low contrast and truly indestructible mechanics combined with soft coatings.
Later generations threw some of those characteristics over board.
I am sure you would really enjoy the latest ASPH Summicron 50mm - such an optically perfect lens it is. I do not know for certain it's distortion characteristics though - only tested one briefly and found I have no interest in it whatsoever.
It is almost like completely removing the optical lens between your subject and the camera.
As of too much text and too little pictures, I insert two recent shots here.
Nikon SP + 50/1.1 Nikkor-N + TriX @800 in D-76 1:1
… by Dirk Steffen, on Flickr
… by Dirk Steffen, on FlickrCheers and smiles!
