03/11/14

Olympus E-M5 - Olympus mZD 60 f2.8 Macro

I haven't posted a lot from this lens, actually it could only be twice. It's not that I don't like the lens; on the contrary, I think it's a wonderful lens to use. I just don't get around to doing macro shots at present. Just how things develop I suppose.

Although all the shots in the image above are macro I think the lens is also great for portraits albeit a little long for some people. Because I like using long lenses it suits my needs perfectly. I could say it's one of the best lenses in the Olympus arsenal at present but they do have some lovely prime lenses. Olympus have always been good at these primes and if you haven't tried their OM series of lenses, you should. Build quality is excellent and the clarity of the images from these old lenses are a joy to look at.

Michael Reichmann over at The Luminous Landscape site has a good article about the Olympus Zuiko lenses that's well worth a read. You can find it here.

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Dil 03/11/14 19:00 comments (0)

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• Olympus • E-M5 • 60 f2.8

03/10/14

Lenses

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Fujinon XF 18-55 f2.8-4 R LM OIS

Now this is what I call a kit lens! It is one very very good lens and classed above your average kit lenses from other manufacturers. It is also faster at f2.8-4 which is also a plus point.

I'm happy with the image quality of this composite but I haven't changed much in the way that I've processed it. It doesn't matter what I do to these files they always look good. BTW, these Fujifilm files are the best when converting to monochrome, they just hold their quality. Rendition on the X-Trans sensors is also superb and I just love the files from the X100S (my standard 35mm equivalent camera). I've just been testing the 55-200 zoom lens some too and that is really a nice lens also. Fujifilm can't seem to do anything wrong at the moment. I'm now thinking about an X-E2 since the AF has been improved on that camera compared to the X-E1. I'm not saying that the X-E1 is slow, just that the X-E2 is even faster.

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Dil 03/10/14 19:00 comments (0)

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• Fujifilm • X-E1 • 18-55 f2.8-4

03/09/14

Lenses

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Voigtländer 21 f4 M-Mount

Another winner by Voigtländer. I really am impressed by the quality of these lenses, now built by Cosina. You know you have a quality product when handling these lenses. They should last you a lifetime if you take care of them. All metal and quite heavy compared to other lenses you can purchase today, it really is fun photographing with these gems. I now have quite a few Voigtländer lenses and I haven't been disappointed by any of them so far. Of course, don't use these on the Nex-7, you're just making more work for yourselves due to the purple edges you get from that sensor. If you shoot in B&W then you won't have that problem but I prefer to shoot colour and convert in PP.

P.S. The vignetting you see does not come from the lens on the Nex-5N, I did that in PP.

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Dil 03/09/14 19:00 comments (0)

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• Voigtländer • Skopar • 21 f4 • Sony • Nex-5N

03/08/14

Lenses

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Panasonic PZ 14-42 f3.5-5.6

I thought some of you might appreciate some more images from this camera-lens combination as there seems to be a lot of copy variation floating about. Some love this lens while others like me aren't too impressed with it. Sample variation is a problem but I should have thought in this day and age, they should be able to reduce it to near the 0% variation point. Seems I'm wrong again. There's also a PZ 45-175 lens and it seems to have the same problem as this one. Personally, I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.

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Dil 03/08/14 19:00 comments (0)

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• Panasonic • GF1 • 1-42 f3.5-5.6 • PZ

03/07/14

Lenses

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Panasonic PZ 14-42 f3.5-5.6

Looking at the resolution of this image has got me pretty confused right now. The resolution is much better than the one posted yesterday. It was made in exactly the same way using images at the same resolution. Looks much better though, no artifacts in the individual images.

This is the PZ zoom that Panasonic brought out some time ago and one which I have a love-hate relationship with. It seems to perform better on Olympus bodies (actually much better) for some reason. I just can't figure it out. I know the camera used is pretty old but I've also tested it on a G5 with the same results. Still better on Olympus bodies.

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Dil 03/07/14 19:00 comments (0)

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• Panasonic • GF1 • PZ • 14-2 f3.5-5.6

03/06/14

Lenses

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Nikon E-Series 28 f2.8

Looking at the image in my browser, I see that the quality of the individual images has suffered along the way to making this composite. I'll have to work a little more on this to get the optimal quality I'm looking for. Hopefully this shoudn't be too long in coming.

The Nikon E-Series 28 f2.8 was my worst lens in my 28mm lens test but as I have stated before, my copy must have been a dud, I can't see this type of quality from Nikon. All my other E-Series lenses are really great performers.

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Dil 03/06/14 19:00 comments (0)

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• Sony • Nex-5N • Nikon • 28 f2.8

03/05/14

Lenses

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Voigtländer Skopar 50 f2.5

The image quality one gets from these quite cheap Voigtländer lenses is remarkable. The price range being a few hundred Euro where I live is relatively affordable, nowhere near the Leica prices and I'm not going to start to go down that road.

The Skopar lenses are small, light and handle very well on the Nex system. One tip, don't go below 35mm on the Nex-7 unless you're using SLR lenses. Problems with colour shifts doesn't happen with those lenses. Nowadays, I'll only use the longer focal length lenses on the Nex-7 because of this issue of having purple edges to the image. It is correctable in post but I really don't want to go and make even more work for myself.

I can recommend the Voigtländer Skopar 50 f2.5 as it has a lovely signature and the images come very close to the Leica look many people are looking for.

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Dil 03/05/14 19:00 comments (0)

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• Voigtländer • Sony • 50 f2.5

03/04/14

Lenses

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Voigtländer Skopar 35 f2.5

I've bben layed up for awhile now and can't get out to do any photography. I'm sure I'm suffering from withdrawal symptoms. Because I don't get out to do any tests etc I've been trawling through my archive to reprocess images or to try something diferent.

What I decided to do was to make some composites from different lenses that don't come up too often here. This is an experiment and I'm not sure about the image quality in general of these, as they have been re-processed so to speak. I hope to improve on the method by which these have been put together, and I'm looking forward to an increase in image resolution as I get these posted.

There are a number of these composites as I won't be able to get out for another few weeks, but I hope you enjoy them as much as I have enjoyed making them. If you have any requests, or general comments, please add them to the comments section under each image.

There won't be much text within the post itself, unless I have some new information regarding the lens itself or about the system used to take the images. Most of these images where a manual lens has been used were taken on the Sony Nex system (either a 5N or the 7).

As you can see the first composite is from the Voigtländer Skopar 35 f2.5, which is becoming my favourite lens at this focal length.

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Dil 03/04/14 19:00 comments (0)

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• Sony • Nex-5N • Voigtländer • 35 f2.5

03/03/14

Lenses

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The Best of the Legacy 28mm Lenses

A last image from the 28mm lenses. I've included a Nikon image here to compare it to the Olympus OM 28 f2.8. This image isn't actually all that bad (one of the few). You can see that the Nikon meters slightly darker on the Nex cameras. It's equal to the Olympus here, so if you do manage to get a good copy, it'll be a keeper.

The bottom two, again from the Sigma and Vivitar lenses are comparable. I really can't tell the difference between them so it doesn't matter which lens you select here so it's just on ergonomics. If you enjoy using one lens over the other, just go for it.

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Dil 03/03/14 19:00 comments (0)

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• lenses • 28 f2.8

03/02/14

Lenses

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The Best of the Legacy 28mm Lenses

Now, why aren't the Sigma and Vivitar lenses from the same manufacturer? If you look carefully at the above image, you'll see that the Sigma seem a little wider than the Vivitar. You can see the cobblestones in the Sigma image where they're nowhere in sight in the Vivitar image. I must stress here that I was standing in the exact same position when taking both images. Also there's a little bit more to be seen on both left and right side of the image from the Sigma lens.

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Dil 03/02/14 19:00 comments (0)

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• 28 f2.8 • lenses

PhotoBlog of Random Images

Olympus E-M5 - Olympus mZD 60 f2.8 Macro

Fujinon XF 18-55 f2.8-4 R LM OIS

Voigtländer 21 f4 M-Mount

Panasonic PZ 14-42 f3.5-5.6

Panasonic PZ 14-42 f3.5-5.6

Nikon E-Series 28 f2.8

Voigtländer Skopar 50 f2.5

Voigtländer Skopar 35 f2.5

The Best of the Legacy 28mm Lenses

The Best of the Legacy 28mm Lenses

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