Although I like the above image I think this will be the last image that I will post from this lens. Unless something dramatic happens to change my mind about this lens it will get one more outing in summer in good weather to confirm my suspicions and then it will be sold.

Anybody interested in this lens, just get in touch with me.

 

Something isn't right with the focusing mechanism with this lens or it doesn't like being paired up to a Nex camera. Although I use the peeking function I get the feeling that the image is misfocused. Not all of the time but in a lot of cases. No I do not have this problem with other lenses so I will dismiss the arguement that it's the photographer that is the problem in this case. I know the DOF is shallow at f3.5 but normally I stop the lens down to f5.6 or f8.

The image above is sharp whree I focused the lens, namely on the moss growing on the branch. I took three images of this just to make sure I got one and two out of three images were not in focus.

 

OK, I can't fault the lens for a lack of contrast in this image. There wasn't a lot there to start with.

As you can see the weather was pretty cold, colours were muted and dull. Probably the wrong type of weather to go out testing lenses but I have to utilize the time available to me.

 

Some of these images I actually like, like the one posted today. It certainly is sharp enough but again, it took some work to get the look. Other lenses would have produced this with less effort.

 

Some of these images might seem fine at this size but it take some doing in post production to get them to look this way. Better weather might help too as I think this lens would perform better with good sunlight. I might put it away right now and take it out again during the summer months (if we get a summer this year that is) and try it again. It does intrigue me to find the answer to that so that's what I'll do.

 

One of the major problems and one that is a deal breaker on lenses for me is the lack of contrast in the images. Some of you may argue that I can increase that in post production and you'd be right. I could, but I prefer lenses that have good micro contrast straight from the box. It's an extra step for my post processing workflow and there are better lenses out there.

 

I'm trying really really hard to like this lens but somehow I don't think it's going to work out.

I've had this lens on a few outings already and I keep coming back to the same conclusion. It's not up there with some other lenses, namely the Leica Heliar 75 f2.5 and the Minolta Rokkor 90 F4 and the Leica Elmarit 90 f2.8. Those lenses are really top of the line and produce great images.

I think this one is going on the to sell list.

I'll be posting some more images from this lens for the next few days so you can determine for yourselves the quality that can be expected from this lens.