Rich M wrote:
There is something with the Sonnar and the sensor also.......not just APS-C ........but the shots with the Sonnar and the GXR are, in no other words, appealing to me. I have shot it on my 5N and the shots hold no emotion. I'll shoot the Planar on the 5N. Funny.
I didn't much like the ZM25 Biogon on the NEX but am finding it works for me on the GXR. In my case the different experience might just be "" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">love the one you're with" (youtube link to music) at work.
Rich I've been enjoying your Sonnar shots I've seen you publishing on another forum - all very nice, very compelling to me. Maybe I'll leave that order alone after all. Hopefully my Canadian connection for Zeiss will get his backorders filled sooner than later.
There's probably little risk in buying either - they'll eventually go out of stock world wide again and selling them for cost or more seems to be the going practice.
Rich M wrote:
There is something with the Sonnar and the sensor also.......not just APS-C ........but the shots with the Sonnar and the GXR are, in no other words, appealing to me.
I have shot it on my 5N and the shots hold no emotion. I'll shoot the Planar on the 5N. Funny.
Hmm, the Sonnar is one of my favorites on the 5N. Maybe, since AA-less cameras have slightly more DOF than AA'd cameras, you prefer the look of more DOF with the Sonnar on the GXR?
That's a very nice image Douglas. Nice of the snow to show up for you!
Aleksander, I'm envious of your blossoms. We should start seeing them here in about a month or so, usually by Easter. Sadly often accompanied by lots of rain but what else is new here.
Atran, I took a quick snapshot of my youngest this morning on the way out the door. Shot at minimum focal distance more or less, wide open, ZM35/2. Shot at 800 ISO only because I forgot to change settings from the day prior. This is a heavy crop - the full image includes a tree growing out of his skull and more of his torso. I figured skin tones and texture were what you wanted to see...
Yes, he has a scar on his forehead and should have taken a cloth to his face a little more scrupulously before heading out to school this morning. Twelve year olds soon make way to teenagers.
Taken from a couple steps back, also wide open, entire image to give you an idea of the change in the background out of focus area.
Thanks, Michael. The Sonnar is a cool lens, and I'm sure it's awesome on the GXR. The only issues that I have with it are some purple fringing in high contrast, wide aperture situations, but that's par for the course with this kind of lens. I'm getting so used to the ZM 35/2's near technical perfection that small issues with the Sonnar are exaggerated...and maybe even a nice change.
Rich M wrote:
There is something with the Sonnar and the sensor also.......not just APS-C ........but the shots with the Sonnar and the GXR are, in no other words, appealing to me.
I have shot it on my 5N and the shots hold no emotion. I'll shoot the Planar on the 5N. Funny.
I find I can tweak GXR files very similarly to M9 files. Rich, I don't remember if you're also using an M9... When I had the 5N and shot it side by side with the M9 with the same lens, I found the colour response to be somewhat different. Not necessarily worse, just different.
atran, sorry I don't have that lens. For portraits I like the CV40 f/1.4. It's not very sharp wide open, but has a nice quality to it. Kind of smooth with enough detail. For regular, more technical photography though, it can be quite vexing due to strong field curvature and focus shift.
Douglas, unlike the 25/2.8 which has taken some time for me to warm to, I really fell in love with the 35/2 on the NEX-5N while I had it. It's a great lens for that camera. A great lens for any camera no doubt.
Too many lenses, not enough cash to nab them all! I already own two very low distortion occasionally too perfect ZM lenses, so that's it... no more flip-flopping, I'm going to stick with my original plan and wait for the Sonnar. And I do think I'll sell the CV75.
I like the way the Sonnar draws an image and I think it will be swell for people shots and B&W work. It does seem kind of excessively purply fringy though, from the samples I have seen.
Much as I like it I don't think I'd swap my ZM 50/2 Planar for it.
(but, that's also because I have the VC35/1.2... )
kosmoskatten wrote:
I like the way the Sonnar draws an image and I think it will be swell for people shots and B&W work. It does seem kind of excessively purply fringy though, from the samples I have seen.
Much as I like it I don't think I'd swap my ZM 50/2 Planar for it.
(but, that's also because I have the VC35/1.2... )
Yeah, I went back on forth on which ZM 50 to go with. Similarly, but opposite to you, since I usually use the ZM 35/2, having a more "vibey," fast lens at 50mm gives me more versatility, so I went Sonnar. Both are great in their own way, I'd say.
michaelwatkins wrote:
Douglas, unlike the 25/2.8 which has taken some time for me to warm to, I really fell in love with the 35/2 on the NEX-5N while I had it. It's a great lens for that camera. A great lens for any camera no doubt.
Too many lenses, not enough cash to nab them all! I already own two very low distortion occasionally too perfect ZM lenses, so that's it... no more flip-flopping, I'm going to stick with my original plan and wait for the Sonnar. And I do think I'll sell the CV75.
Yeah, I've become tired of flip-flopping, too, and it feels good to be settled on my lens lineup. I occasionally get the bug for other lenses, but I've been successful at staying away...at least for now!
The only thing that I don't love about the ZM 35/2 on the 5N is that there is a little bit of color shift. Most rarely notice it, but it bugs me, so I take the time to CornerFix it. Yet another reason for me to buy the GXR...
douglasf13 wrote:
Yeah, I've become tired of flip-flopping, too, and it feels good to be settled on my lens lineup. I occasionally get the bug for other lenses, but I've been successful at staying away...at least for now!
The only thing that I don't love about the ZM 35/2 on the 5N is that there is a little bit of color shift. Most rarely notice it, but it bugs me, so I take the time to CornerFix it. Yet another reason for me to buy the GXR...
That makes three of us then. I am happy with all my lenses at the moment and I feel I made the right decisions when cutting a few. If anything, I still have a couple of lenses too many. But they don't take up all that much space.
EDIT; what bugs me a little is that I had two GXR's and two M mounts (I was on two waiting lists and they both delivered the same week...). As I considered the GXR a "sidekick camera" for a long time I did sell off one body and one M mount. Now I think I should have kept them as I have since sold the M9 and I think the GXR is an excellent stop gap solution despite some shortcomings and with the lens arsenal I have now I could use a spare M mount and almost certainly could do with another body too as I had the other dedicated to the other A12 modules. Bodies are really "cheap" here at the moment but I am waiting to see if there will be a GXR II, or at least if one will be announced before the summer. If so, I will make due with the one body until it arrives, whenever.
Yeah, I've recently prepared to sell all of my lenses outside of 5: the CV 15, ZM 35/2, ZM 50/1.5, Contax G 90 and Zeiss Jena 135/3.5 (I mostly just use the 15, 35 and 50....actually, I mostly just use the 35.) It's kind of liberating, as there have been too many cooks in the kitchen over here. I've been hanging on to my old NEX-5, as I wouldn't get much for it, and it's a good backup for the 5N.
Not sure if this image is worthy of this thread, but here's my Sonnar, it was the first week of my use of GXR-M. Could have focus better if I had learnt to use the 4x magnify all+predator mode earlier.
michaelwatkins wrote:
Atran, I took a quick snapshot of my youngest this morning on the way out the door. Shot at minimum focal distance more or less, wide open, ZM35/2. Shot at 800 ISO only because I forgot to change settings from the day prior. This is a heavy crop - the full image includes a tree growing out of his skull and more of his torso. I figured skin tones and texture were what you wanted to see...
Yes, he has a scar on his forehead and should have taken a cloth to his face a little more scrupulously before heading out to school this morning. Twelve year olds soon make way to teenagers.
Taken from a couple steps back, also wide open, entire image to give you an idea of the change in the background out of focus area....Show more →
Hi Mike, thank you very much. Tho shots looks fine to me, quite suitable for portrait for my taste. So I am set on the 35/2 ZM now just waiting for my 35/2 ZE to go perhaps I will try to get the 50 Sonnar down the road because of its rendering but definitely can't affort such a specialty lens for now.
michaelwatkins wrote:
Maybe some kind folks will post portraits done with the Planar 50 just to make your (or my) decisions that much harder.
At least there is a healthy resale market for these lenses so buy to try isn't that risky.
I think there are users here that have the ZM 50 Planar, no?
Anyone with with a ZM 50 Planar here can help us to save a bit of money by tilt us more toward the ZM 50 Planar from the ZM 50 Sonnar
aleksanderpolo wrote:
Not sure if this image is worthy of this thread, but here's my Sonnar, it was the first week of my use of GXR-M. Could have focus better if I had learnt to use the 4x magnify all+predator mode earlier.
Looks really good. I'm sort of drawing a mental comparison against my C/Y 50/1.7 and the ZM 50 Sonnar looks quite contrasty in comparison. I'm guessing its partly due to the modern coating.
The rubber grip on the body of my GXR became unglued. As my GXR body is no longer under guarantee, the Thai importer had to charge me for replacing the grip. Although the cost was not high, 810 baht (US$27), it seems to me that as a matter of principle Ricoh camera should have covered the cost of this as, in my view, this is a manufacturing fault. The normal temperature in Bangkok is often 33°C and the grip should not become unglued in this heat, which is normal in Thailand, and considering that the specifications in the GXR manual stated the operating temperature as at 0°C to 40°C. If the glue cannot keep the grip on at these temperatures around at 0°C to 40°C. If the glue cannot keep the grip on at these temperatures around 33°C the camera should not be sold in Thailand. I wrote to this effect to Ricoh Camera Customer Service in Tokyo and got the following response from their Hong Kong office, which I consider unacceptable:
I am sorry to hear about the problem you have encountered with the camera. However, the glue which using in GXR grip is passed the quality control and would not be easy lose, also this part is kind of consuming parts, so base on the camera is over 1 year warranty period, it is required to be charge.
We are sorry for any inconvenience cause of the above issue.
Thank you for contact Ricoh Technical Support.
I then responded that the fact the the glue passed quality control was not an acceptable answer because Thailand has temperatures that reaches 33°C most of the year, and the glue melted and reiterating that the camera specifications were stated as up to 40°C. I then received a reply that I considered worse than the original one:
Thank you for your information.
However, this issue is depends on how's the condition of storing the camera and how to operate it, moreover this is one of a consuming parts, so base on warranty policy that is over 1 year is required to charge for the repair.
We will take your information to reflect to our manufactory for notice.
Mitch; sounds a bit odd to me. I have had Ricoh cameras in pretty high temperatures long term (Australia and New Zealand, Asia and desert conditions) and have had no trouble with the rubber falling apart. Perhaps yours is part of a bad batch/incorrectly glued batch.
I would have hoped Ricoh would not have charged for the replacement of the rubber and take it as goodwill. I find that regardless of camera make you can get totally different service from time to time, and depending on which person you happen to have on the other side of the phone or help desk. Sometimes they give you goodwill on expensive repairs and sometimes they nitpick on small stuff, like the survival of their company depended on them charging $13 for a... ...gasket, or something.
