p.4 #1 · What's your biggest dissapointment (lens)?
Nikkor 20/3.5 AI-S: Just unusable for anything but closeups. So unsharp at infinity that it wasn't good enough for 800x600 web images.
Nikkor 28-105/3.5-4.5 (perhaps not "alt" enough since it's an AF lens): Everyone seem to rave about this plasticky, ugly and boring lens. I just hated everything about it from the build quality (or lack of it) to the optical performance. Except for the very low distortion.
Sigma 14/2.8 HSM: A lens that flares when it's overcast.
Olympus 17/2.8 for MFT: Just cellphone-camera worthless.
Nikkor 85/2 AI: Soft, low contrast and just unsharp at any aperture (unlike its predecessor, the extremely good 85/1.8 pre-AI).
Voigtländer 90/3.5 APO: Bloody boring. Very sharp for closeups, but vignettes like hell and isn't good at all at infinity. Sold it after a week after initially liking it.
Micro-Nikkor 105/2.8 AI-S: Very sharp and nice, but the bokeh for general use was among the harshests I've ever seen. Highly recommended for closeups though.
p.4 #4 · What's your biggest dissapointment (lens)?
JimBuchanan wrote:
C/Y 28/2.8 on 5D
This may surprise many, but I was major disappointed with this lens in its lack of sharpness at the edges and corners, close or far. Yes, the sharpness improved when stopped down, but at f/8 and smaller? The light bulb went on when I got the Leica R 28 Elmarit II. Sharp corner to corner wide open.
That's why you pay 5 to 10 times as much for the Leica. IMO the Contax still is great value for money, if your everyday shooting doesn't require corner to corner sharpness at f/2.8. The Leica gets in the league of the Distagon 21 in terms of price and performance across the frame I guess, so I don't see how you could ever expect that from the puny Distagon 28/2.8.
p.4 #5 · What's your biggest dissapointment (lens)?
telyt wrote:
Tonal gradation is the number of steps between pure black and pure white. Applies to colors too.
RGB colorspace has exactly 255 steps between pure black and pure white, no matter what camera lens is used. Lab color space is by far the largest gamut color space. Wikipedia describes it this way: "The L*a*b* color space includes all perceivable colors which means that its gamut exceeds those of the RGB and CMYK color models."
I can't recommend anything by the late Bruce Fraser or Dan Margolies' excellent book on Lab processing highly enough. These sound like books that someone who's made significant investments in Leica APO lenses would appreciate.
I don't think that PP is the most important step in the process of producing an image, but I also don't think you can solve all the problems in all the steps of producing an image simply through the use a specific lens model.
p.4 #6 · What's your biggest dissapointment (lens)?
My greatest disappointment lens is the Tamron 14mm SP AF F/2.8 (!)
Mainly because the build quality is too cheap and the lens itself is very sensitive to strong light sources = flare. And the lens has to be stopped-down to at least f/5.6 inorder to achieve some proper corner sharpness (!)
p.4 #9 · What's your biggest dissapointment (lens)?
davidearls wrote:
I don't think that PP is the most important step in the process of producing an image, but I also don't think you can solve all the problems in all the steps of producing an image simply through the use a specific lens model.
Agreed, every part of the process counts. In my experience "fixing" a problem in PP comes with a trade-off somewhere. I cringe when anyone writes that contrast or saturation or sharpness or distortion or CA or whatever doesn't matter any more because it can be fixed in PP. I brought up the Leica APO lenses because in my opinion somebody does supertele lenses better than Canon.
p.4 #10 · What's your biggest dissapointment (lens)?
partitura wrote:
Sebboh -
What do you think of the Rokkor 24mm f2.8? The one (old) online review I read was very positive.
i love it, it's just slow and no smaller than the new za 24/1.8. it's great on film as well. it's not perfect in the corners at infinite and seems to perform better close up despite the floating element, but it's infinite performance doesn't bother me. color and contrast are beautiful and sharpness at closer distance is outstanding even wide open (corners are aways a bit weaker though).
p.4 #12 · What's your biggest dissapointment (lens)?
telyt wrote:
Agreed, every part of the process counts. In my experience "fixing" a problem in PP comes with a trade-off somewhere. I cringe when anyone writes that contrast or saturation or sharpness or distortion or CA or whatever doesn't matter any more because it can be fixed in PP. I brought up the Leica APO lenses because in my opinion somebody does supertele lenses better than Canon.
I should have said that "In my experience" instead of "In my opinion" because the only super-tele I ever used that wasn't Canon was an old Sigma. And Canons are superior to that old beast.
Again, this is just an opinion, but PP is not strictly an additive process. It's also a subtractive process, particularly with respect to color. When I take an image into Lab for color refinement, I'm uncovering a duller rendition of how the lens/sensor/computer/software interpreted the image to reveal a fuller, richer color gamut.
I've never used a Leica APO, but I have found through PP that there is a lot more richness and subtlety of color with Canon teles than I previously thought. I couldn't agree with you more strongly that PP doesn't fix what isn't in the original capture.
p.4 #13 · What's your biggest dissapointment (lens)?
davidearls wrote:
When I take an image into Lab for color refinement, I'm uncovering a duller rendition of how the lens/sensor/computer/software interpreted the image to reveal a fuller, richer color gamut.
If the gamut of an image doesn't exceed sRGB anywhere and the PP you're going to do will not result in out of gamut colors, using a wider gamut is only detrimental. If you're going to push saturation/contrast then you'll want to use a wider gamut to prevent posterization.
p.4 #15 · What's your biggest dissapointment (lens)?
Tokina AT-X 100 D, because it was so good optically but felt awful in manual mode!
I hated selling such a good lens but hated using it even more!
Also the EF 17-40mmL, mine was no good in the corners from 20mm and wider, just smeared whatever the aperture.
p.4 #16 · What's your biggest dissapointment (lens)?
AhamB wrote:
If the gamut of an image doesn't exceed sRGB anywhere and the PP you're going to do will not result in out of gamut colors, using a wider gamut is only detrimental. If you're going to push saturation/contrast then you'll want to use a wider gamut to prevent posterization.
While I don't fully understand the science of what you say, I don't use Lab color adjustments on every image. My Zeiss images frequently don't tolerate it, and simple contrast boost works well for Zuiko. To my eye, Canon images benefit most from this workflow. My point was simply that Lab processing makes Canon images better - better than their poor reputations.
p.4 #18 · What's your biggest dissapointment (lens)?
vallejo wrote:
This has been discussed before, but just to remember how important the raw developer can be to the equation.
Same shot, developed with LR and RPP. 30 of local contrast/clarity applied to both, and 50 of sharpening in LR for both... Contax C/Y 85 2.8 @5.6, that I consider rather soft...
It is soft. I thought the C/Y 85/2.8 should be one of the sharpest contax lens. Try Leica 90/2.8. It's razor sharp even at close distance.
p.4 #19 · What's your biggest dissapointment (lens)?
Wow maybe too many to list.
Great lenses that didn't live up to the hype:
C/Y 50mm f1.7 - color dull compared to f1.4
Zeiss 50mm MP - great but too heavy for what it delivered - 100MP a better choice
C/Y 28mm f2,8 and f2.0
Leica 100mm f2.8 APO - Great balance but didn't outshine CV 125 APO or the Zeiss 100MP
Great lenses that did live up to hype but I sold anyway
Voigtlander CV 125mm APO in EOS mount... Great Bokeh, but colors didn't pop like Zeiss 100 MP
Zeiss 35mm f2.0
Great lenses I kept but I am tormented by:
Zeiss 25mm f2.8 ZF - great but tough to use
Contax 400mm N f4.0 converted by Conurus - Stunning IQ but slow focus
Canon 800mm IS - Need to work too hard to get razor sharp images and eagles always fly just a little to close to not crop wings
p.4 #20 · What's your biggest dissapointment (lens)?
phuang3 wrote:
It is soft. I thought the C/Y 85/2.8 should be one of the sharpest contax lens. Try Leica 90/2.8. It's razor sharp even at close distance.
The C/Y 85/2.8 I tested was extremely sharp, even at close range. Too sharp for portraits.
