p.7 #2 · Official: Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 III E-mount
Fred Miranda wrote:
Yes, with my copies and some examples posted, 1:1 crops can look better when there are elements following the sagittal (radial) plane towards the edge (18mm-21.6mm field area). The perpendicular lines (meridional) are softer in comparison. Astigmatism can look like smear when there more detail is following the tangential plane of focus.
Having said that, Guy's examples do look better than what I see with my copies. Perhaps it's the distance or something else. I will find out when I get his lens.
You should play with the focus as well. Maybe sacrificing a little bit of sharpness in the much better sagittal focal plane will improve the tangential one.
@Guy: The tangential lines in the upper left extreme corner are smeared a bit. I think the different test scenes could explain the difference but i am not sure and look forward to Fred's results
p.7 #4 · Official: Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 III E-mount
Phillip Reeve wrote:
You should play with the focus as well. Maybe sacrificing a little bit of sharpness in the much better sagittal focal plane will improve the tangential one.
@Guy: The tangential lines in the upper left extreme corner are smeared a bit. I think the different test scenes could explain the difference but i am not sure and look forward to Fred's results
Phillip,
Have you tried the VC 15III on the A7RII? It's a hard to focus lens...meaning, it's difficult to see peak focus at infinity even at 12.5x magnification.
After trying many different focus settings, I concluded that both my M-mount copies have true infinity a tad before the hard stop and the new E-mount at the hard-stop.
Even if I bracket focus starting from the 2m mark until the infinity hard stop (5-6 images moving the ring at very small increments), there are only minor changes between the images at the extreme edge. (the most obvious of course being the 2-meter one).
Those tangential lines never sharpen up, at least with my copies.
My guess is that the tangential lines get sharper past infinity and on this lens it's not possible to focus on it.
p.7 #5 · Official: Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 III E-mount
Yea i was more referring to extreme smearing with no detail as we seen in a couple of Freds corners.
In response to focusing as Fred mentions its very slight. I did both the other day and sent those files to Fred at the hard stop and just before and barely see a difference we could see from that. Until we get Freds results we maybe guessing a little at whats going on, reason we both said lets send Choppy to Fred to test it out. He should it tomorrow so he can test when he has a chance and I don't need it back for several days.
p.7 #6 · Official: Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 III E-mount
MJKoski wrote:
I also suspect distance playing part in Guy's copy being sharper.
Thats a interesting question. For a lens like this what truly is infinity on it. Its a super wide and really anything past 30 or 40 feet your almost at the infinity mark. I mean a 50 story building is not close. Its interesting though as like a 100mm lens infinity is way out there but something so wide, I really wonder where it starts. Been thinking about this one for years.
p.7 #7 · Official: Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 III E-mount
Fred Miranda wrote:
Phillip,
Have you tried the VC 15III on the A7RII? It's a hard to focus lens...meaning, it's difficult to see peak focus at infinity even at 12.5x magnification.
I am glad that you mentioned this, Fred, because when I had a VC 15 before someone on the alt forum at me for having a hard time focusing it. I thought it was just me being numpty.
p.7 #9 · Official: Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 III E-mount
Fred Miranda wrote:
Phillip,
Have you tried the VC 15III on the A7RII? It's a hard to focus lens...meaning, it's difficult to see peak focus at infinity even at 12.5x magnification.
After trying many different focus settings, I concluded that both my M-mount copies have true infinity a tad before the hard stop and the new E-mount at the hard-stop.
Even if I bracket focus starting from the 2m mark until the infinity hard stop (5-6 images moving the ring at very small increments), there are only minor changes between the images at the extreme edge. (the most obvious of course being the 2-meter one).
Those tangential lines never sharpen up, at least with my copies.
My guess is that the tangential lines get sharper past infinity and on this lens it's not possible to focus on it....Show more →
No, it was just a thought. I like Voigtländer lenses a lot but I have little need for such an extreme wideangle lens.
p.7 #10 · Official: Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 III E-mount
My copy of 90mm TS-E outresolves a7r2 at near subject distances with no movements @ f/5.6. Then, when the subject is at, or close, to infinity I need to stop down to at least f/11 to get sharp corners (movements do not matter a lot here).
GMPhotography wrote:
Thats a interesting question. For a lens like this what truly is infinity on it. Its a super wide and really anything past 30 or 40 feet your almost at the infinity mark. I mean a 50 story building is not close. Its interesting though as like a 100mm lens infinity is way out there but something so wide, I really wonder where it starts. Been thinking about this one for years.
p.7 #11 · Official: Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 III E-mount
GMPhotography wrote:
No its tough to focus because its also so dang wide, and everything seems in focus. Seeing in the corners is also no easy task.
It's true. The wider, the harder to focus. However, the Distagon 15/2.8 is just as wide and it's easy to nail focus at similar apertures. Even the FE 16-35/4 at 16mm is much easier to focus.
p.7 #12 · Official: Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 III E-mount
Yes, Zeiss wide angles are pretty easy to focus. Maybe it is due to very good micro contrast which helps popping the details with zoomed in live view. Canon WA TS-E lenses are also easy ones, you do not even need focus peaking as the view usually starts to shimmer with moire when the focus is correctly set.
p.7 #13 · Official: Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 III E-mount
MJKoski wrote:
Yes, Zeiss wide angles are pretty easy to focus. Maybe it is due to very good micro contrast which helps popping the details with zoomed in live view. Canon WA TS-E lenses are also easy ones, you do not even need focus peaking as the view usually starts to shimmer with moire when the focus is correctly set.
Agree, the TS-E 17/4L ultra wide is the easiest lens to focus. You really know when you nailed it. I used this lens for many years and I'm starting to miss it.
p.7 #17 · Official: Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 III E-mount
Fred Miranda wrote:
Agree, the TS-E 17/4L ultra wide is the easiest lens to focus. You really know when you nailed it. I used this lens for many years and I'm starting to miss it.
I don't need to hear that! I'm contemplating selling mine!
But before then I want to do a comparison of the TSE shifted with a few stitched images on a panoramic head.
What's made me not use it that when there's no close foreground, stitching handheld with a moderate wide like a 35 or a 28 . when perspective is adjusted and the file downsized to 42 MP, seems informally to give better results than the TSE shifted.
And when there is complex foreground using a light panorama head like novoflex slim is not much extra baggage to take along than the TSE itself...of course it does require a tripod.
All of this for shift, of course. For tilt....focus blending? I do a lot of that, but haven't much used the TSE for tilt so not sure how it compares.
p.7 #18 · Official: Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 III E-mount
DavidBM wrote:
I don't need to hear that! I'm contemplating selling mine!
But before then I want to do a comparison of the TSE shifted with a few stitched images on a panoramic head.
What's made me not use it that when there's no close foreground, stitching handheld with a moderate wide like a 35 or a 28 . when perspective is adjusted and the file downsized to 42 MP, seems informally to give better results than the TSE shifted.
And when there is complex foreground using a light panorama head like novoflex slim is not much extra baggage to take along than the TSE itself...of course it does require a tripod.
All of this for shift, of course. For tilt....focus blending? I do a lot of that, but haven't much used the TSE for tilt so not sure how it compares....Show more →
The reason I decided to sell my TS-E 17/4L is actually it's main feature. Lens movements.
There was small amounts of edge deterioration when shifting/tilting on the Canon 5D III, but with 42-50MP sensors, the issues are much more noticeable.. Even a 1-degree of tilt can make the edges go softer. Shifting pass 5 or 6mm won't be good either. So, if I could not use the lens movements on high MP sensors, what's the point. The lens is still incredible from center to edge at f/8 without movements though. I suspect that Canon may release a new versions of these lenses when we start getting 70-100MP sensors in the future.
The other issue is that I always wanted to go wider than 17mm. 14/15 is perfect for me and the Zeiss took it's place.
I personally much prefer 15/21 than the 17/24 gap.
The Zeiss 15/2.8 ZE is actually much lighter than what Zeiss states. I measured 747 grams. (I think the 820g from Zeiss includes the metal cap)
p.7 #19 · Official: Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 III E-mount
Fred Miranda wrote:
The reason I decided to sell my TS-E 17/4L is actually it's main feature. Lens movements.
There was small amounts of edge deterioration when shifting/tilting on the Canon 5D III, but with 42-50MP sensors, the issues are much more noticeable.. Even a 1-degree of tilt can make the edges go softer. Shifting pass 5 or 6mm won't be good either. So, if I could not use the lens movements on high MP sensors, what's the point. The lens is still incredible from center to edge at f/8 without movements though. I suspect that Canon may release a new versions of these lenses when we start getting 70-100MP sensors in the future.
The other issue is that I always wanted to go wider than 17mm. 14/15 is perfect for me and the Zeiss took it's place.
I personally much prefer 15/21 than the 17/24 gap.
The Zeiss 15/2.8 ZE is actually much lighter than what Zeiss states. I measured 747 grams. (I think the 820g from Zeiss includes the metal cap)...Show more →
So what you miss is just the admittedly wonderful unshifted goodness? Hopefully Batis 18 will give us that in a smaller package. (though more vignetting and distoriron I'll wager)
p.7 #20 · Official: Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 III E-mount
What I miss now that I do not have one is 1) the shifting 2) the tilting 3) tilting and shifting 4) unshifted goodness. In that order. The capabilities are enormous and cannot be touched in software due to the fact you compose your image after taking it.
And, it was shown that shimming MB-adapter makes the edge crappiness go away with movements.
at me for having a hard time focusing it. 
I thought it was just me being numpty.