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Loxia 25mm f/2.4 Distagon Tests and Comparisons

Fred Miranda
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p.3 #1 · p.3 #1 · Loxia 25mm f/2.4 Distagon Tests and Comparisons

Gunzorro wrote:
Fred -- Thanks so much for these comparisons! Really great to see real world use.

BTW -- My copy of the Sony 28/2 seems quite a bit better than yours, especially in the corners. I had excellent results shooting it a while back at Universal Studios at f/2 and f2.8, and then later at a metal-thrash house show, right on top of the band and audience in dim, dim light at f/2 (cracked my lens hood there amidst the surging throng -- came back next day to find it under a sofa).

You're welcome!

Apr 13, 2018 at 01:18 PM

GMPhotography
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p.3 #2 · p.3 #2 · Loxia 25mm f/2.4 Distagon Tests and Comparisons

Man looking forward to the 25

Apr 13, 2018 at 01:33 PM

Fred Miranda
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p.3 #3 · p.3 #3 · Loxia 25mm f/2.4 Distagon Tests and Comparisons

For those curious of how the Loxia 25/2.4 performs at infinity at every aperture stop, here are some crops. (Center, Mid-zone and Extreme Edge). Lighting was a bit harsh but not much wind. (Some haze)

CENTER crops from f/2.4 until f/8

Apr 13, 2018 at 04:44 PM

Fred Miranda
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p.3 #4 · p.3 #4 · Loxia 25mm f/2.4 Distagon Tests and Comparisons

MIDZONE crops from f/2.4 until f/8

Apr 13, 2018 at 04:45 PM

Fred Miranda
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p.3 #5 · p.3 #5 · Loxia 25mm f/2.4 Distagon Tests and Comparisons

EXTREME-EDGE crops from f/2.4 until f/8

Apr 13, 2018 at 04:46 PM

GMPhotography
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p.3 #6 · p.3 #6 · Loxia 25mm f/2.4 Distagon Tests and Comparisons

Damn better than I thought

Apr 13, 2018 at 04:52 PM

mjm6
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p.3 #7 · p.3 #7 · Loxia 25mm f/2.4 Distagon Tests and Comparisons

nandadevieast wrote:
After seeing Fred’s framing comparison, i will go to the extent of saying that they are more similar than different. Even the perspective looks similar more or less, not a dramatic change like 18mm...
If i am chosing a 24 for General purpose/people shots then Batis 25 could be a stronger choice because of AF. Will i buy a L25 for people? I don’t know.
However, if i have to choose between the two for landscapes, then AF goes out of the picture. In that case i will perhaps go for L21, i can crop to 24 and its a bit...Show more →

You are possibly only saying this because you are looking at two infinity-focused landscape images.

When you start to work foreground/background compositions with these two lenses, you will find that the differences start to become more substantial. This is an especially large differentiation as you get in to the wide and ultra wide angle lenses where small differences in focal length can produce substantial differences in the image final results with respect to subject isolation and the relationship of a foreground subject to a background subject.

I'm not telling anyone they are wrong for their choice of preferred focal length, as we all have our own vision, but I think it is especially important to consider how the lens renders 3D space. Unless you are a very traditional grand landscape photographer, 3D spacial rendering may be a more important aspect of the lens characteristics than the total coverage angle.

In my opinion, a 24/25mm lens hits a sweet spot for both angular coverage and relative 3D rendering that makes it a far more useful lens for many applications compared to a wider lens, and also compared to a narrower lens. It works well for basic landscape, street shooting, reportage, environmental portraits, etc. without being too wide to heavily pull into the corners, which has a tendency to cause many images to look contrived or just off a little.

A 21mm can do this as well, but you have to stay away from the corners more, and plan on cropping for the ideal composition, especially if there is a person or a wheel towards the corner. At that point, you might as well just use the 25m lens...

Of course, anyone can choose to prioritize angle of coverage over 3D rendering, but that isn't nearly as important for the images I make it seems.

Apr 13, 2018 at 05:34 PM

Fred Miranda
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p.3 #8 · p.3 #8 · Loxia 25mm f/2.4 Distagon Tests and Comparisons

My initial analyses is that the Loxia 25/2.4 is the sharpest 25mm currently designed for the E-mount. It's sharp center to the very extreme corners from wide-open and optimum at f/4 across the frame except for the midzone which improve slightly at f/5.6.
Specular highlights are free of onion ring pattern. Axial CA is well controlled for a 25mm lens and there are only traces of Lateral CA towards the corners. There is some distortion but seems mostly barrel which is an easy fix in post without affecting IQ.

How does it compare to other lenses?

Against the Batis 25/2:
The Loxia 25/2.4 is better optically. It's sharper from center to edges and has higher micro-contrast. The Batis has noticeably higher axial CA, more distortion, and specular highlights shows onion ring pattern. Field of view is also slightly wider in comparison. It's lighter but bulkier. The main advantage for the Batis is that it's a AF lens.

Against the Loxia 21/2.8:
They are very similar optically. The Loxia 21/2.8's field curvature seems slightly more pronounced in comparison though. Both lenses have the edges/mid focused optimally at the lens' hard stop. Center only a tad before it.
Color, micro-contrast and resolution are very similar except that the Loxia 25/2.4 is slightly sharper towards the extreme corners. The Loxia 21/2.8 is better corrected for axial CA and they both perform similarly regarding LaCA. At the end, it comes down to if you prefer 25mm over 21mm.

Apr 13, 2018 at 05:42 PM

GMPhotography
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p.3 #9 · p.3 #9 · Loxia 25mm f/2.4 Distagon Tests and Comparisons

From what I see in these latest samples at F4 in the very distant tree seems to be the optimum but 2.8 looks really close. Folks this is what your paying for. Lenses that hit there mark at F4 on a 2.4 lens. This can be very handy in wind conditions without bumping your ISO you get a 2 stop in speed advantage over a lens that performs the same at F8. Heck that’s not even talking about hand held and low light. This is another golden lens in our hands to use.

Apr 13, 2018 at 06:07 PM

chez
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p.3 #10 · p.3 #10 · Loxia 25mm f/2.4 Distagon Tests and Comparisons

GMPhotography wrote:
From what I see in these latest samples at F4 in the very distant tree seems to be the optimum but 2.8 looks really close. Folks this is what your paying for. Lenses that hit there mark at F4 on a 2.4 lens. This can be very handy in wind conditions without bumping your ISO you get a 2 stop in speed advantage over a lens that performs the same at F8. Heck that’s not even talking about hand held and low light. This is another golden lens in our hands to use.

For me, manual focus means landscapes where shooting at 2.8 or 2.4 just does not cut it. F8 and quite often F11 is where I live when shooting manual focus landscapes.

Now for stationary environmental portraits where you can easily manual focus, 2.4 might be something interesting.

Apr 13, 2018 at 06:37 PM

GMPhotography
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p.3 #11 · p.3 #11 · Loxia 25mm f/2.4 Distagon Tests and Comparisons

Well you kind of missed my point but yes for DOF I understand but my point is you don’t have to get to F8 to get the best IQ out of the lens. And you don’t have to be at F8 to get the corners with lenses like this your not forced to go to F8 it’s happening 2 stops sooner which will give you a more effective lens in hand.

Apr 13, 2018 at 06:44 PM

philip_pj
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p.3 #12 · p.3 #12 · Loxia 25mm f/2.4 Distagon Tests and Comparisons

For open landscapes at both these FLs, it's a good idea to bracket an f5.6/f6.3 image with f8. Centers for both wide Loxias are still improving for all objects at f5.6 compared with wide open, where both are already unusually strong. I'd not shoot f11 unless you want in front of your feet 'sharp' and can recover somewhat the 15-20% diffraction loss across the fat DOF zone with careful PP sharpening (it will never be as good though).

Using the full aperture range Batis 25mm MTF from Diglloyd, fine detail (center) goes like this:
f2 - 52%; f2.8 - 67%; f4 - 73%; f5.6 - 70%; f8 - 68%; f11 - 61%. Different lenses sure, but expect a similar pattern of results from the Loxias.

https://diglloyd.com/blog/2015/20150429_0952-ZeissBatis-25f2-MTF.html

Zeiss are good at conveying sharpness near the edge of DOF in their landscape lenses too, another reason for caution stopping down.

Apr 13, 2018 at 08:14 PM

Gunzorro
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p.3 #13 · p.3 #13 · Loxia 25mm f/2.4 Distagon Tests and Comparisons

Fred Miranda wrote:
You're welcome!

I've tested at least five 28/2 lenses. It's a good lens but corner resolution/contrast is not its strength. The result I posted is pretty much a characteristic of this lens and it does not look good because it was compared to the Loxia 25, which IMO is the sharpest 25mm lens I've tested to date. The 28/2 is soft from f/2 until about f/5.6 but I'm talking "extreme edges" at 1:1 and that's where only the best lenses perform well. Both Loxia 21, 25 and 85 are exceptional there and that's from wide open.
My point for that...Show more →

Thanks for the clarification. I was primarily considering the central region of the Sony 28/2. The extreme edges of my copy are "acceptable" stopped down, but certainly not in the same league as the Loxia's -- even the L35. My experience with subject distance with the lens has been from around 6' to 100', and not concentrated on the edges.

Good to hear your assessment of the L25 compared to all the other lenses in the focal length.

Now that I've seen your aperture comparisons of the three zones shown above, I am more of a believer.

I agree that the lens looks its best at f/5.6 at infinity.

Thanks again!

Apr 14, 2018 at 08:35 AM

chiron
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p.3 #14 · p.3 #14 · Loxia 25mm f/2.4 Distagon Tests and Comparisons

Fred Miranda wrote:
The Loxia 25/2.4 is not as well corrected for axial CA compared to the Loxia 21. Here are a few samples under low contrast lighting. (Expect more CA under high contrast lighting)

Fred--

The sky in the cropped first sample seems brighter in the 25mm shot, and focus seems slightly different in the cropped second sample (softer for the 25mm)? Are these real differences that would affect the aberrations, or are they the result of the aberrations? Or are my eyes fuzzy?

Apr 14, 2018 at 09:21 AM

Fred Miranda
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p.3 #15 · p.3 #15 · Loxia 25mm f/2.4 Distagon Tests and Comparisons

chiron wrote:
Fred--

The sky in the cropped first sample seems brighter in the 25mm shot, and focus seems slightly different in the cropped second sample (softer for the 25mm)? Are these real differences that would affect the aberrations, or are they the result of the aberrations? Or are my eyes fuzzy?

Hi Chiron,
I'm not sure which samples you are referring to. The first image on this thread displayed a Loxia 21's image with a crop section simulating the Lox 25's Field of View. It's darker/lighter intentionally to show this difference.

Apr 14, 2018 at 10:34 AM

Fred Miranda
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p.3 #16 · p.3 #16 · Loxia 25mm f/2.4 Distagon Tests and Comparisons

Here is a before and after gif animation showing distortion correction. The Lox25 is well corrected for distortion.

Apr 14, 2018 at 11:26 AM

chiron
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p.3 #17 · p.3 #17 · Loxia 25mm f/2.4 Distagon Tests and Comparisons

Fred Miranda wrote:
Hi Chiron,
I'm not sure which samples you are referring to. The first image on this thread displayed a Loxia 21's image with a crop section simulating the Lox 25's Field of View. It's darker/lighter intentionally to show this difference.

Hi Fred--Sorry for the confusion--I meant these comparisons:

https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1539948/0#14434184

Apr 14, 2018 at 12:04 PM

Fred Miranda
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p.3 #18 · p.3 #18 · Loxia 25mm f/2.4 Distagon Tests and Comparisons

Couple samples from last night:

Apr 14, 2018 at 12:05 PM

Fred Miranda
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p.3 #19 · p.3 #19 · Loxia 25mm f/2.4 Distagon Tests and Comparisons

chiron wrote:
Hi Fred--Sorry for the confusion--I meant these comparisons:

https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1539948/0#14434184

I will post more samples comparing these lenses in regards to axial color correction.

Apr 14, 2018 at 12:12 PM

chiron
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p.3 #20 · p.3 #20 · Loxia 25mm f/2.4 Distagon Tests and Comparisons

Fred Miranda wrote:
I will post more samples comparing these lenses in regards to axial color correction.

Apart from actually comparing the lenses, these comparisons that you do are always helpful in learning how to really SEE the characteristics of lenses and of images.

Apr 14, 2018 at 01:30 PM

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