p.6 #1 · Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 II Aspherical Review
vtckon wrote:
Did you intentionally choose the SC version? Do you think it’s better for flat and desaturated images with pastel colors?
I intentionally chose the SC version because of how the SC handles flare/ghosting/contrast vs the MC. I’m expecting a flatter contrast image under specific lighting conditions. I haven’t shot with it on my M10M yet, but I did shoot a roll of Porta 400 on my M-A during golden hour at the Capitol in Sacramento this past Sunday. A few images were backlit and I’m excited to see how they all turn out! I intentionally overexposed by one stop, so that will also factor into how the image renders.
p.6 #2 · Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 II Aspherical Review
astrobuoy wrote:
I can't wait to see! I haven't seen ANY film images yet, and I'm dying to know how it renders. Also, super cool that you develop your own C41, I've done B&W home dev in the past, but haven't gone down that rabbit hole. How do you find it? Do you mind if I ask, what kit do you use? The number of chemicals and specificness of temperatures has kept me from trying, but I like to hear others' experiences
My Negative Supply scanning hardware was delivered today (finally!) and in celebration I will be prepping my Cinestill Color Negative C-41 kit. Woohoo! I haven’t developed C-41 in +2 years, but I found it pretty straight forward and easier than developing black and white. The only catch is keeping the temperature around 102 deg F. I’ll be mixing my C-41 chemicals later tonight with some distilled water in a tank warmed via a sous vide.
I still need to unpack the scanning hardware as it’s still in the UPS box staring at me with great temptation. I’m still on the clock (work swing/grave shift) so any assembly and chemistry magik will have to wait until I’m off the clock. Luckily, I’m working from home so I have quick access to the fridge and various spirits to help pass the night in a productive and happy mood!
p.6 #3 · Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 II Aspherical Review
I wish I had my Anova sous vide 20-30 years ago for maintaining water bath temperatures! Still, I'm very happy to have it now for long, slow cooked meats.
p.6 #4 · Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 II Aspherical Review
rscheffler wrote:
I wish I had my Anova sous vide 20-30 years ago for maintaining water bath temperatures! Still, I'm very happy to have it now for long, slow cooked meats.
Looking forward to your results, too!
I picked up the Anova Nano a few weeks ago in anticipation for this day. It’s still in the box, so tonight will determine if it works and if so, then how well and we’ll enough to keep it and delve further into c-41 development.
As an aside, we use a few Anova Pro sous vide at work to help dissolve some 3D printed support base layers in a 20 gal tank. The 3D print team has nothing but good things to say about their Anovas, so I anticipating similar levels of satisfaction.
Update: Getting my distilled water up to temperature before I can mix Part A, B and C of both developer and blix. My goal is to get at least two rolls of 135 developed before I call it a night/day. Will scan and post photos around this time tomorrow (likely!).
Update: Finished four rolls of 135 (1x Portra 160, 1x Portra 400 & 2x Ektar 100) which are drying right now. Will setup for scanning tomorrow.
p.6 #5 · Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 II Aspherical Review
I'm in the process of working through my scans within NLP and I'll be slowly posting some photos as I complete the scan and NLP edit process. I'm still trying to get use to NLP with color negatives. B&W conversion is pretty easy, but color film may take me a while to get use to this type of conversion.
p.6 #6 · Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 II Aspherical Review
Alpha_Geist wrote:
I'm in the process of working through my scans within NLP and I'll be slowly posting some photos as I complete the scan and NLP edit process. I'm still trying to get use to NLP with color negatives. B&W conversion is pretty easy, but color film may take me a while to get use to this type of conversion.
These are great! Judging from these the lens looks really swell on film. The focus is sharp but not clinical or cutting, and the background renders smoothly even when there's a potential for busy-ness.
Nice job on the developing and scanning as well! How'd you find the Cinestill kit in the end? Also, what'd you use to scan?
p.6 #7 · Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 II Aspherical Review
astrobuoy wrote:
These are great! Judging from these the lens looks really swell on film. The focus is sharp but not clinical or cutting, and the background renders smoothly even when there's a potential for busy-ness.
Nice job on the developing and scanning as well! How'd you find the Cinestill kit in the end? Also, what'd you use to scan?
Thank you very much! I'm liking what I see with this lens on color negative film and will shoot more CN with it before going back to B&W. I need to color calibrate my monitor, so I'm not sure how the colors are looking on everyone else's screens/devices, but I'm content with what I'm able to get out of NLP and some minor LR tweaks. I did notice that photos I took up close to about six feet were very sharp and detailed in the center. I'm really digging the in focus to OOF transitions in those cases. For infinity sharpness and detail, I feel like moving to medium format (film) will drastically improve compared to what I'm seeing on 35mm film.
My first C41 color development kit was a powdered Tetenal kit. This Cinestill kit is all liquid with seven individual bottles total. I found mixing the contents in this kit much easier as well as not making a mess dealing with powder formula. I pre-heated some distilled water in some plastic bottles using a sous vide and when my temp (~120 deg F) was right I poured in the proper chemicals in the order instructed. Once the chemistry was mixed, I poured a new bath of cold water and brought it to 103 deg F and placed my developer and blix containers in the bath. Once the chemistry was at the proper temp the dev time was 3.5 minutes and the bleach/fix about 8 minutes for standard processing. A three minute wash followed by a minute stablizer dunk and the color negatives were completed and ready to dry.
For scanning I'm using the Negative Supply suite of scanning hardware (film carriers, macro camera stand/copy stand and film masks) a Sony A7RIV, a Sigma Art 70mm macro E-mount lens and a wireless IR remote for triggering the shutter. It took longer to setup the scanning hardware than the actual scanning of the film itself. Just have to make sure to use a rocket blower to keep the dust off the film prior to each capture.
p.6 #8 · Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 II Aspherical Review
Maybe you could start a new thread in the post processing forum for those of us interested in how you scanned the film. Was it the basic Negative Supply kit, or did you upgrade anything?
To me it would seem the toughest aspect is lining everything up so it's square. It's a reason I'm more drawn to something like the Nikon ES-2 neg strip holder that attaches directly to a macro lens, though of course it's limited to only 35mm film and it sounds like you're also interested in medium format.
The images look good. Tough to know what the difference would be from the MC version, but a couple images have some veiling flare in the corners, which might be something.
p.6 #9 · Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 II Aspherical Review
rscheffler wrote:
Maybe you could start a new thread in the post processing forum for those of us interested in how you scanned the film. Was it the basic Negative Supply kit, or did you upgrade anything?
To me it would seem the toughest aspect is lining everything up so it's square. It's a reason I'm more drawn to something like the Nikon ES-2 neg strip holder that attaches directly to a macro lens, though of course it's limited to only 35mm film and it sounds like you're also interested in medium format.
The images look good. Tough to know what the difference would be from the MC version, but a couple images have some veiling flare in the corners, which might be something....Show more →
That's a very good idea! I'll start documenting by taking photos of my setup and create a "how to" on my scanning of 135/120 format film. I'll have to tidy my workspace up since the space is also my work-from-home desk...messy!
I use to use a tripod and lomography Digitaliza for carrying and scanning my film, but the tripod wasn't very adjustable and the Digitaliza didn't keep my negatives very flat. I ended up buying the NS Pro Riser, both 135 & 120 film carriers with the pro mounts and masks. The NS 135 film carrier is very easy to use and extremely smooth! I haven't tried the 120 film carrier yet, but I will once I develop some rolls of exposed 120 film I have in the fridge.
My biggest hurdle with this new setup was making sure my camera didn't shift/twist due to it and the macro lens weight on the Pro Riser. I have a dual arca swiss/RRS clamp coming this weekend from Amazon as the Pro Riser has a dovetail feature which will prevent the shift and twist under the camera's weight.
I did notice a few flares in some of my shots, but nowhere near as visible as the shot with the side lit tree (pine needles?). I will need to try shooting a completely backlit subject and see how the SC handles that. I do have a fun photo class/shoot this weekend that I was invited to and will be using this lens on the M10M along with my 67II. I'll try and sneak some shots with this lens and try and make it flare. I'm curious to see how it performs on a monochrome sensor.
p.6 #10 · Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 II Aspherical Review
IIRC, the Negative Supply set was generally lambasted as way overpriced when it was announced on Kickstarter. But it looks well made and might be worth it if it keeps the film flat and makes it easy to advance to the next image on the strip. I also like they have an optional larger image gate for capturing the full image plus some film rebate.
I just re-read a bunch of Nikon ES-2 reviews and the major complaint is that the device can't be completely locked down and results in small movements when the film strip is moved to the next image. So while initial set up would be quick, it seems to be more fiddly shot to shot than the NS set.
Ideally, NS would devise something that could be mounted with proper alignment directly to a macro lens, along the lines of the ES-2, but with much better build quality and usability.
p.6 #11 · Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 II Aspherical Review
Wow, just got it and the size / quality is looking pretty good!
Another neat (not so) secret is that it's the same LH-6 lens hood as the Voigtlander Classic 35mm Nokton, so I can simply swap them across the 2 lenses
p.6 #12 · Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 II Aspherical Review
Bicyclelad wrote:
Do wish it had a focusing tab. Any recommendations for a stick-on one?
I mentioned this a page back, but I stuck the 7artisans photo tab on mine (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1424612-REG/7artisans_photoelectric_ring_f_lens_focus_ring.html). It works and looks great. It uses an adhesive which doesn't leave residue if you later decide to remove it, but still stays solidly on. Bonus, it fits great on this lens, leaving enough room for me to grab it away from the body but also with enough space to manipulate the aperture ring.
p.6 #15 · Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 II Aspherical Review
Many thanks to Fred and all who have contributed to this informative thread.
I have had the recently-discontinued previous generation of this lens (the one with the very narrow focus ring). In short, I love it, especially on my M9, which somehow suits it well, delivering a very punchy, high impact Kodachrome look. I find I even use it more than my 50 Summilux asph.
I would love to hear a some subjective comparisons between this version II Nokton 50mm 1.5 and the previous version, especially with regards to focus shift. I find that my copy of the previous Nokton has negligible focus shift, even compared to the Summilux. I would prefer the form factor of the new one and would gladly switch just for that reason.
p.6 #16 · Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 II Aspherical Review
I had the v1 and sold it because it didn’t like the ergos. I think this one is just as good and the size isn’t much bigger than the 35mm nokton classic. It may just be my 50mm Goldilocks lens.
jplaurel wrote:
Many thanks to Fred and all who have contributed to this informative thread.
I have had the recently-discontinued previous generation of this lens (the one with the very narrow focus ring). In short, I love it, especially on my M9, which somehow suits it well, delivering a very punchy, high impact Kodachrome look. I find I even use it more than my 50 Summilux asph.
I would love to hear a some subjective comparisons between this version II Nokton 50mm 1.5 and the previous version, especially with regards to focus shift. I find that my copy of the previous Nokton has negligible focus shift, even compared to the Summilux. I would prefer the form factor of the new one and would gladly switch just for that reason.
p.6 #18 · Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 II Aspherical Review
Alpha_Geist wrote:
I'm in the process of working through my scans within NLP and I'll be slowly posting some photos as I complete the scan and NLP edit process. I'm still trying to get use to NLP with color negatives. B&W conversion is pretty easy, but color film may take me a while to get use to this type of conversion.
Here are a few more shots with this lens and a B+W yellow contrast filter, but on a Leica M10M. I didn't edit these photos at all. I just imported them into Lightroom and then exported to jpg (1600 pixels longest edge & 100ppi). No lens profiles enabled and default LR sharpening and noise reduction. These were taken around 6pm when the light was fading fast. I just tossed Auto ISO on and forgot to set my shutter speed slower (was at 1/500 ). I could of had some cleaner files (lower ISO), but oh well. The light was fading fast which meant it was getting more difficult to see what was in focus in the rangefinder window. Below are some shots that I think are in focus "enough".
p.6 #20 · Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 II Aspherical Review
Convincing! I really like #5 and last one.
Alpha_Geist wrote:
Thank you Fred!
Here are a few more shots with this lens and a B+W yellow contrast filter, but on a Leica M10M. I didn't edit these photos at all. I just imported them into Lightroom and then exported to jpg (1600 pixels longest edge & 100ppi). No lens profiles enabled and default LR sharpening and noise reduction. These were taken around 6pm when the light was fading fast. I just tossed Auto ISO on and forgot to set my shutter speed slower (was at 1/500 ). I could of had some cleaner files (lower ISO), but oh well. The light was fading fast which meant it was getting more difficult to see what was in focus in the rangefinder window. Below are some shots that I think are in focus "enough".
I intentionally overexposed by one stop, so that will also factor into how the image renders. 
). I could of had some cleaner files (lower ISO), but oh well. The light was fading fast which meant it was getting more difficult to see what was in focus in the rangefinder window. Below are some shots that I think are in focus "enough".
