p.30 #1 · MS-Optics lenses Image and Discussion Thread
Juha Kannisto wrote:
More samples with the Apoqualia 35/1.4 re-release on my Sony A7CII from yesterday and Friday:
Mostly around Nakameguro, including Awaodori action in the evening: https://photos.app.goo.gl/meyN5JfW2YCucLcZA
I used various apertures, including f2, f1.4, f8, f2.8, f4 on these shots. The Awaodori action shots were all at f2 (at first) or f1.4 (later as it got darker). ISO went up as it got darker since I was shooting at 1/500s with Auto-ISO to try to freeze the action. I positioned myself next to a stack of event sponsor lanterns that shone a nice red light on the performers. There were some rainshowers during the Awaodori performances and some of the late shots include some "vignetting" from my umbrella.
I used a helicoid adapter so some plant shots were taken closer than the normal MFD.
Here are 80 comparison shots between Apoqualia 35/1.4 (re-release) on my A7CII and Apollon 36/1.3 (original launch batch) on my A7C. All are SOOC JPEGs straight out of camera with similar settings on both cameras. I tried to frame the shots as close to each other as I could but since I was switching between 2 cameras, there were some variations to my position and framing here and there.
As per Fred's suggestion, I stopped down Apollon to the midwaya position between the 2 dots (the one next to f1.3 and the one on the right from that) which should be very close to Apoqualia's wide open aperture for all of the wide aperture shots, while Apoqualia was kept wide open. There are also some stopped down infinity type shots where I set Apoqualia to f8. I noticed that my Apollon's f8 is about 1 stop darker than my Apoqualia's f8 and the aperture opening looks visually smaller on Apollon at that position, so I tried to set Apollon to f5.6+ to compensate for most of the stopped down shots, where exposure times also seemed to match pretty well.
The overall rendering and results look quite similar actually, I think Apollon shows somewhat lower contrast and Apoqualia shows more vignetting (possibly due to being wide open) and stuff at the edges gets a bit sharper on Apoqualia vs. on Apollon. The colors, esp. greens look a bit different too, but there could also be some impact from A7CII vs. A7C. In these shots they look closer to each other than I was expecting.
As for handling differences, my Apollon has fairly light focus and aperture movement (i.e. the rings move easier / with less force applied), while my Apoqualia has a bit heavier resistance (more torque required) for both rings. Both move smoothly, just require different levels of torque. I prefer the lighter movements of Apollon from handling perspective....Show more →
Thanks so much for these comparisons, Juha! They answer my question really clearly.
Sounds like the Apollon and Apoqualia have very similar performance and rendering once their apertures are equalized, especially when you factor in copy variation and focus precision. I've done some testing myself, and I think setting the Apollon about two-thirds of the way to the second aperture dot (rather than halfway between the two dots) matches the Apoqualia almost exactly in contrast and SA correction.
Basically, it seems like MS Optics took the same core optical design and pushed it further with the Apollon. That gives you the choice of shooting wide open for a touch more blur and SA, or stopping down slightly for a bit more correction. The Apoqualia, on the other hand, starts out better corrected right from wide open.
