Juha Kannisto
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 p.4 #7 · p.4 #7 · New Cosina Voigtländer 50/1.2 for Fuji X announced for September | |
twelveish wrote:
Interesting to hear your thoughts on your whole collection of the X-mount CV lenses. I still only have the Noktons, 23/1.2 & 35/1.2. The 50/1.2 is a must, so I'm looking around for a decent price. I am drawn to the 18 & 27 because of their hard stop infinity focus. Would be so helpful and easy.
But my impression is that they both show quite a bit less character than the Noktons, and that's keeping me away from them so far. Since you mentioned you've been more into character lenses lately, is that also your impression, or is there something about them I'm missing? I have obviously followed the impressions and tests for them posted in the forums already.
Do you have any additional comments on the rendering from the 18 & 27?
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I often shoot both wide open close to mid-range type of shots focusing on some interesting objects, flowers or plants, food/drink, statues etc. and then stopped down infinity type shots focusing on city scenery, buildings, landscape etc. The 18 & 27mm excel on the stopped down infinity type shots and I like them most for their very compact size and ease of shooting those infinity type shots. I don't use them as much for the wide open type shots, although they do work for that as well (without having tons of classic style character though). 28mm in FF is also one of my favorite focal lengths and the CV 18/2.8 is my only native mirrorless lens with that focal length that also has electronic contacts. I have several adapted 28mm lenses for FF and Laowa 28/1.2 (but that has no electronic contacts and is a much bigger and heavier lens). Being fully native the small 18/2.8 is quite unique lens for me. Indeed these 18 & 27 are not the most appealing ones when it comes to strong character for wide open shots but their other aspects are very appealing for travel and casual walk-around shooting when doing more of the infinity type shots. I've used the 27/2 as a travel lens and it worked very nicely for that (before I had the 18/2.8). Next time when I want a minimalist camera setup for travel I could bring both of these lenses with my X-S10 and nothing else.
The 50/1.2 and 35/1.2 appeal more to my character lens taste especially when shot wide open. Neither of them is as convenient for stopped down shots since the hard infinity can't be utilized. 23/1.2 is sharper wide open and has quite much vignetting (which is automatically removed in SOOC JPEGs but fully visible when editing the Raw files in C1 Pro). I don't like its character as much as the 50/1.2 and 35/1.2 + it's also a bit inconvenient for infinity shots when compared to the 2 pancakes, so I haven't been drawn to it as much. To me it doesn't excel as much in either of my favorite shooting styles as the others. 35/2 also doesn't really appeal to my character lens taste since it's very well corrected, but it would work the best when shooting product shots or macro shots. However, I don't shoot those type of shots so often. It does work excellently for long distance stopped down shots but again hard infinity can't be utilized and takes some effort to focus it optimally for those, so I'd rather go with the pancakes for that.
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Juha had really great samples so far at f/1.2 and f/4, but I would love to see how the mid/long range rendering changes when you stop down. Been playing around a lot with film simulation recipes and this could work really great with the more film-like recipes. First I am buying the 23mm f/1.2 Nokton. After that, this would pair with it really great as a nice and small travel combo.
My personal favorites among the X-mount CV lenses are so far this 50/1.2, the 2 pancakes 18/2.8 & 27/2 (which can both be used at hard infinity for best results with long distance shots) and probably the 35/1.2. I also got 23/1.2 as my first CV X-mount lens but I didn't grow to enjoy that one as much as some of these others. For casual daily shooting the pancakes are really enjoyable. The 35/2 Macro is also great but it's better corrected and doesn't have as much character. I've been really into character lenses in recent times (not so much into vintage lenses but recent releases designed that way, such as select Voigtländers, most MS-Optics lenses, Kistar lenses).
I used to own X-T2 & X-T20 several years ago, but since then I sold all my Fuji gear and went all-Sony. And for that time I've missed these cameras quite a bit. Sony just feels just a bit too sterile as a camera. Playing around with the manual dials and film simulations are really making me photograph more again. These Voigtländers for Fuji were the thing that really brought me back to Fuji. Funny thing is, it was the native Voigtländers that tempted me to the "dark side" (Sony) a few years back. I love the output though, so I'm not gonna switch completely this time.
