Makten wrote:
That's good to know. Maybe it's better to replace the mount than buy yet another adapter.
If you do buy this lens -- assuming it's in good condition, $800 appears to be a very good price -- and change the mount, I'll be happy to buy the Contax mount from you.
AndereObjektiv wrote:
That's one crazy copal bayonet on your Kapture True-Wide, Audii-Dudii!
It's a Copal No. 3 with a modified Nikon PK-11A extension tube installed in it. In theory, the shutter can be used with a digital back, but some issues arise with higher speeds and in any event, for the long-exposure photography I do, I always used it in Bulb mode.
The cambo actus looks like a possible solution, I only worry about the precision of lens movements, as my sinar p3 with digital fine focus is still not precise enough for the latest sensors.
Everyone's needs are different, of course, but if one uses any camera or lens adapter that has a tilt or swing movement, there will always be a loss of precision relative to those that don't. Unfortunately, in my experience, the Cambo Actus is no exception, which is why I ultimately created my bob-tail version and did away with the tilt and swing movements entirely.
Better still is to assemble a camera with only rear rise / fall movements, such as I have successfully done with my FrankenKamera VI.
Maybe someone will hotrod some large format retrofocus wides into otus-like bayonets.
I think this is highly unlikely, at least using existing lenses. That's because the FFDs for all the existing high-performance, non-retrofocus wide-angle lenses are so short and/or their rear elements so large, it's impossible to use them with anything but a digital back, where the distance from the mounting surface to the sensor is only a few millimeters.
Audii-Dudii wrote:
If you do buy this lens -- assuming it's in good condition, $800 appears to be a very good price -- and change the mount, I'll be happy to buy the Contax mount from you.
I did buy the lens but I'm waiting for an adapter instead of changing the mount. Because, it's not a C/Y lens so I have no idea of which Leitax mount to use. Possibly it should be a Leica to Nikon (in my case), but I don't know.
Also, the Leitax mounts are ~2/3 of the price of an adapter, and with the adapter I can use other C/Y lenses on my GFX. Seems like a better solution in my case.
The lens is in very good condition but the focus ring is a little bit stiff as with many older lenses. I suppose it would get better with regreasing. Which won't happen because there are no such services over here.
The adapter is hopefully arriving today and I'll try the lens as soon as possible!
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Edit: I got the adapter and I've tried the lens on my lunch break. It covers really well and I can actually shift up to ~7 mm vertically in landscape mode, if the scene accepts a bit of mush in the corners. Unshifted I find it somewhat useable at f/2.8 if I don't want the whole frame in focus. It draws beautifully; a little bit soft and "glowy" wide open, but with good accutance and nice colors. From ~f/5.6 it's reasonably sharp to the corners and with no visible darkening of the corners at all (unshifted).
The shift mechanism can be rotated in 45 degree increments with only a twist of the lens, no tools required. There's also a lever for quickly changing from wide open to preset aperture, which is nice since the aperture and focusing scale index is pointing to the side for some reason. The knob for shifting is best pointed downwards when shifting vertically in landscape position, and it gives it a very convenient position for the left hand.
I found it really fun to use shift as I've never done this before. I'll post examples later! This could possibly be one of my best buys in a long time.
Makten wrote:
Interesting! I think we can see some deorientation of the corners even at f/8 in your first image, but no visible vignetting, which is more important to me. It's probably gonna clear up a little bit more at f/11-16 and I'm fine with that for tripod use.
I just got a mail reply from the seller of the Schneider 28 I'm looking at nearby, and the serial number indicates that it's from 1991 and it's got a Contax/Yashica mount. The question now is if it's worth the ~800 dollars or not. I mean, even a Samyang 24/3.5 is more expensive than that, and seems to have a lot more (complex) distortion and much worse build quality. The corners are probably better though.
Yes, the little OM 28/2 is great! I loved it on the Sony a7 II for the colors and clarity from ~f/4 and on, while it's really muddy wide open and has very funky bokeh unless stopped down. ...Show more →
Hi Martin,
I have the Leica R 28mm f2.8 Super Angulon PC lens. I am not totally sure if the Leica version of the lens is better than the other mounts (that is were they to higher standards). The lens is sharp, but not as sharp as my Leica R 28mm f2.8 V2 Elmarit, but it is sharp. I haven't used it that often. But, I have it now as part of my system for usage of my A7r with my Cambo Actus. According to Leica and Schneider for the best performance when total shift is used the lens should be stopped down to f11. I have tested the lens with my A7r and my Cambo Actus and the lens does have suffiicient image circle to cover the Fujifilm GX camera format. I have tested and though there is some light fall off it is correctable. The rendering is OK with me.
I did have an issue mounting my Leica R 28mm f2.8 Super Angulon PC lens on my Cambo Actus Leica R lens plate and had real difficuly in dismounting the lens. Cambo in the Netherlands took care of the issue when the modified the lens release on the Cambo plate. They also had to take care of the plate a year later when the mounting spring had failed. But, in both cases Capture Integration and Cambo took care of my issue at no charge for the modification or repair.
Alright, so these were both shot at f/8 with 7 mm of up-shift. I used the full 33x44 mm sensor of the GFX, but the second image is cropped 1-2 mm on the left side in PP for compositional reasons. I know, there's nothing in the upper corners, but you'll get an idea of the (lack of) vignetting at least.
If you are shooting buildings with up-shift, chances are that you're not gonna have anything in the corners anyway, so...
Edit: I think there's a bit of a color cast from the lens, because the auto white balance didn't behave normal. It wanted to make the images very blue-ish.
The lateral CA is pretty horrible in the shifted outer regions too, but interestingly, ACR seems to deal with that pretty well even with shift. Strange!
Oh, and both were shot hand-held at 1/30, so not clinically sharp at 100%.
Makten wrote:
Edit: I think there's a bit of a color cast from the lens, because the auto white balance didn't behave normal. It wanted to make the images very blue-ish.
The lateral CA is pretty horrible in the shifted outer regions too, but interestingly, ACR seems to deal with that pretty well even with shift. Strange!
Colour cast is (unfortunately) normal when shifting with lots of lenses. There are ways to deal with that if it really matters. People using symmetrical technical camera lenses will shoot the frame and then shoot a calibration frame through a piece of milky plastic. You then use the calibration frame in software to apply the temperature and vignette correction. In Lightroom, which is what I use, they call it "flat-field correction": https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/flat-field-correction.html
This is exactly why I'm not using an otherwise lovely Rodenstock Rodagon Apo-Grandagon 55mm lens. It was the widest technical camera lens I could get on my GFX+VX23D outfit, but the lens cast from shifting was really bad and I didn't want to fuss with lens cast correction for every shot.
If it's not too bad (and what you're showing here isn't anything as bad as what my Apo Grandagon did), then you might be able to tidy it up with a gradient that applies corrections for temperature and vignetting.
Unshifted I find it somewhat useable at f/2.8 if I don't want the whole frame in focus. It draws beautifully; a little bit soft and "glowy" wide open, but with good accutance and nice colors. From ~f/5.6 it's reasonably sharp to the corners and with no visible darkening of the corners at all (unshifted).
