Found an interesting thread which may just pour a little cold water over those holding a flame for the Rokkor.
The comparison pics in question were posted on a German site by "Hinnerker"..To go there direct:
Will this make the value of Rokkor 58/1.2's plunge and FL/FD 55/1.2's go up?...I dought it but it may help some to see that no matter how good they think a lens is, or are told it is, there can still be better ones, which are often a lot cheaper.
That _is_ far below par both with glow and resolution, and the answer Hinnerker comes with does not really refute that Easy as that. The 55/1.2 performs well, just like most rokkors.
The rokkor was/is the sharpest @ f/1.2 of any f/1.2 lens Modern Photography ever tested, my results with 4 of them bear that out. Haven't had the canon but haven't been impressed with anything I've seen from it. The canon FL/FD 1.2s other than the L (and maybe the SSC aspherical) are generally regarded as dogs, as far as sharpness goes. Then there's the conversion hassle...
This Rokkor above is mine. I borrowed it to Hinnerker for testing. That lens is not so sharp at close up compared to my other newer MC Rokkor. But this old Rokkor don't glow.
Check this pic http://www.flickr.com/photos/urmelchen/4278649005/
same lens infinity at f1.2 on my 5DMK2
I've done a quick comparison between Canon 50/1.2, SMC Pentax 50/1.2 and Minolta Rokkor 58/1.2. The last sample, just to put things in perspective, is from Contax 85/1.2.
I would say all 3 prime lenses are very close in sharpness and other parameters. I slightly prefer Pentax because of its contrast. In real life Minolta I'd rather use Minolta over Canon when I can live with manual focus. Contax 85/1.2, however, eats them all for breakfast in every department
alexandre wrote:
I knew Alf would bash Rokkors. Again.
I was'nt bashing Rokkors, I was just drawing peoples attention to a comparison showing that certain over hyped Rokkors maybe are'nt all their cracked up to be.
The Canon lens in question is optically identical to my old FL 55/1.2, albiet perhaps with an extra coating or two, and I'm sure you would agree that its performance in this comparison is remarkable when you take into account the FL was designed nearly fifty years ago. I've seen comparisons between the Rokkor and FL where you could'nt really tell them apart wide open but the extra coatings of the FD SSC really do seem to make a difference.
mawz wrote:
More likely a bad copy, as it doesn't perform nearly as well as other examples we've seen here.
Exactly. There is obviously something wrong with that sample. I have seen performance nearly this bad in only 1 of 13 samples I had in my possession. The majority of Rokkors have very little of that glow and very good contrast, even when wide open.
A proper Rokkor 58/1.2 should perform like this wide open (on 5D):
Note that while it seems to be front focusing, however, the plane at "hyp" does have fine details, just fairly low contrast. On the other hand, the plane at "cos" is just a bit out of focus, but has better contrast! The best compromise seems to be between "sin" and "cos".
I have tried Ec-L (cross split), Ec-CIV (very bright matte for 1Ds Mk3) focusing screen, and they are just as useless as the AF sensor for this Rokkor at f1.2. Only the Ec-S (super precision matte) manages to hit the sweet spot.
p.s. This is my calculator at near the closest focus distance.(-.6m) of the lens.
I tested my Rokkor 58 against a Canon 50 f1.2 L and got more or less this result. The Rokkor is still a great lens, with a nicer manual focus control and aperture ring, and it cost me $400 instead of $1500. Shut down to f1.8 or f2.5 the gap between their performance closes up. The Rokkor is a very good performer at f1.2, and great value for money as long as you don't pay a silly price for it. But is it the best? I don't think so. So what? It's still a great lens with a distinctive look, and you can pry mine from my cold dead hands.
The 50L would be more attractive if you could reliably focus it, but manual focus while holding down the badly placed d.o.f. preview button which has no lock isn't my idea of usable.
Easy as that. The 55/1.2 performs well, just like most rokkors. 