A few more pictures with my 120 f4 Macro.I know this lens is not advertised as APO but IMO it must be awful close. First 2 images were @ f4, #3 is f11 or 16
-Jim
Although I've never seen my 150 2.8 A listed as APO ... it's clean enough to make you believe it is.
Oddly enough, they didn't carry it over to their AF lineup.
I usually shoot ZF on my D3 and wanted to have a longer lens to add to my ZF100 on the tele end. I was searching for something different than the 135/2 or 180/2.8 AIS lenses I had and good advice from Conner999 encouraged me to get the Mamiya A 150/f/2.8. I use the Fotodiox adapter.
Bernd, that's a great shot. I hope that's your wife, 'cause she's absolutely stunning. Handsome young fellow as well.
I've seen sharper pics, but that's plenty sharp for portraits. Tis pic shows the one thing I do love about most 645 shots, no matter which lens: Nicely saturated colors, with seemingly lots of tonal gradation. I think the 645 has a look closely resembling the typical Minolta 35mm look.
Cableaddict wrote:
Bernd, that's a great shot. I hope that's your wife, 'cause she's absolutely stunning. Handsome young fellow as well.
I've seen sharper pics, but that's plenty sharp for portraits. Tis pic shows the one thing I do love about most 645 shots, no matter which lens: Nicely saturated colors, with seemingly lots of tonal gradation. I think the 645 has a look closely resembling the typical Minolta 35mm look.
Also, that's some sweet bokeh.
+1 I agree that it's not as sharp as a 90AA or Planar 100 would be but I like the look. Looking at all the images in this thread, I see a lot of the look I've always associated with MF. Maybe it's the tonal gradation, I'm not sure, but I can see it and like it.
I might be interested in one of the 80mm versions. The f/4 macro shots are very impressive. Anybody have any portraits shots done with it?
Cableaddict wrote:
Bernd, that's a great shot. I hope that's your wife, 'cause she's absolutely stunning. Handsome young fellow as well.
Thank you. No and yeah, she absolutely is. It's a girl.
Cableaddict wrote:
I've seen sharper pics, but that's plenty sharp for portraits. Tis pic shows the one thing I do love about most 645 shots, no matter which lens: Nicely saturated colors, with seemingly lots of tonal gradation. I think the 645 has a look closely resembling the typical Minolta 35mm look.
Also, that's some sweet bokeh.
zombii wrote:
+1 I agree that it's not as sharp as a 90AA or Planar 100 would be but I like the look. Looking at all the images in this thread, I see a lot of the look I've always associated with MF. Maybe it's the tonal gradation, I'm not sure, but I can see it and like it.
Though you will have surely noticed already I want to add, that I applied some skin smoothening (and vignette obviously), which contributes to the overall softness I wanted for this picture. Also I am rather conservative with applying additional contrast. On the web-sized picture I showed this may sum up to too much softness.
I have a 40cm wide print of this and believe me, no one in the world would debate about sharpness having seen the print.
Surely this lens' sharpness doesn't match the 90AA/ZF100 (I could supply a comparison with the latter), but I was amazed how defined it is from the get-go (no coma, good sharpness). It's not APO, but works to that direction, CA seems well controlled from the few pictures I made.
I bought it for portraits and find it really great for this. I love the gentle colors and tonal transitions.
Here's another shot, slightly larger, no skin-smoothening, but still vignette added:
Hey Bernd - welcome. As you say, the prints from these shots (still love seeing them) have got be stellar.
Rusty - The 150/2.8A actually was reformulated a couple of years ago into an AFD variant - with pricing to match. Apparently it makes the MF version look like a sandblasted coke bottle. One place for sample shots and commentary on the glass is the MF section at www.getdpi.com. It's considered by many experienced uber-glass junkies as the best, or one of the very best, lens they've ever used across any formats. Knowing these guys and their gear closets, that's saying a lot. Sadly, it's electronic aperture control only, so no 35mm use.
While Mamiya used the "A" designation for indicate ULD glass vs "APO" for the white (M645) APO lenses (200, 300, 500), you'll often see the 120/4 and 150/2.8 A's listed as "APO" on sites.
Those are nice, Jim. I ordered my 645/EOS adapter from Fotodiox and got the shipping confirmation. Then got another message shortly thereafter saying to ignore the first message...back ordered.
Nice to see that the 645 glass works well on a Canon body...I have a few gathering dust that I'm looking forward to trying out.
Mike ... I ordered my FotoDiox adapter through Amazon. It was cheaper, no shipping & no taxes (IL). I'm not sure who's doing the fulfillment though ... if it's Amazon, or FotoDiox ... worth a look.
Amazon's showing in stock ... delivery by Friday available 79.95.
RustyBug wrote:
Mike ... I ordered my FotoDiox adapter through Amazon. It was cheaper, no shipping & no taxes (IL). I'm not sure who's doing the fulfillment though ... if it's Amazon, or FotoDiox ... worth a look.
Amazon's showing in stock ... delivery by Friday available 79.95.
Thanks for the link, Kent. I checked it, and the adapter is shipped from Fotodiox. I ordered it anyway, if only to save a few bucks, plus cashed in a $50 Amazon gift card at the same time. Not a bad deal...
Well...since Fotodiox gave me a two week wait due to backorder status, I ordered the adapter through Amazon to use up a gift card before I lost it. Fotodiox canceled my ordered and agreed to apply a credit to my credit card. Strangely, one hour later, the adapter from Fotodiox appears in the mailbox, and the adapter through Amazon will probably be here Monday. To make a long story short, I'll be looking to sell one of the adapters or just return it to Fotodiox. If anyone is interested in a brand new Mamiya 645/EOS adapter, drop me an email or PM. Due to the 'niche' market for alt gear, putting it on the B/S board may take some time to sell. If there's no interest here, I'll just simply return it.
By the way, Jim...I took some backyard test shots yesterday with my 45/2.8 and the 75-150/4.5 zoom on my 5D2. All I can say is wow...the images SOOC look very impressive. I'll give the 80/1.9 a shot today. FWIW, all of my lenses are the 'C' version, and if they look that good, I'm not sure what the 'N' version will do as far as IQ goes. I'll give them another spin later today and post a few up.
