nehemiahphoto wrote:
Juha, not sure if you know (but I emailed Ballany at Camera Hunter when the 35/1.3 was announced as I was interested) and he confirmed it's the same optically (or very nearly identical) as the older 35/1.4 Apoqualia. But the ergonomics looks really horrible to me, even by MS Optical standards. So, you can like/have found the reviews and images on the 35/1.4 Apoqualia good, you will like the 35/1.3. I don't believe you shoot with a stock sensor, but the 35/1.4 Apoqualia is pretty affected by a stock sony sensor as well, though I used and liked mine on stock Sony anyway. Now I use it on a NKIR modded sensor and it performs better (though even at f8, the extreme corners are still mushy at infinity). It was not a big deal for me as I shoot it mostly wide open for it's character and rendering on both sensors, not really expecting anything in terms of technical IQ.
Thanks for the info on it being same or very nearly identical to the older 35/1.4 Apoqualia optically! I hadn't seen any real info regarding that earlier. Yes, I think the ergonomics look questionable on that one, especially when it comes to the aperture handling mechanism with a small pin that might be difficult to move with fingers alone (I have very short fingernails). It would be a pain if there was a need to carry some tool or a toothpick to be able to change the aperture. I suppose focusing action on the lens would be manageable. The collapsible nature of the lens might also make it mechnically fiddly if there is some play (even if it was kept at extended position all the time).
Yesterday I saw interesting Gold & Silver copies of this lens in Yahoo Japan Auctions at the normal price (110K including tax) where the seller stated that they had been modified by the manufacturer (must have been done by Miyazaki-san himself) so that they were no longer collapsible and the pins for aperture mechanism had been made longer. I think the handling might be improved a bit on such modified versions.
My cameras are unmodified, so it was another question mark regarding how bad the lens would be on stock Sony A7C and on my Sigma fp. I haven't gone through the trouble of getting any modified sensor camera so far. And especially with wider angle lenses I do like to be able to get different types of shots, including some reasonably sharp corner-to-corner shots as well when stopping down to f5.6 or at most to f8. Sounds like this Apoqualia might not be very good match for me then. I'll probably drop the idea of getting one.
May 02, 2022 at 03:20 AM
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