Lenses

[PannySVHS]

On 7/19/2020 at 12:30 AM, mercer said:

I bought a mint copy that came with the original box and the lens hood, which is supposedly rare? When I noticed I could double my money, I ended up selling it... not because I didn't like the lens, I just got what I needed from it and threw out a Buy it Now price that actually ended up tripling my money.

Glenn, would have loved you giving the plastic fantastic approach more time. I finally bought the FD 35-70 f4. Should arrive soon. Interested to see how it holds up against the Soligor 35-70 2.5-3.5. Latter one has one bad trick up its sleeve. When you put aperture on 3.5 it will still switch to a lower one on the long end, making it 5.6. Starting with 2.5 of course will switch it to 3.5 at 70mm of course. Still, that vari aperture is a bit of a pain for fast zooms

[Dustin]

Not sure if this is the right place to rant- has anyone had any experience with the Samyang 12mm 2.8? I purchased a few months back wanting a nice wide lens for my Sony a6500 but can’t seem to get results I like. The corners are super soft even at f8 and the image in general lacks so much contrast it makes the a6500 look like a cell phone camera. I’m exaggerating of course but this lens is just not at all what I was expecting. Unfortunately I’m passed my BH return window so may have to cut my losses on eBay. May just try to flip and at least use funds towards something like the Sony 10-18 f4...

[thebrothersthre3]

Not sure about the 12mm 2.8 but the 12mm f2 is really really nice. 

[Dustin]

24 minutes ago, thebrothersthre3 said:

Not sure about the 12mm 2.8 but the 12mm f2 is really really nice. 

Sorry I think that’s what I meant. Must just be my copy. Just not feeling this lens at all. 

[thebrothersthre3]

1 minute ago, Dustin said:

Sorry I think that’s what I meant. Must just be my copy. Just not feeling this lens at all. 

Samyang does make a f2.8 and f2 12mm which are both completely different lenses. 

[Dustin]

On 7/23/2020 at 11:40 AM, thebrothersthre3 said:

Samyang does make a f2.8 and f2 12mm which are both completely different lenses. 

So I did check and my copy is the f2 after all. I had been at work when I was messaging here. Maybe I just need a little more time but I’ve yet to get results that I absolutely love.

[kye]

Just did this Cosmicar 12.5mm C-Mount lens test for a friend and thought I'd share.

GH5 shooting C4K in 400Mbps Cosmicar 12.5mm F1.9 shot mostly wide open Cine-D with Noam Kroll settings Contrast 0 Sat -5 NR -5 Sat -5 Hue 0, no processing in post except zoom.

This combo is seems like a winner!

[PannySVHS]

9 hours ago, kye said:

This combo is seems like a winner!

You might wanna try the Fujinon 12.5mm 1.4. That beauty covers S16 mode of the GH5, which the 1.4x crop is. It almost covers 4K area of the GX85. Just sayin, because I see a bit of vignetting in the S16 mode. I bought that lens after Glenns recommendation. @mercer

[kye]

3 hours ago, PannySVHS said:

You might wanna try the Fujinon 12.5mm 1.4. That beauty covers S16 mode of the GH5, which the 1.4x crop is. It almost covers 4K area of the GX85. Just sayin, because I see a bit of vignetting in the S16 mode. I bought that lens after Glenns recommendation. @mercer

It ended up that I couldn't shoot in the ETC mode for some reason - it was disabled so not sure what that was about.  Anyway, I just zoomed in post, which is pretty easy to do.  I'd zoom in a bit more, or just adjust vignette in post.

I should do more tests to see how much it sharpens up when stopped down.  The Voigts are like that, two lenses for the price of one basically 🙂 

[kye]

Speaking of Voigtlander, I'm (finally) editing the trip we took to India in late 2018 and pulled out a few hero shots and did a basic grade to get a feel for the project and to get some inspiration.

That was the first trip I took with the GH5 and Voigtlander 17.5mm and one of the concerns that I had was low light performance as the GH5 isn't known for it, but it wasn't until I got back to the hotel and looked at this footage that I realised how good the combination really is.

Here's a sample grab of the tour guide when we went to Varanasi to watch the nightly religious celebrations and see the cremations on the shore.

No idea if it was wide-open or not, but this is a basic grade, some NR, and some film grain over the top, no sharpening applied, and it's even got a small negative amount of mid-tone detail.  GH5 was in 150Mbps 4K IPB and HLG.  I can't recommend these lenses enough.

[kye]

I should also add that in the above shot we were about 50m from the shore and there was no lighting in the boat - only those spotlights you can see up and down the banks of the river.

[Dustin]

On 7/24/2020 at 2:01 PM, Dustin said:

So I did check and my copy is the f2 after all. I had been at work when I was messaging here. Maybe I just need a little more time but I’ve yet to get results that I absolutely love.

Wound up listing this lens for sale on the bay. Just not in love with it. Really not sure what direction I want to go right now. Thoughts include:

-Picking up a sigma 16mm 1.4 (leading contender)

Also have considered over the last year, selling my entire a6500 kit (several batteries, 35mm 1.8) for approx $900 give or take a $100 and investing in a new system. I’ve considered picking up a GH5, GH5s, XT3. 10bit is very attractive, I’m pretty much done with shooting SLog2, I’ve been experimenting with it the last few minutes months but honestly it takes the fun out of shooting for me. As a casual shooter with limited free time I don’t mind some light grading but just not a great colorist. Love my eoshd pro color profiles I usually use. Will stop this rant here because I’m derailing the thread but you get the picture.

[kye]

@Dustin start a new thread...  no one around here is short of an opinion and we do love to spend other people's money!! 🙂 

[Video Hummus]

An excellent look at the Voigtlander 60mm.

Some day I would like to collect them all!

[JordanWright]

Wow what a lens... and what a review. Thats some quality content right there. If I was still shooting M43, the voigts would be very tempting!

[PannySVHS]

@Video Hummus I feel you. That 60mm looks like the best resolving of the bunch. Holy, what quality at 0.95! Makes me want to give my 90mm f2.5 Vivitar 1 the time it deserves. I second Jordans post, what a review that was. I watched it without sound. Fantastic! Thanks for posting!

[kye]

On 8/9/2020 at 5:52 AM, Video Hummus said:

An excellent look at the Voigtlander 60mm.

Some day I would like to collect them all!

Great review - thanks for sharing.

I have the 17.5mm and 42.5mm from the series and watching that review did not make me feel badly about the ones I have, because his comments remind me of how I feel about mine.

My only criticisms of the Voigt MFT range is that (according to lens rentals) they're not made to be disassembled / serviced, so in that sense they're kind of 'disposable' if something happens to them.  Having said that they're built like tanks and you'd really have to try to damage them to the point when you'd be facing that situation.

My other criticism of the range is that it lacks a ~16mm equivalent, with the widest one being the 10.5mm which is equivalent to a 21mm, and it's not wide enough for my purposes (mainly architecture).

Beyond that, they're just glorious.

I'll also mention that in combination with the GH5 (and it's lacklustre low-light performance) these lenses are really a game changer.  I've been on location and with the camera in auto-SS auto-ISO modes I've pulled up the camera to my face to be greeted with a composition in grey dull tones with gritty ISO noise.  Remembering to open up the aperture I've then spun the aperture ring and watched as before my eyes the noise disappears and then in the last 2-3 stops as I went from 2.8 down to 0.95, the image colours appear and the image gets that smooth polished look with pure clean colours.  

The above is a true story and happened while I was shooting in available light at night in Japan, where this was one of the shots I took in the same location (taken on the 17.5mm 0.95):

It's ungraded, I think I only added some contrast/sat.  The GH5 really really benefits from those extra 3 stops compared to much slower lenses like the "professional" 12-35mm f2.8.

On 8/9/2020 at 8:11 AM, JordanWright said:

Wow what a lens... and what a review. Thats some quality content right there. If I was still shooting M43, the voigts would be very tempting!

With all the new cameras and discussion of prores and shooting raw I've been looking at lenses for S35 and FF and I actually find that there aren't so many great options available.  I would imagine there are and it's just my lack of familiarity, but with my experience of owning and using the Voigt and with my comparative lack of knowledge of S35 and FF lenses, MFT actually seems like the mount with the best options.

8 hours ago, PannySVHS said:

@Video Hummus I feel you. That 60mm looks like the best resolving of the bunch. Holy, what quality at 0.95! Makes me want to give my 90mm f2.5 Vivitar 1 the time it deserves. I second Jordans post, what a review that was. I watched it without sound. Fantastic! Thanks for posting!

You missed out by watching it without sound - he really hit the swells and peaks with the soundtrack!  Great stuff.

[PannySVHS]

3 hours ago, kye said:

You missed out by watching it without sound - he really hit the swells and peaks with the soundtrack!  Great stuff.

I will rewatch it with the swells and peaks.:) Seriously, what an awesome review was that! Even without sound. 🙂

[noone]

14 hours ago, kye said:

 

 

With all the new cameras and discussion of prores and shooting raw I've been looking at lenses for S35 and FF and I actually find that there aren't so many great options available.  I would imagine there are and it's just my lack of familiarity, but with my experience of owning and using the Voigt and with my comparative lack of knowledge of S35 and FF lenses, MFT actually seems like the mount with the best options.

You missed out by watching it without sound - he really hit the swells and peaks with the soundtrack!  Great stuff.

Yeah that is a very nice review of a good lens.

There are plenty of options for FF though.     Deleted the rest of my post as i do not want to start an equivalence type war here.

[PannySVHS]

57 minutes ago, noone said:

Yeah that is a very nice review of a good lens.

There are plenty of options for FF though.     Deleted the rest of my post as i do not want to start an equivalence type war here.

Right! For FF the Walimex 135mm F2.0 sounds right for rather little money. Not up for battle though:) Such a kewl review for that beautiful Voigtlaender. Doubt the Samyang has a review going like that. Vintage lovers, beware of the vintage Porst 135mm 1.8. The people on a German gentleman forum put out a warning for it due to its lack of quality. They call it a doorstopper for a reason.