5d Mark III - Canon 40mm Pancake - LA7200

[cipetrick]

Just purchased a Panasonic LA7200 and tested it out on the Canon 40mm pancake lens with the 5d Mark III. Results were decent, but looking for something a little more sharp. Any lens suggestions for this set up?

[QuickHitRecord]

Put some diopters in front of your LA7200 (+1 or less are the most useful). You will be much happier with the result.

[richg101]

is the centre of the image significantly better than the edges? just how soft is it? is there much CA at the edges?

[Caleb Genheimer]

the general consensus on the la7200 is that it needs diopters to be sharp. stopping down can improve things a bit, but diopters do the best if you get good ones.

[itimjim]

Stop down.

Here's a table from a recent test I did with the LA7200 on a Tokina 28-80/2.8 on a GH2.

Tokina 28-80 0.6m 1.2m 1.8m 3m
28 f11 (+1D) f4 (+0.4D) f4 f2.8
35 f11 (+1D)* f4 (+0.4D)* f5.6 f2.8*
50 f16 (+1D) f5.6 (+0.4D) f5.6 (+0.4D) f4
80 f22 (+1D)* f8 (+0.4D)* f8 (+0.4D) f5.6

Basically I rated at what stop it was usable at different focal lengths and subject distances. I used a diopter if it improved the image (Tokina 0.4 Achromat, Cokin P101 +1). If it's marked with a *, then it means it was borderline and stopping down further should be considered depending on the subject.

I also did the same with the kit lens 14-42/3.5-5.6.

Panasonic 14-42 0.6m 1.2m 1.8m 3m
14 f5.0 f3.5 f3.5 f3.5
18 f8.0 f4.1 f4.1 f4.1
25 f11 f5.6 f4.6 f4.6
35 f8 (+1D) f5.3 (+0.4D) f5.3 f5.3
42 f8 (+1D) f5.3 (+0.4D) f5.3 f5.3

The LA7200 is a much better match for the kit lens. I also managed to fit a Heliopan +0.25 before the LA7200 which helps the edges quite a bit. More so on the 14/2.5.

In a nutshell, the LA7200 is really limited in use. It suits slow kit lenses quite well as they shoot in the focal and aperture range that it best works with. I would steer clear of using it with fast primes though. In fact it does have a softening effect, so it can be too much for vintage primes/zooms, but great with tack sharp modern coating kit lenses.

[andy lee]

I use a Schneider its stunningly sharp! Superb Modern German industrial quality glass designed to project 35mm Hollywood films in
multiplexes they are over $5000 new .

It's Canon L series type sharpness
[img]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e307/blackmore1/IMG_0011.jpg[/img]

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