In shooting the M with a Zeiss 25mm f2.8 and an Canon 50mm f1.4, I found that although I love the shots, I don't like missing a shot because the wrong lens is mounted.
So I decided to try a zoom on the M. Since it has live view and great focus peaking, the M can use many lenses. Not having had a Leitz lens to try it out with, I thought I'd try a Leica R zoom. The R lenses can be bargains, as their system is largely history, and they don't have the rangefinder focus coupling that most M mount cameras require.
After a bit of web searching, the lens of this thread's title came to the fore. Better zoom linearity than the 28-70mm, and from what I was reading sharper too. So after a bit of eBay hunting, a copy made its way here yesterday. Today I took it out to check it's character and sharpness.
Here are a few to evaluate sharpness.
Lens Check 1 by cbmn, on Flickr
Not bad for near-field sharpness. Focus is on his eye, a 100% crop shows things aren't too bad here at f3.5.
Lens Check 3 by cbmn, on Flickr
Mid-field focus on the memorial's text at f10 or such for decent DOF. Again not too bad.
Lens Check 2 by cbmn, on Flickr
Mid-field focus on the memorial's text at f3.5. Not as crisp as I'd like, but not bad.
Lens Check 4 by cbmn, on Flickr
Near-field focus on the foot's front left at f3.5. Again not bad.
So how is it in use? Here are two I'd normally take while trying for the best shots I can do:
Using the 35-70mm 1 by cbmn, on Flickr
This was at f10 or so, didn't want to push further and risk diffraction. Focused for best focus overall, allowing for a bit of fall-off near field and again far-field. A bit processing as I'd normally do in post - hopefully nothing over-the-top, but to help with impact: small amount of sharpening, a bit of contrast work, cut back on overall resulting color for some semblance of realism.
Using the 35-70mm 2 by cbmn, on Flickr
Same shooting as above, again about f10 or so. Same approach and goals for post.
So, what do I think? It's not bad. But it's not up to the 28-70mm equivalent lens on the X-Vario for wide or for sharpness. Look at a few 100% crops of the above pics. Would I rate this as one that has that special something? No, can't touch the Canon f1.4 for a great character. Can't touch the zeiss 25mm for sharpness or contrast.
So probably a bust, but maybe I'm expecting too much.
What do you think?
So I decided to try a zoom on the M. Since it has live view and great focus peaking, the M can use many lenses. Not having had a Leitz lens to try it out with, I thought I'd try a Leica R zoom. The R lenses can be bargains, as their system is largely history, and they don't have the rangefinder focus coupling that most M mount cameras require.
After a bit of web searching, the lens of this thread's title came to the fore. Better zoom linearity than the 28-70mm, and from what I was reading sharper too. So after a bit of eBay hunting, a copy made its way here yesterday. Today I took it out to check it's character and sharpness.
Here are a few to evaluate sharpness.
Not bad for near-field sharpness. Focus is on his eye, a 100% crop shows things aren't too bad here at f3.5.
Mid-field focus on the memorial's text at f10 or such for decent DOF. Again not too bad.
Mid-field focus on the memorial's text at f3.5. Not as crisp as I'd like, but not bad.
Near-field focus on the foot's front left at f3.5. Again not bad.
So how is it in use? Here are two I'd normally take while trying for the best shots I can do:
This was at f10 or so, didn't want to push further and risk diffraction. Focused for best focus overall, allowing for a bit of fall-off near field and again far-field. A bit processing as I'd normally do in post - hopefully nothing over-the-top, but to help with impact: small amount of sharpening, a bit of contrast work, cut back on overall resulting color for some semblance of realism.
Same shooting as above, again about f10 or so. Same approach and goals for post.
So, what do I think? It's not bad. But it's not up to the 28-70mm equivalent lens on the X-Vario for wide or for sharpness. Look at a few 100% crops of the above pics. Would I rate this as one that has that special something? No, can't touch the Canon f1.4 for a great character. Can't touch the zeiss 25mm for sharpness or contrast.
So probably a bust, but maybe I'm expecting too much.
What do you think?