Seven different lenses compared at f/2.8

Mos6502 · Joined: 20 Jun 2011 Posts: 961 Location: Austin

More or less spontaneous boke' test. I chose f/2.8 because I wanted to see what sort effect each lens's aperture blades would have on the boke' - and interestingly despite the variety of formulas here probably the most noticeable difference between them all is the effect the blades have on OOF highlights.

With the exception of the Yashinons all of the lenses are Planar derivatives. The Yashinon 2.8 is a tessar clone, and the f/2 is an ultron type. The Vivitar and Petri Orikkor are both 7 element planar derivatives - although they are quite different from each other.

Despite these differences each lens renders remarkably similar to each other lens. The Yashinon f/2 give a slightly softer effect, and the Petri gives a bit more sparkle, but that is about all I can see. In terms of obtrusiveness of the effect of the aperture blades the Petri 1.8/55 seems to give the most prominent effect. All the other lenses you have to look more closely for it. The Yashinon 2.8 of course gives perfectly circular highlights as it is wide open - it also gives the lowest contrast of the bunch.

Of course when shot wide open the differences are magnified, and different environments may bring out more character.

calvin83 · Joined: 12 Apr 2009 Posts: 7554 Location: Hong Kong

I would like to know if you have keep the camera setting for all of the photos(AWB and shutter speed etc.). Have you do any PP to the photos?

Thanks,

Mos6502 · Joined: 20 Jun 2011 Posts: 961 Location: Austin

No PP other than resizing. The Xenon and Vivitar both required slightly shorter exposures than the other lenses. Perhaps a fault with the apertures, or perhaps just better light transmission. Otherwise all settings were the same for all photos.

JJB · Joined: 02 Oct 2014 Posts: 424 Location: USA

Thank you for sharing your results. The differences are very subtle but to my eye I found the Xenon, the Vivitar and the Orikkor to be ever so slightly crisper. They all seem to be great choices.

invisible · Joined: 06 Jun 2013 Posts: 343