Sharpest M42 lens on center and corners for product photos

mikaxx · Joined: 02 Feb 2020 Posts: 4

Hello. I am looking for a very sharp M42 lens for product photos in Studio. So the lens should be sharp on corner and center on F5-8 . (sharp wide). I am looking for 50, 58 mm.
Can you suggest the best lens for this purpose? I use Canon 6D mark II fot photos in studio.

Gardener · Joined: 22 Sep 2013 Posts: 950 Location: USA

Any 50/55mm macro would do. Vivitar 55/2.8, Nikkor 55/2.8, Takumar 50/4, Zuiko 50/3.5 will all do a good job. That being said, I shoot product photos using a FF Canon quite a bit, and my go to lens is 100L. And If I needed to get closer I'd get a 24-70/4 L.

mikaxx · Joined: 02 Feb 2020 Posts: 4

hello What do you think about Takumar 55 f 1.8? I have a occasion to buy it.. Now i use Canon 24-105 L f.4 but I am not satisfied from photos. The sharpener is very low in the corner.. the small object are not so sharp..

I found biotar 58 . So which will be better ?

visualopsins · Expire: 2025-04-11

+1 macro lens suggestion, although I'd recommend the S-M-C Takumar 100/4 for greater working distance and flat-field.

Out of focus corners are sometimes caused by too narrow curved depth of field or focus error. Macro lenses have flat field of focus over whole frame, rather than curved, easier to focus accurately over whole frame for sharp corners.

blotafton · Joined: 08 Aug 2013 Posts: 1552 Location: Sweden

I agree with those above. Non macro lenses for closeups are not as good as a dedicated macro lens in my experience.
But for objects a bit further away than the macro range I like the look from my Pancolar 50mm f/1.8 and Planar 50mm f/1.4. The edges won't be perfect but they make the object stand out.

For macro lenses I really like my Pentax Macro Takumar 50mm f/4 1:1 version. And Rodenstock Rodagon 50mm f/2.8.

The Biotar 58mm f/2 is one of the worst choices for macro.