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Mamiya vs Canon vs Yashica short macro comparison
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 30, 2023 11:19 am    Post subject: Mamiya vs Canon vs Yashica short macro comparison Reply with quote

Infinity test:

comparison by devoscasper, on Flickr

Stephan already established that these 3 macro's are all really good in the macro range (see second page of this thread: http://forum.mflenses.com/4-short-macro-lenses-compared-surprising-results-t84178,start,25.html ).

At infinity however, the Yashica ML 55/2.8 macro seems to be the winner, with already very good corners wide open (if you ignore vignetting). At f/3.5 / f/4 the Canon shows soft corners. Center detail is very good, but slightly behind the Yashica and Mamiya. Corner detail level of the Mamiya is already very good, but not yet on the level of the Yashica ML.

@f/5.6, center performance of all three lenses is similar. Maybe the Canon has best center contrast. Corners of the Canon stay behind though. Corners of Yashica and Mamiya very good; the Yashica slightly better.

@ f/8 the Yashica and Mamiya are comparable. Corners of Canon still behind. Slightly better center contrast though. Same for f/11.

Conclusion: the Yashica is probably most suitable to use as a standard lens because it is faster and because of the excellent corners at all settings. The Mamiya can also be used for landscapes. Because the Canon seems to have best contrast in the center, this could be an advantage over the other lenses when used as a macro.


PostPosted: Mon Jan 30, 2023 1:02 pm    Post subject: Re: Mamiya vs Canon vs Yashica short macro comparison Reply with quote

Good test. Thanks for posting! Like 1


PostPosted: Mon Jan 30, 2023 2:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Canon FD Macro 50 mm f/3.5 (I've got the SSC version) seems to corrected for close-up images, the optical design dating back to the beginning of the 1970s. So it's not surprising that the borders and corners suffer on full frame digital. I've just been taking some quick snaps with my sample and my A7II which confirm your findings). BTW, near infinity, the Canon behaves in a very similar way to its Minolta cousin : if you're looking for sharp corners, you better use f/11.

In any case, thank you for your testing.


PostPosted: Sun Feb 05, 2023 8:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Alsatian2017 wrote:
The Canon FD Macro 50 mm f/3.5 (I've got the SSC version) seems to corrected for close-up images, the optical design dating back to the beginning of the 1970s. ... BTW, near infinity, the Canon behaves in a very similar way to its Minolta cousin : if you're looking for sharp corners, you better use f/11.

In any case, thank you for your testing.


Today I checked the Canon nFD 3.5/50mm plus a few other "normal macros" at infinity, among them also the Minolta MD-III 3.5/50mm. While wide open, it has similar corner issues as the Canon nFD 3.5/50mm, but is is much better than the Canon when stopped down to f8: Perfectly sharp corners (FF, 24MP) and no CAs at all. The Canon hardly improves when going from f4.5 to f8 (always talking about infinity performance; close range is a different story).

S