Steinheil-V-Cassarit 3.5/50

[alex ph]

Got this small and light lens a mounted on an old enlarger. It is made of plastic but has a pretty construction (with small round window for the aperture values) and a triangular diaphragm. Surprisingly, the latter does not show off in the shots.

Taken with Nex, W/O and at 5.6, and with autocontrast applied.

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[jamaeolus]

I wondered about the Cassarits. I have heard conflicting reports on the IQ of these things. Thanks for posting these.

[martinsmith99]

It looks fairly good, but it also seems to flare quite easily.

[jamaeolus]

Flare, and contrast issues, typical of uncoated or poorly coated optics I think.

[alex ph]

Thank you, jamaeolus, I am glad it is of use and curiousity satisfaction. There are two or three reports on Cassarits here in the forum, though concerning the f2.8 variety, which is a dedicated photolens version.

Martinsmith99, your observation is quite correct, the lens is prone to flare and veiling, on Nex, without hood (which is worth a precision). Jamaeolus, you are perfectly correct too, the lens does not seem to have any coating. And after a closer inspection I notice a sligth haze on the central glass of my copy. As a result, the SOOC images look pretty washed out, but they are instantly and nicely corrected within a second with the autocontrast function.

Here is a couple of SOOC jpegs, corresponding to the shots showed previously

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I admit this does not happen to any lens. Some French lenses and some other German ones are not as easily improved using the autocontrast function. I wonder the reason why. One can say, it depends on the algorythm, and that must be the case. Meanwhile the algorythm should have control points of white and black (or something of the kind) to improve the whole range, doesn't it? In this case the lens' capacity to render correct basic colours as extreme reference points should be involved in the game. SOOC taken with some lenses seem to have a short DR, and even pushing hard exposure and contrast does not really change the balance. While some others, including this small triplet, let the image be instantly adjusted to a good visual consistency.

[simple.joy]

[alex ph]

Your work is always enjoyable for the eye, thanks to a great balance of shapes an colours. Did you reach this sparkling effect in the first two shots with a correctly put light and autocontrast, or you added a good bit of saturation in PP?

This time you also managed to get the most of the triangular aperture, congrats.

[simple.joy]

[alex ph]

And thank you for the detail of your work. You add PP features in a very gentle way, submitting tech tools to the idea. That makes the shots look really good and natural.