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City walk - Contax G2, expired Ferraniacolor 200
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 1:11 am    Post subject: City walk - Contax G2, expired Ferraniacolor 200 Reply with quote
Expired Ferraniacolor 200 on Contax G2 and lenses (indicated above pictures)
Clicking on a picture may summon from the abyss an elusive enlargement to appear in a new window:

#1 Vegetables shop, formerly Imbriani now Singh - more and more small shops in Parma are bought by Chinese or Indians who come here with lots of cash
Biogon 21


#2
Biogon 21


#3
Biogon 21


#4
Biogon 21


#5
Sonnar 90


#6
Planar 35


#7
Biogon 21


#8
Biogon 21


#9
Biogon 21


#10
Biogon 21


#11
Biogon 21


#12
Biogon 21


#13
Biogon 21


#14
Biogon 21


PostPosted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 2:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
i'm really trying to ignore this entire system because my wallet cant handle it, but that becomes increasingly difficult when i see gorgeous results like this. amazing the 21 has virtually no discernible distortion!


PostPosted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 8:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Interesting shots as always Orio.......are you just playing with film or do you think you are getting something that you couldn't achieve with your digital cameras Question


PostPosted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 9:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
rbelyell wrote:
i'm really trying to ignore this entire system because my wallet cant handle it, but that becomes increasingly difficult when i see gorgeous results like this. amazing the 21 has virtually no discernible distortion!


The 2.8/21 is a great lens. In all honesty I can't say it's distortion free, because it shows a very slight barrel distortion, of the order of about 0,5% of the whole image
(a really low level for a superwide) which means that it's practically undetectable for most real use, unless one photographs a very regular building
with clear vertical references using the camera well aligned with bubble level.



The best qualities of the 2.8/21 are the absolute resolving power and contrast, which are remarkable already wide open, and the resolvance quality at the edges,
which is excellent and not far from the centre quality, a performance that would be very good even in a standard lens, but it's astounding in a superwide:



The only dawback of this lens, like in any Biogon-type non-retrofocal wides, is the light fall in the corners, which is an unavoidable consequence of the proximity of the exit pupil to the film plane.
But it's really not that intrusive, at least not in my experience. Actually, it might even be nice at full aperture, because usually you use such a lens wide open
when you want to photograph a close field subject, such as in photo #7 of this series, which was taken wide open.



I think that when you are mentioning the nearly distortion free feature, you are probably referring to the old 4.5/21 Biogon for Contax system.
That is really a lens which wrote the history of optics. Zeiss has re-issued it recently in the ZM line of lenses, calling it
C-Biogon 4.5/21 ZM where the C stands for both Compact and Classic.
The new ZM lens even improves the performance of the old pre-war Biogon bringing it to stellar levels.
This is the C-Biogon 4.5/21 ZM distortion graph:



As you can see, it's less than half the distortion of the G lens, and near to absent for real. Of course, the focal aperture of f/4.5
is the deciding factor there, because it's much more difficult to control distortion in a lens that is 1,5 stops faster and therefore requires larger glass.
And in fact, if you compare it with the distortion of the 2.8/21 Biogon ZM, this truth is much evident:



The distortion of the new ZM 2.8/21, shown above, is not only much worse of the ZM 4.35/21 version, but it visibly worsened also compared
to the G 2.8/21 predecessor, which stands as the clear winner in the f/2.8 arena.

Back to the C-Biogon 4.5/21 ZM, it also has a remarkable resolvance and contrast performance, although a tad behind the contrast performance
of the G Biogon 2.8/21, in spite of the 1,5 stops advantage:



The vignetting problem is the same as in the G lens (and in all other Biogon lenses):



I think that overall the G 2.8/21 is slightly prefereable over the ZM 4.5/21. The ZM 4.5/21 wins in the distortion department, but the G lens is not a slouch there either;
the G lens it's slightly ahead (but practically on same level) contrast wise, and the 1,5 stops advantage that it has over the 4.5/21 ZM can really be important
both in low light use and when photographing close subjects, to separate them better from the background.
The ZM 2.8/21 has the same speed of the G lens, and also the same resolvance quality, but lags behind visibly in the distortion department and therefore is less desireable.

Excalibur wrote:
Interesting shots as always Orio.......are you just playing with film or do you think you are getting something that you couldn't achieve with your digital cameras Question


Thanks Excalibur. I love using film and I think that film photos have a charme that digital photos still lack, although of course
digital is preferable when you need to have the best minute details.
But the mood of film remains unique.


PostPosted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 2:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
when i read a description like that i realize how little i know about the science of photography. thank you for the excellent explanation.


PostPosted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 5:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
rbelyell wrote:
when i read a description like that i realize how little i know about the science of photography. thank you for the excellent explanation.


Trust me, I probably know even less than you Wink I have only learned how to read MTFs, that's all.


PostPosted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 5:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Wonderful images, Orio.
I guess I remember some places...


PostPosted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 5:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I forgot to mention that these decent scans have been made with the help of the newton glass frames sold by Scanassist
www.scanassist.org
very good inexpensive tools and Mikolaj is a great seller to deal with.


PostPosted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 9:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Really nice series, Orio. Results are superb, expired film seems to be as good as the fresh one in your hands...
Thanks for sharing the pictures and the long and interesting explanation.

Regards.
Jes.


PostPosted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 3:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Good results Orio. Never tried that film. Do they still make it?


PostPosted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 3:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Jesito wrote:
Really nice series, Orio. Results are superb, expired film seems to be as good as the fresh one in your hands...
Thanks for sharing the pictures and the long and interesting explanation.
Regards.
Jes.


Thanks Jes. I did adjust colour balance in Photoshop. The original uncorrected photos have a slight green dominant. That may depend on the expired date, or may not.
I think they may not. I stored the film in refrigerator since I got it, and I got it when it was still fresh.
I think that the slight green cast depends on the coarse work and probably too stressed chemicals of the photo lab.
Nowadays less and less people have film rolls developed, so labs only do that twice a week, and they let the chemicals stay in the machines longer than ideal.

Yebisu wrote:
Good results Orio. Never tried that film. Do they still make it?


No Yebisu. Ferrania did stop production of film in 2009. The last batches available are still fresh, but they are not easy to find.
On Ebay you usually find only expired film. Expired film can be ok though, especially if you have some experience with colour editing in photoshop.
I would however not recommend expired film to people that are not experienced users of Photoshop. Colour correcting film scans may seem like a trivial task,
but in order to do it right and well, one must know what he's doing.


PostPosted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 3:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I like your walking series as always Wink I can confirm scan assist is a simple and great tool on affordable price.


PostPosted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 4:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thanks Orio. If I see some Ferrania film around, I'll definitely buy it and try it.


PostPosted: Sat Jun 05, 2021 10:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
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