What are your thoughts on this wide angle lens lens?

[calvin83]

This is a wide angle lens made for full frame camera with with the following spec:

Focal length: 28mm to 35mm (inclusive)
Aperture: F2.0 to F2.5 (inclusive)
MFD: 30cm to 40cm (inclusive)

This is an interesting lens with some characters I have never seen. I got some interesting comments from one of my friends after I sent him the sample photos.

All the photos are taken with Sony A7RII. The images are sized to 50% of the original with the default Adobe Lightroom settings. It is best to download the photos and view it at 100%.

Any comments would be appreciated!

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#7


#8

[alex_d]

my initial findings looking at your pictures;

for my taste i dont find it very special.

i do have a feeling as some images are in a slight movement so it does resent the typical action of an old skool street photogaphy.
could be the lens also rendering like that.
so this could be seen as a special character and be used for that purpose

it's clear to me that images are made with digital camera and a 'less quality lens'.

it looks somewhat soft, but with the details = soft & soft micro contrast?

strange to me is that direct light source picture. very much without flare and minimal ghosting. modern or old ..?

with a different white-balance setup or a bit of PP could mimic analogue photography.
could also look good in black-white with added noise / grain, .. maybe.

something reminds me on pentacon 29, checked other images .. no its not.
you have mentioned few days back, your lens collection from between '30-'60, uncoated.
In that case i cant comment much

to close it down, im not sure if i like it.
it has some potential but then i should use it my self to try it out and be sure bout that.

[caspert79]

Cosina?

[D1N0]

I'd guess it is closer to 35 than 28mm. A bit bloomy in the night shots, can't really tell if it is decentered or not in these pics

[calvin83]

This lens is coated. All the photo are taken at wide open or slightly stop down. Here is one more photo focused at about 2 to 3 meter.



@alex_d
You have a pair of well-trained eyes on identifying MFlenses. If you have time to visit Hong Kong, make sure you send me a pm.

@caspert79
I don't think it is made by Cosina.

@D1N0
Yes. It is more close to 35mm.

I don't think the lens is decentered. Check out the extra photo below. The photo is deliberately overexposed to keep the shadows visible.

[alex_d]

second thoughts

well controlled flare & ghosting so that's mostly for modern lenses.

also the texture (render) of the image is more modern-ish than vintage-ish.
OOF is very smooth and with clear boheh balls.
from what i have seen, if is some of those '30-'60 lenses, OOF would be different, much more bussy.
There are some pics here of DKL lenses and i take that as a reference for this case.

could it be some samyang-ish or a modern better chinese-ish

however, this 'movement' what i wrote about and d1no mentioned as decentred - for me it's the character that it makes confusing here.

but also on the last pic, purple ca is to me very characteristic type for a modern lens.
it's an interessting quiz. you did it before me as i was planning something but still no time.

one more take on a vintage-ish, a decentred lydith 30?

thanx for the invitation to HK!

[stevemark]

My first thought was that these snapshots are far too "wild" and chaotic to show the potential of any lens (unless it would be a "perfect" lens such as th Zeiss Otus 1.4/28mm). The images have an extreme contrast, they probably were shot with high ISO, there's movement, and the colors don't look nice (NOT a fault of the lens - I am simply talking about the crude artificial light). All this makes it dfficult for me to clearly see the advantages and disadvantages of this particular lens.

Two aspects are obvious:

1) very little ghosting => excellent coating and/or very well caclulated lens surfaces are reducing flare to a really low amount => really good contrast
2) general correction of the lens is "not excellent" ("average") - probably comparable to other well known 2/35mm vintage lenses (difficult to judge for me since I never use vintage lenses wide open when shooting comparable images)

That said, I would use this lens in a different way:
1) stopping down to reduce the evident aberrations when shooting night time cityscapes
2) using it wide open either in b/w mode (=> "glow") or e. g. for low contrast sceneries such as portraits

I assume a modern construction which deliberately was adjusted for "character".

S

[calvin83]

[D1N0]

Maybe the Iberit 35mm F2.4

[calvin83]

[eggplant]

An interesting one, I am not sure..

[alex_d]

im not sure i understood that the spec charater is/was adjusted,
by the factory or after the purchase ?

i cant comment further as i dont have any of such lenses on my own, i quess im the weekest link ..

[D1N0]

I found it reacts pretty well to monochrome, it gets rid of all the distracting colour in those city scapes

[calvin83]

[alex_d]

yes BW is a diff story, as i wondered previously

im gonna high-jack this post for a moment as i see now that there is some knowledge here,

what is that, that makes modern samyang and some of better Chinese lenses having (for me at least) a recognisable texture of images?

i would say it's a specific kind of glass or is way/material of coating glass? i dont see an other option as an optical formula is different for each of them.

any takes on this for a moment ?



and, silly me, didnt noticed or havent read good this "Aperture: F2.0 to F2.5 (inclusive) "

[RokkorDoctor]

The behaviour of the bokeh balls along the edges and in the corners of photo #8 seems unusual.

The oval shape of the bokeh balls sets in relatively close to the centre of the image, and they never go clearly cat-eye-shaped towards the edges/corners of the frame.

This seems to suggest that vignetting is not caused by intrusion of the edge of the rear element, which suggests a rather large rear element, yet not an image-telecentric design.

Also, to my eyes little distortion for a fast wide-angle.

More symmetrical non-retrofocus design with relatively large rear element maybe?

[Crazy Leica Fox]

Is that extreme coma along the right side in #3, or is it the actual shape of the lights? It appears your model in #6 didn't approve of your lens choice.

Is the glass hazy, scratched, fungused, or damaged in any way?

[Gatorengineer64]

Calvin

You take excellent pics and have some excellent gear. This lens isnt one of them. A distinct lack of sharpness and contrast imho. I would guess a no name 28.

Thanks for the fun.

[Ultrapix]

While I understand the desire for unbiased opinions, I think it is time to unravel the mystery? I like the rendering in any case, if it is a bright lens at maximum aperture

My bet: Cooke SP3 32mm 2.4

[stevemark]

[calvin83]

I am sorry that I can't disclose the name of the lens right now as I promised the owner not to do so. I do take few more photos with stopping down the aperture before returning this lens to the owner today. I will post it shortly after I finish my dinner.

[blotafton]

While these test shots are limited for my way of judging I must say it looks quite nice in its rendering.

It's funny that Ultrapix said Speed Panchro, I was thinking the same but it could be a similar cine lens.

[calvin83]

[visualopsins]

Is this a prototype?

[calvin83]