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Lenses really sharp wide open
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 10:52 am    Post subject: Lenses really sharp wide open Reply with quote

I'm just curious, which lenses are really sharp wide open. Maybe, I'll buy some in time, but it's all about money.
So, please, type here any of lenses you know or have personally experience that this are really sharp wide open. Many thanks.


PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 10:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tessar 40/4.5, Sonnar 135/3.5, S-M-C macro 50/4


PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 11:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

C/Y Sonnar 135mm f/2.8


PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 11:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

All macro lenses and all slow lenses Smile

Wow sharpness in my experience CZJ Biotar 75mm f1.5, Pancolar 80mm f1.8 Pentax 50mm f1.2 Olympus OM 135mm f2.8, MTO 500mm f6.3 ,
Flektogon 35mm f2.4 MC, Nikon 105mm f2.5 , Nikon 85mm f1.8 pre-AI black, Takumar 105mm f2.8, Tamron SP 300mm f5.6 , CZ Distagon 35mm f1.4, CZ Sonnar 85mm f2.8 , Minolta MD 100mm f2 etc


PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 11:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

no-X wrote:
Tessar 40/4.5, Sonnar 135/3.5, S-M-C macro 50/4

!!! 3.4 - 4 - 4.5 Shocked for me 2.8 is already stopped down Laughing


PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 11:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

well, I have never found any faster lens, which would provide per-pixel sharpness when used wide-opened... maybe good copy of Biometar 80/2.8 in center (C/Y Sonnar 85/2.8 and Rolleinar 85/2.8 still wait for testing)


PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 11:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

S-M-C Tak 135/2.5 V2 is fast and sharp Wink


PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 11:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Leitz lenses should generally be quite sharp from wide open. At least my 60mm 2.8 macro is..

/T


PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 12:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

no-X wrote:
well, I have never found any faster lens, which would provide per-pixel sharpness when used wide-opened... maybe good copy of Biometar 80/2.8 in center (C/Y Sonnar 85/2.8 and Rolleinar 85/2.8 still wait for testing)

we have to define what is per-pixel-sharpness
are those wide open 100% crop on 5DII not per-pixel-sharp
http://forum.mflenses.com/contax-501-4-wo-5dii-t28701.html
http://forum.mflenses.com/fanes-distagon-35-1-4-t29728.html


PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 12:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

just got a summitar 50/1.5 and my impression after a few shots is it's pretty darn sharp; as is zeiss planar 50/1.4 c/y...and both are plenty sharp 'stopped' down to faster than most of the others!


PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 12:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Contax Sonnar 3.5/100
Contax Planar 2/100 MM version
Contax Planar 2/135
Contax Vario-Sonnar 100-300
Contax Planar 1.2/85 (you don't want to consider this one...)
Leica Apo-Telyt-R 3.4/180
Leica Elmarit 2.8/90
Leica Elmarit 2.8/135
Zeiss Jena Sonnar 4/135
Zeiss Jena Tessar 4.5/40
Zeiss Jena Triotar 4/135
Zeiss Jena Biotar 1.5/75
and, if you are REALLY lucky, like I have been, also a good copy of old aluminium Jupiter-9 (but beware, 9 out of 10 you get an average or lemon copy).


Last edited by Orio on Wed Sep 22, 2010 3:15 am; edited 2 times in total


PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 12:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

poilu: here are some examples what I meant when speaking about per-pixel sharpness (all of them are in full resolution or 100% crops):



PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 1:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Contax 135/2.0 (excellent resolution but not as contrasty as when stopped down to 2.Cool

JJ


Last edited by jjphoto on Sun Mar 10, 2013 9:33 am; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 1:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

From my experience:
Sigma 70-200 EX II f2.8 (yes, a zoom!)
Schneider-Kreuznach 200mm f5.5
Canon nFD 50mm f1.2 (sharpest 1.2 i've ever owned)
Pentax-A 50mm f2.8 Macro
Pentax-M 100mm f4 Macro
Vivitar 100mm f2.8 Macro

I forgot:
Canon FD 15mm f2.8 is DAMN sharp, probably my sharpest lens ever.


PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 2:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

no-X wrote:
poilu: here are some examples what I meant when speaking about per-pixel sharpness (all of them are in full resolution or 100% crops):

you are not fair no-X Twisted Evil
you show me 100% crop of a SD14 1760x2640 (=4.5Mpix) and you want to compare to a 100% crop of the 22Mpix of a 5DII Laughing
I should resize my samples to 25% and come back Laughing


PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 2:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you very much, guys. Pretty much lenses to choice...


PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 3:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

poilu wrote:
no-X wrote:
poilu: here are some examples what I meant when speaking about per-pixel sharpness (all of them are in full resolution or 100% crops):

you are not fair no-X Twisted Evil
you show me 100% crop of a SD14 1760x2640 (=4.5Mpix) and you want to compare to a 100% crop of the 22Mpix of a 5DII Laughing
I should resize my samples to 25% and come back Laughing

If a lens doesn't provide per-pixel sharpness on 4.7MP sensor, how could it be per pixel sharp on 22MP sensor? That's what I want to say... Wink


PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 3:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

no-X wrote:
If a lens doesn't provide per-pixel sharpness on 4.7MP sensor, how could it be per pixel sharp on 22MP sensor? That's what I want to say...

that's sound logical but the 5DII is much sharper at pixel level than the 10MP 40D who have about the same pixel density
the 40D sensor filter is so strong that you have to apply sharpening to remove the softness where the 5DII pixel are perfect without sharpening
if a Zeiss 50:1.4 deliver 250 lp/mm at f/2, sensor have still a lot to do for per-pixel sharpness
The Sharpest SLR Lenses


PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 3:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

OK -- here's my list:

Canon FD 100 f2
Canon FD 85 f1.2
Canon FD 50 f1.2 - this one is sharper than both Contax Planar 1.4/50 and Distagon 1.4/35 wide open
Canon FD 80-200 L
Canon FD 100-300 L
Canon FD 300 f4 L
Canon FD 24 f2

Contax Distagon 2.8/21
Contax Tessar 2.8/45

CV APO-Lanthar 90 f3.5
CV Super-Wide Heliar 15 f4.5 ASPH. SL - this one is extremely sharp even wide open

tf


PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 4:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

poilu wrote:
no-X wrote:
If a lens doesn't provide per-pixel sharpness on 4.7MP sensor, how could it be per pixel sharp on 22MP sensor? That's what I want to say...

that's sound logical but the 5DII is much sharper at pixel level than the 10MP 40D who have about the same pixel density
the 40D sensor filter is so strong that you have to apply sharpening to remove the softness where the 5DII pixel are perfect without sharpening

That's true.

I think the problem is a bit more complex. Many people believe, that if a lens can "draw" as many lines as the sensor has, then a pixel level sharpness is achieved and better lens won't make the image better.

It's not easy to describe the problem, but... the lines, which are used to measure resolution, aren't many often perfect - here is a simulated example:



in all six cases the lines are there, but if we project it on a digital sensor of equivalent resolution, the result will be different - because in some cases there won't be black and white lines, but dark-grey / light-grey lines... and despite the resolution should be sufficient in theory, lens #3 will result in an image, which will appear softer than lens #1 or #6

All digital cameras with bayer sensor (and low-pass filter) applies some level of sharpening by default to compensate the loss of sharpness caused by debayering and LP filtering. Sharpening is in fact enhancing of edge-contrast, so it can improve the edge sharpness of the lens, too and make the difference subjectively smaller - here is the same picture with sharpening (2.5-pixel diameter) applied:



On the other hand Foveon cameras (because the image is captured 1:1 and no low-pass filter is present) applies only very low amount of sharpening. Despite theoretically lower resolution, there is often clearly visible difference between lenses, which should be able outresolve the sensor:

http://210.238.185.197/~maro/lens_test/50_14_s_vs_z_14.jpg


PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 9:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Orio wrote:
Contax Sonnar 3.5/100
Contax Planar 2/100 MM version
Contax Vario-Sonnar 100-300
Contax Planar 1.2/85 (you don't want to consider this one...)
Leica Apo-Telyt-R 3.4/180
Leica Elmarit 2.8/90
Leica Elmarit 2.8/135
Zeiss Jena Sonnar 4/135
Zeiss Jena Tessar 4.5/40
Zeiss Jena Triotar 4/135
Zeiss Jena Biotar 1.5/75
and, if you are REALLY lucky, like I have been, also a good copy of old aluminium Jupiter-9 (but beware, 9 out of 10 you get an average or lemon copy).


Fully agree and would add:

Apo Lanthar 3.5/90mm
Macro Apo Lanthar 2.5/125mm (amazing even fully open)

UV Nikkor 4.5/105mm (one of the sharpest lenses I ever had)
Ultra Achromatic Takumar 4.5/85mm
UV Planar 4/60mm (only 5 ever made, too bad)


PostPosted: Tue Sep 21, 2010 6:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm missing Leica APO-Macro-Elmarit 2.8/100 in this thread...


PostPosted: Tue Sep 21, 2010 6:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

And Contax G 45mm/2 Planar.


PostPosted: Tue Sep 21, 2010 8:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Orio wrote:
Contax Sonnar 3.5/100
Contax Planar 2/100 MM version
Contax Vario-Sonnar 100-300
Contax Planar 1.2/85 (you don't want to consider this one...)
Leica Apo-Telyt-R 3.4/180
Leica Elmarit 2.8/90
Leica Elmarit 2.8/135
Zeiss Jena Sonnar 4/135
Zeiss Jena Tessar 4.5/40
Zeiss Jena Triotar 4/135
Zeiss Jena Biotar 1.5/75
and, if you are REALLY lucky, like I have been, also a good copy of old aluminium Jupiter-9 (but beware, 9 out of 10 you get an average or lemon copy).


probably the sharpest is the Apo Telyt-R 3.4/180...
I will give all myself in order to have it!
Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy


PostPosted: Tue Sep 21, 2010 10:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The sharpest lens wide open in my collection is:
Canon FD 2,8/300 L converted to EOS

Very Happy