Other samples of Vario-Sonnar 40-80

[Orio]

Here's some other samples from the Vario-Sonnar 40-80
They are actually the first samples that I shot with the lens - somehow they end up being the last published.
Since they are many, I put them on a web page instead of embedding here:

http://www.oriofoto.net/temp/vs4080web/album/index.html

I will post here some 100% crops that may be helpful in evaluating the lens.

[Laurence]

Gosh, it looks so clean and clear, Orio. You must be pleased with
this lens? I LOVE the 4th shot. Just beautiful.

[poilu]

nice series, great resolution
bokeh seems nice, is this a 8 blades like the 35-70

[F16SUNSHINE]

Looks great Orio.
I agree with Larry
#4 is a stand out image.
I like the organic feel this lens seems to give.
It has great air IMHO

[Orio]

[Orio]

[Orio]

[Orio]

Crops from picture #2

The microcontrast of the lens allows for acceptable readability in the shadows even with very strong light/dark extremes:



You can appreciate the microcontrast in the way the small twigs are rendered above the darkest parts of the trunk. The overall detail rendition is pleasing even if the lens it probably not resolving as a best prime would:



This street lamp is at the extreme right edge of the image, yet it is rendered with very good presence. Lenses with lower microcontrast would give of such things a muddy rendering. Instead the glass keeps the "presence" here. There is a little CA but I would say it's in the acceptable range:

[LucisPictor]

[Orio]

crop from picture #5:

IN this backlight shot the flare is a non-issue and does not harm at all the detail on the leaves:



crops from picture #13:

The following two crops show how the lens renders different focal planes in the same image. There is some yellow CA but in the acceptable range.
The transition between the different planes look very natural to me, giving the image an organic feel. The highlight blur is not offending:

[Orio]

crops from picture #21:

These 3 crops from picture 21 are meant to show the -in my opinion- very nice quality of the 40-80 wide open bokeh.

The first crop shows the focused element. The DOF is quite narrow but enough to show the leaf detail.
The geometric lines of the background acquire a very pleasant organicity and don't look harsh at all as it often happens with many modern day lenses.
Yet, it's structured - not an "amorphous fluff" as in some lenses with super soft bokeh. I like that too. I like to see structure in bokeh:



The second and third crop show a characteristic of this lens: wide open, the blurred parts take on a sort of "glow effect" similar to that of the wide open Volna-9 (to give a common reference example).
The result is a bokeh that in my opinion looks very painterly - something not really common with Contax lenses.
The rendering of the blurred parts is very pleasing and can take an aesthetical value of its own especially if printed large:

[Orio]

crop from picture #23:

We get another sample of the painterly bokeh from this crop of picture #23, also wide open:



crop from picture #24:

Again street lamps. I often use street lamps in lens tests because they are amongst the most difficult objects to render.
They often have high contrast with the background, while they sport detail that is very fine (the dust and dirt, the reflections) and very low contrast,
so it can easily escape the lenses that are not optically great performers.
In this sample, you see that you can read all details on the lamps, both the dirt streaks, and the very faint reflections.
There is a little blue CA too in the one of them which is not in perfect focus; again, it seems an acceptable amount:

[Orio]

crop from picture #24:

Metal and transparent glass reflections test, passed brilliantly I would say. You can read even small details, and the colour rendition is so faithful that it even renders colour differences in anisotropic reflections such as those of a metal car shell:



crops from picture # 30:

These two crops are meant to demonstrate performance at f/8.
As you can see from the first crop, at f/8 even small detail is rendered clearly and without optical artefacts. The second crop shows that you can have perfectly sharp in focus detail and very organic bokeh in the same photo at f/8.