3 50(ish)mm Crops

[martinsmith99]

Now that I have moved to full frame I was eager to see how my lenses perform. I always rave about the sharpness of my S-M-C and it does ok on full frame but seems to have lost a bit of the WOW factor. The Helios does well and it's clear to see why it's a favourite. The Meritar is in 3rd place and is far from being the sharpest 50 in my collection, but it does surprisingly well considering and for those that aren't obsessed by sharpness it really does produce some good images (esp down 2 stops).

All shot wide open & 100% crop.

S-M-C Takumar 1.8/55



Helios 44-2 2/58



E.Ludwig Meritar 2.9/55

[estudleon]

HI

At the center the SMC is the winner clearly for me.

Good image the meritar !!

The helios all we know it's a very good one.

[woodrim]

When comparing the Tak to the Helios, wouldn't it make sense to shoot the Tak at f/2? Otherwise the Helios has an advantage.

[visualopsins]

Something I've noticed lately is my 5D1 acting a lot like slide film where colors have better saturation and images are sharper when underexposed a little. Histograms show no overexposure, yet when reviewing some images on a large monitor the highlights clearly look overexposed, and reducing exposure using PP doesn't recover any color detail, as if the histogram is clearly not showing overexposure when it should. I was beginning to think something had gone wrong with the camera until now I see the same thing happening here. Notice the 'glow' in the Tak photo above the spout? The spout highlights are overexposed a little.

I've also noticed variations in performance with my S-M-C Taks; some produce images with stunning colors, others are wanting. Notably, the Macro-Taks, the 2.5/135 (2nd version), the 1.8/85, and the 2.8/105 always seem to have much better colors than the 4.5/20 and 1.8/55, when the histogram is very wide.

I'm planning a more comprehensive examination to try and discover what's up, just wanted to comment here.

[ManualFocus-G]

Martin

Looks to me that the Tak and Meritar images are ever so slightly back focused (check the red cap), hence the colour tinge on the white text. I tried doing some close up comparisons a while back and found it incredibly difficult as the depth of field is tiny!

Glad you're enjoyung the 5D, it's fantastic for landscapes

[Poolhall]

Interesting -the Meritar is surprisingly good but for overall sharpness and definition I would go for the Helios, though as Rino says the Takumar is better in the centre- you pay your money and take you choice as they say

[Esox lucius]

Agree, Tak 55/1.8 is definitely back-focused, take a look at the cap of the lighter fluid bottle. Impossible to tell which is better when focus point is not comparable.

Vilhelm

[martinsmith99]

[martinsmith99]

The camera is not mounted on a tripod and I've repositioned each time I've taken a shot. This is the reason why the tin is on an angle so you can pick the sharpest point. These were taken indoors with a flash with diffuser attached so this may account for the glow.

[estudleon]

I find that it is not the first time that some shots are overexposed in the high lights. I do not know if it is due to the way in DSRL measure, but there is no option to measure spot? Should make it much easier.

Rino.

[visualopsins]

[estudleon]

I have used a pentax spot meter for years, and it´s difficult to find a way so secure to put each light in the wanted place.
In digital way, I don't know if this process is so slow. But it can be good too.

So much in the case that the DSRL is like the slide film, expose to the high lights and let the shadows fall somewhere, and the preexposure can be done too. It affects the shadows and almost nothing to the high lights.

Rino.