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Three-way 35mm M42 lens shootout
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PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2011 4:37 pm    Post subject: Three-way 35mm M42 lens shootout Reply with quote
Hi folks

I decided to compare my three M42 35mm lenses.

Meyer Primagon 4.5/35
Rolmax 3.5/35
Unistar 3.5/35

Horrid weather with no sun again today so I just took some shots at infinity down my street.

This first set is wide open so f4.5 for the Primagon, f3.5 for the other two:
Primagon:



Rolmax:



Unistar:



PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2011 4:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Second set at f8:

Primagon:



Rolmax:



Unistar:



PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2011 4:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Third set at f22:

Primagon:



Rolmax:



Unistar:

[url=http://forum.mflenses.com/userpix/20115/big_4077_UnistarC_1.jpg]
[/url]


PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2011 4:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I used the same shutter speed for all 9 shots. This meant the Primagon at f22 was very underexposed. The Unistar was overexposed at all three apertures and needed the brightness turned down in Photoshop, apart from those adjustments, the pics are as they came out of my EOS 10D.


PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2011 5:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Even though it's the slowest of the three, Primagon all the way, man.

I focused my attention on the aerials atop the buildings. In every set, the Primagon outperformed the other two, sometimes by a lot. This indicates the ability to maintain detail even under rather difficultly lit situations.

The Rolmax did pretty well in the tests, but I think the Unistar would serve you better as a paperweight.


PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2011 5:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Why did you use the same shutter speed at different apertures? That doesn't help the comparison at all. Either way, the Unistar looks terrible!


PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2011 5:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Unistar seems to have misaligned element. Right corner is very soft but left is OK.


PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2011 6:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I like the Primagon too - nice detail.

Is that a Welsh street...?

Smile


PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2011 6:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Now the next stage is to compare with a super Tak 35mm f3.5 Wink


PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2011 6:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
cooltouch wrote:
Even though it's the slowest of the three, Primagon all the way, man.

I focused my attention on the aerials atop the buildings. In every set, the Primagon outperformed the other two, sometimes by a lot. This indicates the ability to maintain detail even under rather difficultly lit situations.

The Rolmax did pretty well in the tests, but I think the Unistar would serve you better as a paperweight.


Yeah man, I really like the Primagon too, it's pretty sharp wide open even, definitely think this is my choice of 'walking around' lens now.

I agree the Rolmax did pretty well, not a bad lens imho.

I also agree the Unistar isn't much good at all, but it only cost me 4ukp and has a nice t mount to M42 converter on it I can use. My Aritar 3.5/35mm is worse than the Unistar so I have a fair collection of paperweights now!

ManualFocus-G wrote:
Why did you use the same shutter speed at different apertures? That doesn't help the comparison at all. Either way, the Unistar looks terrible!


Simple, I was in a hurry to avoid th rain so forgot! It was blowing a gale and the wind is always cold here.

Pancolart wrote:
Unistar seems to have misaligned element. Right corner is very soft but left is OK.


I noticed that too.

OM wrote:
I like the Primagon too - nice detail.

Is that a Welsh street...?

Smile


Cumbria mate, English all the way. Plenty of hills and sheep here too though...


PostPosted: Thu May 19, 2011 1:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
cooltouch wrote:
Even though it's the slowest of the three, Primagon all the way, man.

I focused my attention on the aerials atop the buildings. In every set, the Primagon outperformed the other two, sometimes by a lot. This indicates the ability to maintain detail even under rather difficultly lit situations.

The Rolmax did pretty well in the tests, but I think the Unistar would serve you better as a paperweight.


+1


PostPosted: Thu May 19, 2011 1:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I'll take the Primagon and Rolmax out tomorrow and shoot some more comparisons, the Unistar I'll leave at home, clearly it's got issues, that misplaced element or whatever it is that has caused the lack of sharpness on the right hand side of the frame makes it junk. Also, it doesn't have saturated colours, good contrast and overexposes so all in all, a paperweight...

The T-M42 mount off it will come in handy though and I might end up using the helicoid and aperture for some DIY project in the future.


PostPosted: Thu May 19, 2011 3:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Well, after eliminating the Unistar in round 1, I managed to snap a second set of comparison shots with the Primagon and Rolmax today.

Not much sunshine so I chose a relatively colourless scene with many brown/gray tones to really challenge the contrast abilities of the two lenses.

All of the pics are exactly as they came out of the cam, no adjustment at all apart from resizing to 1500x100 in photoshop.

Here is the first pair of shots, both wide open:

Primagon, f4.5:



Rolmax, f3.5:



Second set, both at f8:

Primagon:



Rolmax:



Third set, both at f22:

Primagon:



Rolmax:



To my eyes, the Primagon handles the low contrast backlit scene pretty well, whereas the Rolmax struggles and lack contrast.

The Primagon is sharp at 4.5 but really sharp at f8, f22 seems little (if any) better than f8 to me.

The Rolmax isn't sharp at 3.5 but looks quite sharp at f8, f22 is sharpest I think.

Primagon definitely wins on all counts for me, colours are more saturated, more contrast, sharper, sharp wide open, nice lens. Rolmax doesn't fare well in this test for me.


PostPosted: Thu May 19, 2011 3:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I agree pretty much with your assessments.

It is not unusual at all for a lens's sharpness to start falling off by f/22.

I still consider the Primagon to be the best all-round performer.

It's true that the Rolmax is very close between f/8 and f/22. Hard to tell the difference. But if you compare that horizontal aerial on the center chimney in both views, at f/8 there's clearly more detail.


PostPosted: Thu May 19, 2011 3:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Some flower shots with the Primagon at f4.5, trying to test the Bokeh, but the dof of a wide angle like this means I need to chose subjects more isolated from the background to get oof areas...

Sharp and good colours though.



100% crop:





100% crop:



PostPosted: Fri May 20, 2011 11:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
The sun finally put in a brief appearance at 4pm today so I ran out and shot some pics with the Primagon, all wide open at f4.5.

It's very sharp and contrasty imho with vivid colours, glares a bit pointed at the sun though...







100% crop














100% crop:







100% crop:





PostPosted: Fri May 20, 2011 11:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
cooltouch wrote:
I agree pretty much with your assessments.

It is not unusual at all for a lens's sharpness to start falling off by f/22.

I still consider the Primagon to be the best all-round performer.

It's true that the Rolmax is very close between f/8 and f/22. Hard to tell the difference. But if you compare that horizontal aerial on the center chimney in both views, at f/8 there's clearly more detail.


Cheers for the feedback man, I'm really liking the Primagon, the Unistar is junk and the Rolmax is not great.

So I've gone and bought yet another two 35mm lenses, two that I hope will give the Primagon for a run:

Mir-1 Automat 2.8/37mm
Petri CC Auto 2.8/28

The Mir should be really good stopped down judging bu other people's copies and the Petri I hope is as good as the superb 55mm Petri of the same series I already have.


PostPosted: Sat May 21, 2011 10:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Is that Millom ?


PostPosted: Sat May 21, 2011 11:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
It is indeed, are you familiar with the wee place?


PostPosted: Sat May 21, 2011 11:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Yes, went there a few years ago on one of our regular trips to the Lakes. I like the west coast area.


PostPosted: Sun May 22, 2011 12:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
If you're in town again look me up!

What do you think of the Primagon BTW?

I need a 35mm lens as a 'walking around' lens as it equates to a 'normal' length on my 10D.

Apart from the flare I'm liking it, has the same vintage look as my 2.8/28 and 4/200 Pentacons.

Now to get a Lydith...


PostPosted: Sun May 22, 2011 4:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Yes, the Primagon is the best of these, with better detail almost everywhere. We can expect it to be best wide-open because its aperture is tighter than the others. We can expect it to be better at f/22 because that is closer to its "sweet spot". I should use mine more. [Exakta mount, fitted to a PK camera, the adapter ground down for infinity focus.]

Yes, a shoot-out between Primagon 35/4.5 and SMC Takumar 35/3.5 and any other slow 35's that may appear. I would expect the results to be 1) Takumar 2) Primagon 3) whatever. But who knows, ?quien sabe?


PostPosted: Sun May 22, 2011 7:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
RioRico wrote:
Yes, the Primagon is the best of these, with better detail almost everywhere. We can expect it to be best wide-open because its aperture is tighter than the others. We can expect it to be better at f/22 because that is closer to its "sweet spot". I should use mine more. [Exakta mount, fitted to a PK camera, the adapter ground down for infinity focus.]

Yes, a shoot-out between Primagon 35/4.5 and SMC Takumar 35/3.5 and any other slow 35's that may appear. I would expect the results to be 1) Takumar 2) Primagon 3) whatever. But who knows, ?quien sabe?


+1 for the Tak, also with the Tak if Ian could use a Canon FD 35mm f.2.8 or Hexanon 40mm f1.8 (not expensive lenses), it would be a very good standard to compare other 35mm lenses.


PostPosted: Sun May 22, 2011 8:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Excalibur wrote:
RioRico wrote:
Yes, the Primagon is the best of these, with better detail almost everywhere. We can expect it to be best wide-open because its aperture is tighter than the others. We can expect it to be better at f/22 because that is closer to its "sweet spot". I should use mine more. [Exakta mount, fitted to a PK camera, the adapter ground down for infinity focus.]

Yes, a shoot-out between Primagon 35/4.5 and SMC Takumar 35/3.5 and any other slow 35's that may appear. I would expect the results to be 1) Takumar 2) Primagon 3) whatever. But who knows, ?quien sabe?


+1 for the Tak, also with the Tak if Ian could use a Canon FD 35mm f.2.8 or Hexanon 40mm f1.8 (not expensive lenses), it would be a very good standard to compare other 35mm lenses.


I know that Tak quite well from my art college days, very sharp and technically great images but I always found it to have a 'cold' character - great for architectural shots though, which is what I used it for.

I'm very happy with the Primagon as I like the vintage character, it's not the ideal 35mm for me though, hence buying the Mir-1 and Petri 35mm.

I would love a Hexanon 1.8/40, they are starting to get quite expensive now though and I don't want to hack one to make it work on an EOS.

Funny you should mention the Canon FD, I just bought a Canon FL 2.5/35 for 7.19ukp which I thought was a bit of a bargain. I don't know anything about this lens but I figured with a 2.5 max aperture it could be interesting to play with and a good candidate for conversion to EOS mount as I paid so little for it.

Anyone know anything about the FL 2.5/35?


PostPosted: Sun May 22, 2011 8:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
iangreenhalgh1 wrote:
Excalibur wrote:
RioRico wrote:
Yes, the Primagon is the best of these, with better detail almost everywhere. We can expect it to be best wide-open because its aperture is tighter than the others. We can expect it to be better at f/22 because that is closer to its "sweet spot". I should use mine more. [Exakta mount, fitted to a PK camera, the adapter ground down for infinity focus.]

Yes, a shoot-out between Primagon 35/4.5 and SMC Takumar 35/3.5 and any other slow 35's that may appear. I would expect the results to be 1) Takumar 2) Primagon 3) whatever. But who knows, ?quien sabe?


+1 for the Tak, also with the Tak if Ian could use a Canon FD 35mm f.2.8 or Hexanon 40mm f1.8 (not expensive lenses), it would be a very good standard to compare other 35mm lenses.


I know that Tak quite well from my art college days, very sharp and technically great images but I always found it to have a 'cold' character - great for architectural shots though, which is what I used it for.

I'm very happy with the Primagon as I like the vintage character, it's not the ideal 35mm for me though, hence buying the Mir-1 and Petri 35mm.

I would love a Hexanon 1.8/40, they are starting to get quite expensive now though and I don't want to hack one to make it work on an EOS.

Funny you should mention the Canon FD, I just bought a Canon FL 2.5/35 for 7.19ukp which I thought was a bit of a bargain. I don't know anything about this lens but I figured with a 2.5 max aperture it could be interesting to play with and a good candidate for conversion to EOS mount as I paid so little for it.

Anyone know anything about the FL 2.5/35?


erm Oh well I find Tak lenses a bit warm (maybe it's the film I use)..but that canon FL 2.5/35 was a bargain, I haven't gone back before the FD lenses , but it could be your new reference point for sharpness.
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