Will-Wetzlar Lumagon 2.8/50 MC coming from the slide realm

[alex ph]

This lens is considered top class, at least in the 35mm slide projection realm. A kind of new Colorplan. As long as I remember, it was produced in the late 1980s or in the 1990s, it has a modern multicoating and, a rare feature for such a "young" lens, it has a full metal barrel. This page continues the series testing high grade and not that well known lenses for 35mm slide projectors, such as Zett P-Color 2.5/90 SMC, V/S-Heidosmat 2.4/90 MC, ISCO V/S-Projar MC 2.5/90, Agfa Color-Agolon 2.5/90, Inovar Anastigmat 90mm, and some others.

In fact, the Lumagon mid to close performance is impressive. Sharpness and clarity are exemplary while the image keeps its character and a certain "warm" charm. The degree of subject separation vs OOF at any distance is rather surprising, taking into account the "only" 50mm focal length and the relatively slow speed of f2.8. Close to infinity the image rendering seems to be more ordinary, and corners are soft, but I need to check it better to be sure. CA in contrast light are well pronounced, even with the lens' MC, although less harsh than for instance in Rollei Planar 1.8/50 or some other highly reputed Gauss lenses.

All the following shots are taken with Sony A7, so in FF, and with a Chinese helicoid. In some shots minimal exposure and contrast tweaks are applied, others are SOOC jpeg when explicitly mentioned.

#1 Close range


#2 The background are the buildings shown in the shot #4 below


#3 Mid range


#4 Close to infinity, SOOC jpeg


#5 Mid range, SOOC jpeg


#6 A 100% crop from the previous, unprocessed


#7 Going further


#8 A 100% crop from the same scene refocused on the antennas, unprocessed


#9 A simple BW conversion works nicely too

[kds315*]