AdamM's Lens Tests

Lens Links

2008-01-14T13:57:00.000-08:00

Here's a collection of lens links i've found useful:

Pentax lenses:

Pentax lens test database
http://www.takinami.com/yoshihiko/photo/lens_test/index.html

Data on Pentax 85mm's
http://www.taunusreiter.de/Cameras/Pentax_Takumar_85mm.html

Pentax lens database
http://www.m-fortytwo.info/firstpage.htm

Olympus lenses:

Lens database
http://www.datasync.com/~farrar/zuiko.html

Contax Carl Zeiss lenses:

Some great Contax tests (and Leica ones too)
http://www.pebbleplace.com/Personal/Start.html

Leica lenses:

http://www.leica-camera.us/photography/r_system/lenses/

Fujinon lenses:

Fujinon lens database
http://www.pentax-manuals.com/fujica/lenses/m42_lenses.htm

Misc:

The amazing lens price guide!
http://www.jcolwell.ca/photography/lens$db/Lens$db-v08.pdf

SLR lens & camera review. Lots of great lens tests
http://slrlensreview.com/mos/Frontpage/

Great visual comparison for a number of lenses Photodo has tested
http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~loui/photodobest.html

A short list of some crazy fast lenses
http://www.abex.co.uk/sales/optical/fast_lenses/fast.htm

Hacking Minolta Rokkor lenses to EOS mount
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze7qf7h/minolta/id2.html

135mm lens war
http://oomz.net/135/

50mm Shootout

2008-01-14T03:48:00.000-08:00

[work in progress, article yet complete]

What's the best 50mm lens you can slap on a Canon?

It would be hard to get every single great 50mm lens there ever was and test them, but i've done my best. Here's a test of all the 50mm lenses i could get my hands on.

Canon EF 50mm f1.4

Canon EF 50mm f1.8

Pentax SMC 50mm f1.4

Pentax Super-Takumar 50mm f1.4

Contax CZ 35-70mm f3.4 (ok.. not a prime, but as sharp as a prime as we'll see)

Minolta Rokkor 58mm f1.2 (ok, not a true 50mm, but a fun guest in this test)

Nikon 50mm (sourcing 2 different version)

Fujinon 50mm (ebay bid in progress)

Olympus 50mm (sourcing)

Contax 50mm (ebay bid in progress)

Nifty Fifty: the EF 50mm f1.8

2008-01-12T19:27:00.000-08:00

How good can a $90 lens be? (brand new!) The answer is good, quite good. There's two versions of this lens, a MkI and MKII. The MKI has a metal mount where the MKII is plastic, and is the one i have. Both are identical optically. The MKI feels like less of a joke than the MKII, which feels like a toy.

While this lens doesn't run with the elite glass in this world, it's a lens i highly recommend. Why? well, if you're new to photography and bought a body plus 'kit' lens, you're missing out on some of the most fun there is: shooting with fast lenses. You may also not know the specifics of the term 'fast' or 'slow' as it relates to a lens and its aperture. That's easy, here we go:

There's basically two main bits of information to define a lens: #1. The focal length (usually in mm) and #2. the lense's maximum aperture. So let's take the 50mm f1.8. 50mm is approximately the same FOV as a human eye sees (on a full frame sensor.. more on this later) and it lets in f1.8 amount of light.

The smaller the number, the more light it lets in. A

nything smaller than f2.8 is starting to get fast. The relationship isn't linear, so as the numbers get smaller, the differences between the

m mean more. Demonstrated in the above example, f1.4 lets in TWICE as much light as the f2. f5.6 lets in twice as much as f8. f16 lets in twice that of f22. Each stop lets in twice or half as much light as the next.

What's the fastest lens? Canon made a 50mm f1.0. Yes, 1.0, but it is very expensive and performed worse than the f1.2 which was a fraction of the price. It has now been discontinued.

Leica makes one called the Noctilux which is also 50mm and f1.0 (built and designed in Canada, i must add) It too, is horrifically expensive (and great)

Canon made an 50mm f0.95 for their ancient rangefinder cameras. f0.95??! does it let in more light than there is? noooo that's just the way the numbers work at this extreme end. It was big and heavy and flares like a banshee.

Stanley Kubrick did something pretty interesting, he (and some engineers) modified a specially build Carl Zeiss lens made for NASA, to fit on a movie camera. It was f0.75. He used it to shoot candlelight scenes in 'Barry Lyndon'.

There's some f0.75 and f0.5 and even f0.25 lenses used in special lithography processes, specifically with etching computer chips. I bet they cost a fortune.

Ok ok, what has this got to do with the Nifty Fifty ?? Fast lenses have small depths of field (DOF) which mean you can blur out the background to isolate and draw your eye to the subject.

Kit lenses, cheap zooms and essentially all point and shoot cameras have a serious limitation: They're slow. Check your kit lens, it may be f3.5-f5.6. Your point and shoot camera is around the same - or worse! - you're not going to get much background blur with one of those. It's physically impossible to get that creamy out of focus blurry background with those kinds of lenses/cameras, not to mention you won't be able to shoot in low light either.

So, for $80, the Nifty Fifty is your entry into the wonderful world of low light, blurry background portrait photography. Go for it!

Follow up: Some people have mentioned that 50mm f1.8 is the Plastic Fantastic, but it think that's the term for 18-55 kit lens...? Another suggested the 50mm f1.8 should instead be coined the Thrifty Fifty. A rose by any other name.....

Weird lenses on a Canon EOS? How???

2008-01-12T16:19:00.000-08:00

You can use non-Canon mount lenses on a Canon EOS body???

You bet! It's easy, sort of. The Canon EOS lens mount is arguably the best camera mount in the industry. It's very large and very close to the film plane. This allows a wide variety of other lenses to be used on Canon EOS bodies with adapters, which range from $9 to $100+. I've had great luck with the $20 ones. Some adapters have little chips on them to trick the body into thinking it has a Canon lens, so you still get the AF beep when things are in focus. Nice.

Use of fantastic (and often very cheap!) lenses from other manufacturers is a seriously cool benefit to Canon. Lenses from Nikon, Pentax, Olympus, Contax, Zeiss, Leica - more - are all now able to be used on your Canon rig. Fun! All that you need is the right adapter, and a shift in shooting technique called stop down metering. This is because your camera can't 'talk' to the lens, so you have to adjust the aperture manually. There's a few different ways to do it, but it's basically something like this:

1. Set the lens to be wide open - so it's easiest to focus due to the most light and least DOF

2. Focus

3. Stop down to desired aperture - or leave wide open if you want that effect

4. Meter and shoot

With practice, it's almost second nature. Sure, you won't want to cover a sporting event with manual lenses and stop down metering, but portraiture is fine when you get the hang of it, and landscapes are no problem at all.

So why bother? Well, there's a lot of really great lenses old out there. Many are significantly better than Canon lenses at a fraction of the price. The Contax Carl Zeiss 35-70mm f3.4 is as good or better than ANY Canon L prime within its zoom range. A zoom that's better than a prime? You bet!

There's fantastic Olympus wide angles, great standard lenses, all sorts of treasures. The Pentax SMC 50mm f1.4 is better than the Canon 50mm f1.4, and you can get it for around a hundred bucks! It's much smaller too. The earlier Pentax, called the Super-Takumar, has radioactive thorium glass (don't worry) and wide open, creates some of the dreamiest effects you've seen.

Sorry, Can't do this with Nikon... (but you can put a Nikon lens on a Canon with an adapter!)

Here's a few of my coveted alternate lenses i regularly shoot on my Canon bodies. I only use about 4 Canon lenses now, and all the rest are alternates.

From top left, clockwise:

Contax Carl Zeiss 28mm f2.8 Distagon. Supremely sharp with that '3d' Zeiss look. Fantastic

Minolta Rokkor 58mm f1.2! Utterly mind blowing. Tack sharp wide open, but it took some major surgery to adapt. More on this one soon.

Contax Carl Zeiss 35-70mm f3.4 The legend. This zoom is sharper than primes, also with a killer macro mode

Pentax Super-Takumar 50mm f1.4 The dreamy radioactive one. I use this a lot for portraits

Pentax SMC 50mm f1.4 Better than the Canon, a fraction of the price, super small and light.

Olympus OM 24mm f2.8 Sharp wide open, great colours, a stunning wide for around $120

The Adapter This particular one is a leica-R to EOS, (no Leica lenses yet...)

If you search alternate lenses EOS , you'll find lots of stuff. On ebay, search 'Pentax to EOS' or 'Nikon to EOS' etc., for all the different adapters.

Here's a link to a great forum on alternate glass. Lots of smart experienced people there.

Fred Miranda alternate lens forum

Good luck!

Contax 35-70mm f3.4 trounces all! (part #1)

2008-01-12T15:46:00.000-08:00

The Contax 35-70m f3.4 is a somewhat unknown yet fantastic lens. It's not especially fast, or of a wide range, but it's results are nothing short of exceptional. According to photodo's tests, it's equal or sharper than any Canon lens within it's range. Even including L primes! Contax's brochure claims the same thing. Sounds crazy? Yep, but it's true.

Here is part #1 of the Contax 35-70mm lens test pitting it against a diverse gang of glass from the inexpensive to the highly regarded:

Sigma 30mm f1.4 This lens is fast and very sharp in the middle even wide open. It has quite a bit of barrel distortion, so it's not a great architectural lens. Where it shines is with low light level portraiture. Nice bokeh, sharp centers, fast focus and that sexy f1.4 make this a superb street and available light portrait lens.

Canon EF 50mm f1.8 'plastic fantastic' This lens is cheap. It's like $80 brand new. Don't expect it to run with boutique glass, but it's still a lens i highly recommend

Canon EF-S 60mm Macro This is one of the best lenses Canon has ever made. Really. It's overlooked due to the EF-S mount, but tests don't lie, this thing is killer

Canon EF 28-135mm IS Some people love this lens. I've had two, returning the first one due to lackluster performance. It didn't test overly well (another bunk copy?) and it's clear that it does a better job on the long side vs the wide end.

Canon EF 70-200 f4L Simply, one of Canon's best lens values available. Sharp wide open, compact, fantastic contrast, a fine representative of the 'L' moniker. There's now an IS version which is a fair bit more expensive.

How did it go? On this test, the Contax won. There were a few close calls and a tie, but overall the CZ 35-70mm lives up to its reputation

When you consider a street/ebay price of $300-$400 and a very impressive macro function, you simply cannot loose.

Photodo, a few other sites and my tests confirm that this lens is at it's peak performance from f5.6 onwards. I shoot at f5.6 mostly unless the DOF is needed, and notice slight diffraction effects starting to come in at f11-f16.

Here's the test scene, lovely Vancouver shot from Main and Broadway. The red squares are the crop areas.
This test won't reveal too much about chromatic aberrations, or bokeh. That's upcoming test #2

35mm center crop (click for full size)

The Contax is decent wide open, and excellent at f/5.6
The Sigma is SHARP in the center, even wide open. Fantastic!
The Canon 28-135 is decent in the center at all apertures, and oddly a bit worse stopped down. This is also noticable in the bottom corner test. This is my second 28-135, the first one a poor performer. This one is better, yet isn't that impressive.

Winner: Tie? Contax by a hair?

35mm lower right (click for full size)

The Contax 35-70 is good wide open and excellent at f/5.6
The Sigma is moderate wide open (pretty good for f/1.4 really) and improves a little by f/5.6
More 28-135 weirdness.. It's sharper than the Upper right sample, and actually is better wide open then at f/5.6. I triple checked this - very surprised myself - but the EXIF doesn't lie.. it's quite good in the bottom corner wide open and degrades a little by f/5.6. As mentioned, this is my second brand new 28-135mm....

Winner: Contax Zeiss

35mm upper right (click for full size)

The Contax 35-70 is good in the corners wide open and excellent at f/5.6
The Sigma doesn't do too badly wide open in the corners - remember f/1.4 - improving to acceptable at f/5.6. I would imagine the Sigma gets a lot better around f/8 or f/11. The sample areas are different for the Sigma because it's 5mm wider than the other lenses. I think i have a good copy of the Sigma 30mm, seeing worse on other review sites.
The Canon 28-135 has issues. I bought one, it was bad and returned it, got a new one, this is it. What's a guy to do?

Winner: Contax Zeiss

50mm center crop (click for full size)

Contax 35-70 is a little soft wide open, becoming fantastic at f/5.6
Canon 50mm f/1.8 is pretty nasty wide open, decent at f/3.5 and good at f/5.6. The Contax is noticeably better.
Canon 28-135mm suddenly arrives! Not bad at 50mm at all

Winner: Contax Zeiss

50mm lower right (click for full size)

Contax 35-70 is ok wide open and excellent at f/5.6
Canon 50mm f/1.4 is nasty wide open and excellent at f/5.6
Canon 28-135mm is good wide open, becoming a little better by f/5.6

Winner: Contax Zeiss

50mm upper right (click for full size)

Contax 35-70mm is good in the corners wide open and excellent at f/5.6
Canon 50mm f/1.8 is pretty bad in the corners and improves to very good by f/5.6. The Contax is slightly better.
Canon 28-135 isn't that great in the corners and stopping down doesn't help much, since it's only one stop

Winner: Contax Zeiss

60mm center crop (click for full size)

Contax 35-70mm decent wide open, becoming good at f/5.6
Canon EF-S 60mm macro good wide open becoming excellent at f/5.6. This is one of my best lenses. There's slight vignetting wide open, but once stopped down, it's incredible.
Canon 28-135mm Stupidly, i misplaced my 60mm images from this lens. Sorry.

Winner: Canon 60mm EF-S Macro by a hair

60mm center crop (click for full size)

Contax 35-70mm decent wide open, becoming good at f/5.6
Canon EF-S 60mm macro good wide open becoming excellent at f/5.6. This is one of my best lenses. There's slight vignetting wide open, but once stopped down, it's incredible.
Canon 28-135mm Stupidly, i misplaced my 60mm images from this lens. Sorry.

Winner: Canon 60mm EF-S Macro by a hair. According to Canon's MTF charts, this is one of Canon's best lenses ever made, only bested by the discontinued (and boy do i want one) 200 f1.8L, the 300mm f2.8L. This is one of Canon's best kept secrets, which has remained under the radar because of its EF-S mount...

60mm lower right (click for full size)

Contax 35-70mm good quality wide open becoming excellent at f/5.6
Canon 60mm EF-S macro Good wide open, improving by f/5.6 I feel the Contax is a little sharper and has more contrast.
Canon 28-135 i misplaced these images so they're unavailable in this test. Sorry

Winner: Contax Zeiss. The 60mm EF-S is close.

60mm upper right (click for full size)

Contax 35-70mm is decent wide open, becoming excellent at f/5.6. Note how clear it looks.
Canon 60mm EF-S macro is good wide open, improving by f/5.6. I feel the Contax is sharper and has noticeably more contrast.

Winner: Contax Zeiss

70mm center crop (click for full size)

Contax 35-70 Good wide open, and excellent stopped down
Canon 70-200 f/4L Excellent wide open marginally better stopped down? Fantastic wide open performance!
Canon 28-135 Decent wide open and good by f/5.6. A comeback performance from the 28-135mm

Winner: Contax 35-70, although the 70-200mm f/4L is very close

70mm lower right (click for full size)

Contax 35-70 good wide open, excellent at f/5.6
Canon 70-200 f/4L Excellent wide open, slightly better at f/5.6
Canon 28-135 Moderate wide open and good by f/5.6

Winner: Tie? The Contax and the Canon 70-200 f/4L are very close.. Slight advantage to the Contax?

70mm upper right (click for full size)

Contax 35-70 good wide open, some slight CA, improving to excellent at f/5.6
Canon 70-200 f/4L Excellent wide open and slightly better at f/5.6
Canon 28-135 Poor wide open and just slightly better at f/5.6. Weird how the lower right was so much better.. some elements must be misaligned.

Winner: Contax Zeiss

Test was performed with a Canon 350D, tripod and mirror lockup timed release