MF Lenses compared with Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
The idea was to take with me some lenses and make some shots in a same place, and see the differences, not as a scientific test.
IMAGE 1
Contax Vario-Sonnar 80-200 f/4
This was the first lens I took out of the bag, and it was the
surprise of today for me. A quite under-rated lens amongst Contax fans, it shows
an excellent image quality
in this first image that I took. The scene, afflicted by a rather dull light,
comes out brilliantly. The shadows are rich and deep, yet detailed;
the foreground objects "breathe" with life in a situation where most
lenses would have failed in giving depth.
The colour shades in the leaves are rich and varied:
The following image is a 100% crop of the above, showing the
detail that the lens is able to take, and the amazing quality at rendering the
subtle shades of the leaves.
The aperture was set at f/5.6, that is, one stop down from wide open:
IMAGE 2
Contax Vario-Sonnar 80-200 f/4
This image, also taken at f/5.6, demostrates the excellent rendering quality of this lens. The flowers are full and textured; the background is smooth and pleasing, yet lively:
IMAGE 3
Contax Planar 2/100
Used wide open on the scene, the Planar 2/100 immediately starts to "sing" with it's unmistakeable voice:
IMAGE 4
Contax Planar 2/100
Another example wide open:
The most characteristic trait of the Planar 2/100 is the combination of supreme bokeh and remarkable sharpness wide open, as this 100% crop demonstrates:
IMAGE 5
Contax Planar 2/100
This image, also wide open, displays an amazing quality in my
opinion. The vegetation is rendered with detailed richness in all the shades;
the shadows are rich but full of detail;
the distant background is rendered with an organic luminous quality that is
difficult to describe in words.
But perhaps the most remarkable feature is the "airness" of the image,
the sensation of breathing fresh air, the perception of roundness of the first
bush at left,
where you can actually "see the air" going around and "wrapping"
the shrub:
IMAGE 6
Contax Planar 2/100
This image is taken at f/4, in a very difficult backlight
condition. The lens renders well the different image planes, giving the sense of
depth.
The flare is handled quite well given the conditions:
IMAGE 7
Contax Planar 2/100
Another image at f/4. The flowers stand out nicely in front of
the vines in the background, although the lens is two stops down from wide open.
The clear detail of the flowers
makes a nice contrast with the organic texture of the background. The colours
are beautiful:
The 100% crop demonstrates the great quality of detail of the lens at f/4.
IMAGE 8
Leitz Wetzlar Summilux-R 1.4/50
The Summilux wide open creates an almost pictorial background
with it's slightly swirling bokeh. The image is well balanced through the whole
histogram but the flare weakens the contrast
and makes the result a bit dull, although still beautiful to see:
IMAGE 9
Leitz Wetzlar Summilux-R 1.4/50
The same image at f/2.8 changes character and gains much clarity and organic quality. The atmosphere is delicate, of an almost feminine beauty:
The 100% crop shows the great quality of the Summilux detail at f/2.8:
IMAGE 10
Leitz Wetzlar Summilux-R 1.4/50
This image, taken at f/2.8, shows the quality of the Summilux
"taking off", in spite of the flaring "ghost" appearing in
the low right corner. The scene has a "solarity" and an
internal luminosity that is difficult to describe with words. The crisp detail
of the flowers make the accent of the scene. You can "feel" the
sunlight shining through:
The 100% crop shows the great quality of the lens. The flowers,
albeit in backlight, are not burned, they retain details in the petals; the
stems do not show the minimum sign of
chromatic aberration in spite of the considerable contrast:
IMAGE 11
Leitz Wetzlar Summilux-R 1.4/50
The vines wide open are rendered with nice shades, although
never as rich and deep as the colours displayed by the previous Contax lenses.
The bokeh makes once again the background look very painterly:
IMAGE 12
Leitz Wetzlar Summilux-R 1.4/50
The same image at f/5.6 acquires more presence. The vines are
rendered with clarity and a solid strenght. The background remains painterly in
spite of the
4 stops distance from wide open:
IMAGE 13
Contax Makro-Planar 2.8/100
Even shot wide open, hand-held, and in precarious equilibrium, the Makro-Planar 100 does not hide it's remarkable image quality:
IMAGE 14
Contax Makro-Planar 2.8/100
Challenged to perform at non-macro distance, and wide open,
the Contax Makro-Planar 2.8/100 does not fail the test,
although it does not show that "sparkle" that the normal Planar 2/100
displayed:
Here's a 100% crop of the above, displaying good wide-open detail:
IMAGE 15
Contax Makro-Planar 2.8/100
Another image at non-macro distance range, showing a good performance of the Makro-Planar but without that "thing" that makes the Planar 2/100 special:
IMAGE 16
Contax Makro-Planar 2.8/100
Same scene as the one taken by the Planar 2/100 previously,
here the Makro-Planar does not show any "long-distance shyniness" and
holds the comparison well with it's
normal-distance-range cousin. The rendering is pleasing to the eye and the fine
detail in the leaves of the middle-ground creates a pleasing accent over the
hazy castle
in the distance. The flare, also with the Makro-Planar 100, is brilliantly
controlled:
IMAGE 17
Canon EF 85mm F.1.8 USM
Wide open. The bokeh is slightly swirling and not too bad. The foreground image seems a bit "anemic" and the colours somehow off:
This 100% crop shows a "good enough" detail for wide open:
This second crop however reveals an almost complete lack of detail on the petals, and an annoying red chromatic aberrations on the off-focus edges:
IMAGE 18
Canon EF 85mm F.1.8 USM
This image is stopped down to f/4. The quality of the
rendering however does not seem to improve very much.
The image looks flat and the colours even more so:
The 100% crop shows that stopped down the quality of the
detail has increased. The image rendering, however,
still does not looks convincing. The image has a quasi-cartoonish feel to it:
IMAGE 19
Canon EF 85mm F.1.8 USM
Same landscape image as for the previous lenses. The EF 85/1.8
here is stopped down to f/4.
The result looks acceptable: the flare is well-controlled and the image is well
balanced. In the whole, however,
the image looks a bit "thin" compared to the two previous examples by
the other lenses:
IMAGE 20
Canon EF 85mm F.1.8 USM
Wide open. The background, rendered smoothly, is about the
only thing nice about this image. The overall image
suffers from a flatness of the colours, which all have the same warmish tone, in
both the foreground and the background.
The pleasing purples and greens of the leaves in the Contax images are only a
fainted memory here:
The 100% crop shows a good detail for a wide open shot. But the colours do now show any subtleties. The image feels very harsh, almost acidic in the colours rendering:
IMAGE 21
Canon EF 85mm F.1.8 USM
Also wide open. The background is pleasantly smooth
and the flowers in the foreground retain some more detail compared to the
previous flower tentative:
The 100% crop, however, reveals without mercy how good detail
on the petals is still a wishful thinking. The background is nicely drowned in
bokeh but the problem is
that the foreground does also look washed out even if it's in focus. The acidic
colours again bring to mind some cartoonish atmosphere:
IMAGE 22
Canon EF 85mm F.1.8 USM
Another scene similarly taken before with the other lenses.
Here the aperture is stopped down to f/4.
The foreground flowers stand out nicely over the background, pleasantly blurred.
There is, however, a lack of tonal texture in the background and a seemingly
high contrast with the sky, whereas
the previous lenses rendered the transition much smoother and believable:
The 100% crop shows that indeed the EF 85/1.8 when stopped
down can deliver very nice sharp detail. But the battle against the
"plastic feel" of the image is all but won.
The flowers are still fighting to get some decent detail to them, and their
texture is still harsh and the colours acidic:
That is all. I hope that you could find this page interesting.
Orio