{"id":286,"date":"2012-01-27T21:51:59","date_gmt":"2012-01-28T02:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/?p=286"},"modified":"2024-09-05T21:59:38","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T02:59:38","slug":"12-lenses-spanning-50-years-do-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/12-lenses-spanning-50-years-do-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Lenses Spanning 50 Years Do Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Ok, so they aren&#8217;t doing BATTLE per se. This is one of those lens tests that&#8217;s really just for fun&#8230;.don&#8217;t take it too seriously, please. <a href=\"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/12-lenses-spanning-50-years-do-battle-part-2\/\">&nbsp;Part 2 is now up<\/a>, and evaluates edge sharpness.&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/12-lenses-spanning-50-years-do-battle-part-3\/\"> See Part 3<\/a> for a look at bokeh.<br><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">50 Years of Lenses<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the years, I have accumulated a rather extensive collection of lenses in the ~50mm range. Looking through, I have 12 lenses that fall in the range of 40-60mm. Four of them are native lenses for Micro 4\/3. The rest are manual focus lenses spanning decades of camera development. The 50mm (ish) standard lens was the kit lens of the manual focus era. They were cheap, abundant, and usually very good optically. I will be testing them on my Panasonic GH2, so they act as a short telephoto here, great for portraits. I have acquired these over the course of about 5 years, and the great thing about these adapted normal lenses is that they are dirt cheap for the most part. Of the 8 adapted lenses, two of them I got for free, one I paid about $100 for in mint condition, and the others all cost less than $50. I highly recommend, if you have a Canon or Sony SLR or a mirrorless CSC, that you try and find some old lenses&#8230;you can find some gems out there. (I say Canon or Sony SLRs, as they have a short enough register distance to adapt many lenses&#8230;Nikon can adapt some, but not most of these lenses without losing infinity focus).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/12lenses.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"834\" src=\"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/12lenses-1024x834.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-290\" srcset=\"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/12lenses-1024x834.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/12lenses-300x244.jpg 300w, https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/12lenses.jpg 1105w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">12 Lenses &#8211; Introduced between 1961 and 2011<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>One reason I still have most of these is that they all have a different rendering, or in the case of the macro lenses, a different use. These older lenses each have their own signature look. Some are dreamy wide open, but have beautiful bokeh. Others have excellent micro contrast. Some have beautiful tonality, and others are a bit funky. This test does not test any of that. Every person will like different renderings for different styles or looks. I have a fondness for most of these lenses, save the Petri 55, which I have never actually shot with for anythingother than to see what it looks like (I can&#8217;t permanently attach it to the camera.) I&#8217;ll now give a quick rundown of the lenses in question today:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Olympus OM 50mm f\/3.5 Macro<\/strong> &#8211; A wonderful compact macro lens that does 1:2 magnification. Picked this up about 4 years ago for $100.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Petri 55mm f\/2<\/strong> &#8211; My grandfather&#8217;s lens. He gave me his old Petriflex V, and this was the standard lens that came with it. This was made between 1961 and 1967.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f\/1.8 <\/strong>&#8211; An absolutely stellar native Micro 4\/3 lens. If you have a Micro 4\/3 body and need a portrait lens&#8230;buy it. Now.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Panasonic Leica 45mm f\/2.8 Macro <\/strong>&#8211; Excellent native Micro 4\/3 macro lens. Has image stabilization. Great lens that is sharp with great color.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Canon FD 50mm f\/1.8<\/strong> &#8211; I think I paid $15 for this little gem. Small, sharp and great!<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Canon FD 50mm f\/1.4<\/strong> &#8211; The big brother of the f\/1.8 above. I got mine for $50 because it had a jammed focus ring. I fixed it and it&#8217;s as good as new. This is what Canon considers its &#8216;reference lens&#8217; for color balance.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Minolta Rokkor-X 50mm f\/1.4<\/strong> &#8211; Standard lens for the Minolta MD mount. For a long time I viewed this as the best all around 50mm I&#8217;d used. It&#8217;s since been supplanted.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Konica Hexanon 50mm f\/1.7 &#8211; <\/strong>Got this and a Konica TC camera for $12. Very sharp lens with strong contrast. Focus is touchy, though.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Konica Hexanon 57mm f\/1.2 <\/strong>&#8211; Perhaps one of the finest manual focus f\/1.2 normals in existence. Dreamy wide open, but with a gorgeous rendering, this lens becomes extremely sharp stopped down. This is the luckiest find I&#8217;ve ever had. I got it for free from a very generous donor from a message board I frequent.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Konica Hexanon 40mm f\/1.8<\/strong> &#8211; Tiny pancake lens with a unique look wide open and outstanding clarity and contrast stopped down. Can be had for $40 or so.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150mm <\/strong> &#8211; The &#8216;kit&#8217; telezoom for Olympus Micro 4\/3. It&#8217;s a tiny, inexpensive zoom that packs some seriously good optics. Perhaps the most surprising lens I&#8217;ve owned.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Panasonic 14-45mm <\/strong>&#8211; The kit lens for the original Panasonic G series cameras. It has since been replaced by a few different variants, though this is still the best optically of the Panasonic standard zooms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Next: the test:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--nextpage-->\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"color: #888888;\">The Test<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>This test today will simply be about sharpness. Specifically, sharpness in the dead center of the frame. I may do subsequent posts where I examine edge sharpness (though this is of limited utility on Micro 4\/3, since the 8 adapted lenses are all intended for use on 35mm film, and so I&#8217;m still in the middle of the lens when I&#8217;m at the edge of the GH2 sensor.) I also may very well do a subsequent post on the bokeh, or out of focus rendering, of the lenses. However, I didn&#8217;t have time for that today. Plus, since none of these lenses really compete against each other, I didn&#8217;t feel the need to examine every aspect of these all at once. This is just for fun, and I was curious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/test_setup1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/test_setup1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-297\" srcset=\"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/test_setup1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/test_setup1-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/test_setup1.jpg 1180w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Full Test shot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Each lens was mounted with an appropriate adapter on my Panasonic GH2, save for the Petri, which doesn&#8217;t have an adapter. I solved that by holding it inside the OM adapter, which allowed for flush mounting and sealed light. Since exposure was by flash, I didn&#8217;t have to worry about moving the lens accidentally during exposure. The Panasonic GH2 is sort of a torture test for lenses. Because of Micro 4\/3 smaller than 35mm size sensor, and the GH2&#8217;s high resolution, it really demands every single ounce of resolution out of a lens. Lenses that appear very sharp wide open on a full frame DSLR may look quite soft on the GH2. A lens on a full frame body might require 40lp\/mm to be absolutely razor sharp. On the GH2, you may need a lens to hit 80lp\/mm to be razor sharp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The target was the top of my Transportation Corps beer mug, which has fine metal detail and I thought would be good for seeing small differences. The whole frame also has a leather bound book to the left, which I will likely use when I examine edge sharpness in another post. (I&#8217;ll take new shots to examine bokeh). As you&#8217;ll see in the crops, the texture on the seal is odd&#8230;it almost makes everything look soft, but it&#8217;s just the way the facets and texture are, as you can see by the fine strong lines against the red.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With wildly disparate maximum apertures, I had a few options to examine them. Wide open, then all at the same aperture, or wide open and a certain number of stops closed down. I chose the latter. Since most lenses tend to be at their sharpest about two stops closed down, I took shots both wide open and two or so stops down. For stopping down, I stuck to whole f-stop numbers to make it easier, so the lenses are actually between 2 and 2.5 stops closed down (f\/1.8 lenses did f\/4 on the second shot, for example)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are all 100% crops, shot in RAW and converted with Lightroom 4 Beta. They have had identical processing. The camera was tripod mounted. Native Micro 4\/3 lenses used autofocus directly on the focus point. Adapted lenses were manually focused using 10x live view to ensure precise focus. The lighting was done with off camera flash through an umbrella, and just used TTL metering via an off camera shoe cord. As a consequence, each of these lenses metered a bit differently, depending on the aperture used and the design of the lens. So, you&#8217;ll see some varying exposure. However, since I am examining resolution, not color or contrast, I don&#8217;t really care if there&#8217;s some variation in exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On to the results&#8230;please click the image to see the crops at actual size:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/50s_wideopen.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/50s_wideopen-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-288\" srcset=\"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/50s_wideopen-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/50s_wideopen-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/50s_wideopen.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">12 Lenses &#8211; 100% crops, Maximum Aperture &#8211; Click to enlarge to actual size<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/twostops.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/twostops-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-289\" srcset=\"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/twostops-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/twostops-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/twostops.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">12 Lenses &#8211; Two Stops Down &#8211; Click to enlarge to actual size<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">Observations \/ Conclusion<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, for center sharpness, there are some interesting conclusions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Wide open: <\/strong> One can see right away that the native Micro 4\/3 lenses win this round handily. This isn&#8217;t surprising since they are designed for the smaller image sensor, and thus designed for maximum resolution over a smaller area. What is somewhat surprising is that wide open, the Olympus 40-150mm zoom appears to my eyes to be the sharpest lens of them all. Now, granted, it&#8217;s at f\/4 while the next closest, the Olympus 45mm f\/1.8 is at f\/1.8, but still. Impressive for a cheap zoom. Of the adapted lenses, the Canon FD 50mm f\/1.4 looks to me to easily win out, followed by the OM 50mm macro, FD 50\/1.8 and Hexanon 50\/1.7. The Hexanon 57\/1.2 is showing its dreamy self wide open and the Petri 55\/2 also has a similar look wide open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Stopped down: <\/strong>The Leica 45mm f\/2.8 appears to be tops here, with the Olympus 40-150 and 45mm f\/1.8 extremely close behind. The manual focus lenses have caught up quite a bit here, though, with the Hexanon 40mm f\/1.8 and 50mm f\/1.7 running right with the Oly 45\/1.8. The Canon FD 50mm f\/1.8 is sharper here than its f\/1.4 brother, the opposite of their performance wide open. It can be noted that all of these lenses stopped down are capable of excellent resolution. <em>Edit: I have looked over these crops again after this article was originally published, and looking even more closely, I think the Leica 45mm f\/2.8 Macro is actually the sharpest in the center stopped down. &nbsp;I have edited the conclusion to reflect this. &nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, that&#8217;s it for center sharpness. &nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/12-lenses-spanning-50-years-do-battle-part-2\/\">Go on to Part 2<\/a>, where I look at edge sharpness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ok, so they aren&#8217;t doing BATTLE per se. This is one of those lens tests that&#8217;s really just for fun&#8230;.don&#8217;t take it too seriously, please. &nbsp;Part 2 is now up, and evaluates edge sharpness.&nbsp; See Part 3 for a look at bokeh. 50 Years of Lenses Over the years, I have accumulated a rather extensive [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[28,27,30,33,34,26,31,29,6,32],"class_list":["post-286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shop","tag-50mm","tag-adapted","tag-canon","tag-konica","tag-leica","tag-lens","tag-minolta","tag-olympus","tag-panasonic","tag-petri"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/12lenses.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p28RGq-4C","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12746,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions\/12746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}