Shashin
Well-known member
Hard to answer: you might just have very weak willpower. Or the cat made you do it. (RU in a hostage situation?)
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Your favourite “bang for the buck” lenses
- Thread starter rdeloe
- Start date
MGrayson
Subscriber and Workshop Member
Or I'm still shocked that there is a photo forum that actually *wants* cat pictures.
rdeloe
Well-known member
Not any old cat! This cat. The Soupster!Or I'm still shocked that there is a photo forum that actually *wants* cat pictures.
rdeloe
Well-known member
The results speak for themselves! That looks really good.
MGrayson
Subscriber and Workshop Member
When color fringing becomes an art form - or maybe a life form... Even the fringes have fringes!
X2D, Pentax 645 A 75/2.8 wide open (the psychedelic colors go away when you stop down a bit...)
BTW, I like this lens a lot. It's small, light, and cheap. Here's a closeup of that Soup pic with the same lens:
X2D, Pentax 645 A 75/2.8 wide open (the psychedelic colors go away when you stop down a bit...)
BTW, I like this lens a lot. It's small, light, and cheap. Here's a closeup of that Soup pic with the same lens:
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Trevor Davis
Member
Which adapter are you using?The Pentax 645 35mm, 75mm, and 150mm, and tilt/shift adapter were all assembled this morning, so I went out and totally failed in my attempts at capturing architecture and cityscapes. I'll have to practice. Results were inconsistent, even at f/11. But only at infinity. They were all great at close to medium distance.
However.
Once I got home, I chased the Soup around the apartment and got
The FA 35/3.5 It sure can focus close, yet it doesn't scream "wide angle" to me.
The A 75/2.8 in very bad light (look at his pupil dilation!)
And the A 150/3.5 Now he's tired of this whole business.
So they work fine on close subjects, but that's not really what I need shift for.
Matt
Edit: It looks like it was air currents. I shot with the XCD 28P and the edges didn't look much better. That's the problem with infinity. There's a lot of stuff between it and the camera.
MGrayson
Subscriber and Workshop Member
The Fotodiox Pro TLT ROKR. I can focus past infinity with it - maybe too much past infinity. The lenses read about 10-40 meters when focused at infinity. But unless there are floating elements, I don't see how that could be responsible.
Trevor Davis
Member
I was wondering about that. I am looking at the Fotodiox Pro Shift adapter and the website says "focus to infinity and beyond" in the description. I didn't know if they were just throwing in a movie reference or if it actually went beyond. Do you find it has much of a practical downside or is it really not much of an issue?
I really appreciate the advice and the pictures of Soup!
MGrayson
Subscriber and Workshop Member
I just did some careful testing at about 40 feet. My FA 35mm does have a bad corner, in that I can't get it sharp at f/8 or f/11 even unshifted, but the loose fit of the adapter also makes for some tilting of the lens. With the 35, that makes a noticeable difference in focus even at f/11, so even if there's field curvature, there's also field tilt. In other words, it's a mess.
I have the manual focus 35mm on order, as @rdeloe's warnings about the FA's field curvature seem quite justified. But I should also exchange the adapter. Does anyone else make one? This seems well made, save for the fit on the X2D mount, but it wasn't cheap, so I'd prefer one that was well machined! The 75 and 150 are small, sharp, and light enough to be used unshifted, so I could get a much cheaper fixed adapter...
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cunim
Well-known member
I have learned a hard lesson from my experience with the Kipon PHASE M645-GFX E. Using that adapter with P1 lenses (the 80 and 55 silver ring are cheap enough to fit this thread) and the GFX II, I have found flare difficult to manage. Gets worse with longer lenses (aaaargh, like my beloved 120 macro BR). In contrast, the P1 lenses do not flare with my boat anchor XF body. So, the hard lesson is that there is more to worry about than sharpness, distortion and fringing when using big-throat adaptors. I am hoping to hear good news about applying deep black internal coatings but, for the moment, I am inhibited trying off brand lenses.
Flare with a P1 silver ring (80 I think) on the Kipon adapter and GFX II.
Flare with a P1 silver ring (80 I think) on the Kipon adapter and GFX II.
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f6cvalkyrie
Well-known member
Thanks, Rob, I checked those topics, but the solutions proposed are "mirrorless centered" while I shoot with a IQ 140 on a Phase One DF ...
I found just one review on the web for the lens I have in mind, the Schneider Kreuznach 28mm f4.5 Asph Phase One which is a little out of the "bang for a buck" range, but around 1000$ now for a well kept used specimen ... new, this lens was more like 5 - 6 k$ ...
I have a guy here locally (almost literally around the block) that has one up for sale ...
The one review said "very sharp, very heavy, very expensive"
Is that in line with your appreciation ? Should one avoid this lens because of image quality flaws ?
TIA,
Rafael
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rdeloe
Well-known member
Are you using a tilt-shift adapter Matt? I have the Fotodiox Tilt ROKR, and have not used the Kipon version. But if I needed a new one, I'd buy the Kipon because it allows shift in both directions at the same time. There's a good post here (scroll down from the start): https://www.getdpi.com/forum/index....ilt-and-shift-adapters-for-gfx-and-x1d.63085/
MGrayson
Subscriber and Workshop Member
There are fewer shift adapters from the Hasselblad. I like Kipon better, but haven't seen one by them for the X2D. Never mind. Just found one.
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MGrayson
Subscriber and Workshop Member
Interesting discovery... The problem with the Fotodiox adapter and the Pentax 645 FA 35mm is that at the extreme 2mm of shift, the lens will not focus at infinity. The rear element hits something. Shift only 10mm, and infinity is (relatively) sharp. I now also have the heavier and better built Kipon adapter (which has a tripod foot). We'll see when the light is better.
rdeloe
Well-known member
The HD Pentax-D FA 35mm has the same issue. I could only shift it 10mm on a Fotodiox Tilt ROKR.
rdeloe
Well-known member
That is the principal design weakness of this style. When I used one of these, it was better when I held the adapter in a lens collar. That reduced the amount of recomposition. The Kipon tilt shift adapters that allow shift in two separate directions at the same time solves this problem nicely.
It makes a big difference if one uses a lens that requires minimal recomposition after tilt. Lenses with a focal length close to the flange distance of the system work best in that respect. This is why the Pentax 645 75 mm was pleasant to work with.
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MGrayson
Subscriber and Workshop Member
Alas, the Kipon adapter I found only shifts in one direction at a time, but can orient the tilt independent of the shift.
Not to hijack the thread, but here is a comparison of two very good and very inexpensive 1:1 zoom lenses - the Mamiya 645 120/4 and the Pentax 645 120/4. My target - do you know how hard it is to find a coin these days? Fortunately, my younger daughter is a fan of northern Europe and so:
Hasselblad X2D, Gitzo 5, 2 second delay, etc. etc.... The images were focused in slightly differently spots, so I cropped accordingly.
Here's the Mamiya at f/4 and f/11
And the Pentax
Lots of CA wide open, but who shoots 1:1 at f/4? (The Rodie 105 is f/5.6). They look really good at f/11.
Both of these lenses are in the $275 to $350 range. Crazy!
Matt
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rdeloe
Well-known member
That's actually a big win. It's nice to be able to shift in both directions, but being able to do a rise or fall while tilting, or a shift while swinging, makes this adapter vastly more usable than the design that only allows shift with tilt, and rise with swing.
And yes, those lenses are terrific bargains -- huge bang for the buck.
I certainly agree with the posts praising the Pentax 645 35mm A, 75mm A or FA, 120mm A or FA, and 150 f/3.5 A. As a Pentax user since the 1970s, and having progressed from 35mm to 645 and 67, and then to digital, I've amassed a large collection of Pentax lenses. I have a few items to add around the $500 limit: The 150 is also available as the FA version, which is faster (f/2.8) and only slightly heavier. It does have more bulk since the lens shade is no longer a slide-out. The 300mm A lens or even better, the 67 300mm M* are superb and a bargain. The 400mm FA f/5.6 is quite good, inexpensive, and light. The 67 90mm f/2.8 is also good. Compact and close focusing with a pleasing rendering.