VC 12mm/5.6 Heliar mated to M240

[arthury]

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The DoF is incredibly deep so much so the Focus Peaking is red everywhere I point. Oh what the heck ... just compose and release the shutter!

Are there any technicality that I should know about? Please share your experiences. Thanks!

I have manually set the lens profile to WATE-16mm.

There are some light pinkish color issues on the corners but when I de-vignette using LR, it went away.

 

[MarkP]

Very interesting.

 

Would you mind posting the unprocessed color file.

[arthury]

Very interesting.

 

Would you mind posting the unprocessed color file.

 

I just sent you an IM.

[mustafasoleiman]

The DoF is incredibly deep so much so the Focus Peaking is red everywhere I point. Oh what the heck ... just compose and release the shutter!

Are there any technicality that I should know about? Please share your experiences. Thanks!

I have manually set the lens profile to WATE-16mm.

There are some light pinkish color issues on the corners but when I de-vignette using LR, it went away.

 

 

I thought the better profile setting was the 21/2.8 non asph...

[thighslapper]

I thought the better profile setting was the 21/2.8 non asph...

 

yes ... that's what I use as it appears to have the greatest magnitude of colour correction of all the 6 bit codes.

 

you should only get coloured edges on a small % of images if you use this .... and then only noticeable if light/white subjects in the periphery.

 

I only correct the odd image piecemeal..... and then just a bit of selective desaturation does the trick rather than resorting to flat field correction in LR....

[arthury]

I'll give that profile a try today.

Thanks, folks!

[arthury]

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You are both right: the lens profile for the 21mm/2.8 non-asph 11134 eliminated almost all of the visible pinkish discoloration in the corners even when I shoot directly into the sky.

 

Great tip! Thanks!

[MarkP]

Arthur,

 

thanks for sending me the colour file.

Could I bother you to send me a colour file using the 2.8/21 (11134) lens profile.

 

Regards,

Mark

 

 

 

 

Also, as anyone tried the 15mm CV with the 2.8/21 (11134) lens profile?

[arthury]

Arthur,

[...]

Could I bother you to send me a colour file using the 2.8/21 (11134) lens profile.

[...]

 

Mark,

I sent it to you.

[arthury]

Here's one with the 21mm/2.8 non-asph lens profile ...

 

The lens is OK in terms of sharpness in the central area and even to the peripheral.

Colors are nowhere close to the Zeiss popping color. Note that I have increased the saturation a little in this image. Contrast is also nowhere close to a Zeiss ultra wide.

 

Of course, it's unfair to just brush off this lens as a low contrast lens since the weather today is a very overcast and low contrast day.

 

But, for a 12mm, the lens is unique in the M-mount spectrum of lenses and it gives it a different perspective. Cute little lens, if I may say. Physically, it is very light and flat.

 

[arthury]

When looking through the EVF2, it's a little on the darker side at f/8. Kinda reminded me of using a slow lens in my view-camera where I can't really see the corners well when they are slightly dark.

I tend to use the multi-segmented metering on the M240.

The peripheral has quite a bit of light fall-off so, shadows need to be lifted in LR by about 30-40%.

Lens Correction using the manual mode in LR should also be used to even out the vignetting.

 

But, the really good thing is that the DoF is immensely deep so, at f/8 if I were to focus at 5ft, the DoF ranged from like 1.5' to infinity; almost no margin of error, in terms of focusing.

[Peter H]

I use the same 21/2.8 profile too. It eliminates much of the colour [problem but not always all of it. But it's easily corrected and it's such a beautiful lens in so many ways, with a strong character and decent performance in all important respects.

 

It is a lot more than a one-trick pony too. I'm finding it surprisingly versatile and usable in ways I really didn't expect when I bought it a month ago. I expected it to be a "novelty" lens. But it is a serious, and seriously good, lens in my opinion.

[arthury]

This lens has peculiarity in the way it behaves using the 21mm/2.8 Elmarit non-ASPH profile.

Some times, it works, some time it does not even under the same lighting condition taken at the same location on the same day.

 

Almost no pink corners for this one:

 

 

This one, I had a hard time removing it but the lens is very sharp. The flowers and plants in the foreground are under a foot from the lens:

[jaapv]

It depends on the amount of IR in the light.

[Nick_S]

It depends on the amount of IR in the light.

In which case, would fitting a UV filter improve the lenses colour rendition?

 

Nick

[mirekti]

In which case, would fitting a UV filter improve the lenses colour rendition?

 

Nick

 

No, you would need IR cut filter. However, UV/IR filters are recommended for lenses FL 35mm and up. With shorter FL lens, if you put a UV/IR filter on it, it would produce color cast even though the lens without the filted produced none.

[arthury]

My fear is that if I slap a UV/IR cut filter on, I may get the reverse issue --- greenish corners, like I have seen in M8 days.

 

Well, I wouldn't know until I try it.

[plewislambert]

I had some success with this lens on my M9 using Cornerfix, but not 100%. The picture edges brightened up in Cornerfix show increased noise, probably due to underexposure from vignetting. Increasing the exposure a halfstop when shooting does seem to help but the highlights suffer. I correct discoloured or noisy areas locally in Pshop; the angle of view is so extreme that cropping the side edges is sometimes necessary. The foreground often includes too much road surface and gets cropped.

I do have reservations about the way this lens draws familar objects like cars and faces at the edge of field. For architecture, however, it is remarkable.

On sunny days some flare seems inevitable, or bright coloured blobs. I take care not to get the sun in the picture, naturally, but bright sky can cause problems in landscapes.

Fortunately I am learning to desaturate or darken these artifacts.

I like this lens better than the 15mm CV.

Philip:)

[arthury]

After looking at what Zeiss recommended for their 15mm/2.8 Distagon, I switched to the lens profile of the Leica 28mm/2.8 ASPH 11606 and it eliminated all the IR bleed.

 

This is the best lens profile for the 12mm Heliar VC. Thought I share it with the Leica community in this website.

 

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[Nick_S]

After looking at what Zeiss recommended for their 15mm/2.8 Distagon, I switched to the lens profile of the Leica 28mm/2.8 ASPH 11606 and it eliminated all the IR bleed.

 

This is the best lens profile for the 12mm Heliar VC. Thought I share it with the Leica community in this website.

Thanks, that is interesting information. It would be great if Voigtländer produced a similar table of recommendations and it would probably enhance their lens sales if it reduced the incidence of colour casts at the frame edges.

 

For example, most digital M users of the 21mm/4.0 Skopar use the coding for the Leica 21mm f2.8 11134 lens, but given that Zeiss recommend that their 21mm/4.5 C-Biogon works best with the 24mm f2.8 ASPH. 11878/11898 and the 16-18-21 ASPH. @ 16mm 11626 settings, then these may work better with the Skopar lens.

 

Nick