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90 APO-Cron cf 85 Sonnar ZM


Winedemonium

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This is a quick unscientific comparison between the rendering of two superb lenses - the Leica 90mm APO-Summicron ASPH, and 85mm Zeiss Sonnar ZM - the latter of which I bought from a forum participant and I have been very happy with it.

 

I plan to post some more comparisons as time goes by.

 

Both of these images reveal.... just how much muck my M-240 sensor keeps picking up! Please excuse the dirt spots.

 

Both images are unadjusted (by me) OOC JPEGs, uncropped, etc. They were taken 45 seconds apart, albeit in rapidly changing light and shadow - it is definitely the rainy season in Hong Kong right now. Taken from my apartment balcony on the 55th floor in the suburbs of Kowloon. AWB, though of course the changing light may have shifted that reading, to be fair.

 

Both set to f/8, AE with the camera picking 1/500 at 200 ISO for both.

 

90mm APO-Summicron-M ASPH

 

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85mm Zeiss Sonnar ZM

 

 

This is the first time I have uploaded any pictures of any sort to the forum. I looked for a post specifying the rules and found one stating photos should be downsized to 960 pixels long. I've done that, but if I am still outside the rules, please let me know.

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You might like to do another pair, this time of a scene with unchanged light and, if possible, showing a sharp subject and an out of focus background.

 

Yes indeed. I think a portrait in controlled light at minimum focusing distance, and a still life study - both at f/2 or so.

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Thanks, I too would like to see the comparison photos under more controlled conditions. Having said that, the Sonnar does look surprisingly good. Regards, Ron

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Having said that, the Sonnar does look surprisingly good. Regards, Ron

 

.... err ...... everything does when it's downsized to forum dimensions .... unless the lens is a complete dog or the photographer is clueless .....;)

 

.... you only have to look at the Photo Forum posts to realise how the limits can make a crap photo look ok and a great photo look really average..... ...

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I agree, you cannot really compare lenses on their real quality on the forum with the tiny 960px images. Real comparisons are done on prints.

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I agree, you cannot really compare lenses on their real quality on the forum with the tiny 960px images. Real comparisons are done on prints.

 

I will take some further comparison shots. I posted at the size I did because those seem to the rules here. But I am happy to post full size files somewhere else if anyone wants to print.

 

I will be printing for my own sake - I'm intrigued to see the difference between these two lenses. I've seen Lloyd Chamber's recent comparisons, but I do wish he'd taken more pictures of people.

 

LOL'd when I read "55th floor in a suburb"

Most of the apartment buildings in my suburb are 45 - 57 floors, with shopping centres underneath, and subway train system beneath that. Yet, to describe it as anything other than suburbia would be inaccurate - there's nothing urban about it except the building height. It's absolute commuter-belt suburbia, just very Hong Kong, lol!

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Both are great lenses - you cannot go wrong with either.

 

Agreed. I am very happy with both. But they do render differently, and had differing optimisation priorities at the design stage (from what I have read). Having recently acquired the 2/90, I'm interested to see how the differences manifest themselves.

 

I'm completely relaxed that both are 'great', and I'm not looking to see which one is 'better'. I think I will either end up preferring one over the other for my own use, or perhaps I will prefer one for one purpose and the other for another purpose.

 

But I have seen little published showing side by side comparisons of these two, so I thought it might be fun to do here.

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