(Very) long lenses on the CL and TL. -Please add your experiences.

[Jake]

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Don't know where else to post this, but finally got the novoflex adapter for OM lenses, but have found something weird. Maybe someone can help. 

 

Both lenses, listed above, show a dirt mark in the same place just above the EV light meter in manual/shutter priority mode, which gets fuzzy and out of focus at wide apertures and sharper at smaller ones. Two different lenses, same exact spot. Same oval shape. About the size of a pin head. There are actually two that appear. Lens is clean, and no mold from what I can tell. But the same spot on two distinct lenses? They show up in the raw and jpg, not just in the viewfinder. 

 

Absolutely NO spots when using the vario 18-55. Clean as a whistle. 

 

I can't figure it out. 

 

Any ideas?

Edited May 13, 2018 by Jake

[ropo54]

Don't know where else to post this, but finally got the novoflex adapter for OM lenses, but have found something weird. Maybe someone can help. 

 

Both lenses, listed above, show a dirt mark in the same place just above the EV light meter in manual/shutter priority mode, which gets fuzzy and out of focus at wide apertures and sharper at smaller ones. Two different lenses, same exact spot. Same oval shape. About the size of a pin head. There are actually two that appear. Lens is clean, and no mold from what I can tell. But the same spot on two distinct lenses? They show up in the raw and jpg, not just in the viewfinder. 

 

Absolutely NO spots when using the vario 18-55. Clean as a whistle. 

 

I can't figure it out. 

 

Any ideas?

 

Perhaps it is a dust spot on the camera sensor?   To confirm, you might also stop the lens down to f22 and look up at a clear sky to see if you can see the same spot.  If so, try removing the lens and using a 'rocket' blower to blow the lens sensor clean.

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[wlaidlaw]

You could also contact Novoflex and send them image examples showing the problem. They are not super rapid at getting back but when you do get an answer, in my experience it is a sensible one. 

 

Wilson

[thighslapper]

As Rod says, it can only really be sensor dust.

 

That is the only explanation for it becoming more obvious when stopped down ...... and presumably the increased distance added by the adaptor again means the light rays are striking the sensor on a more parallel fashion that shows up the speck more than the more divergent rays on the native lens that sits closer to the camera.

 

Clean the sensor !

[Jake]

As Rod says, it can only really be sensor dust.

 

That is the only explanation for it becoming more obvious when stopped down ...... and presumably the increased distance added by the adaptor again means the light rays are striking the sensor on a more parallel fashion that shows up the speck more than the more divergent rays on the native lens that sits closer to the camera.

 

Clean the sensor !

 Native lens sitting closer. This makes sense. Of course. Thank you. 

[tritentrue]

Manual adapter (fixed aperture, no autofocus, 11 frames per second): Novoflex LET/NIK (I prefer this adapter as long as fixed aperture is ok)

 

Electronic adapter (allows adjusting aperture, ok-ish autofocus, max 3 fps): Novoflex SL/NIK (when altering aperture and/or autofocus are important)

 

Does the Novoflex SL/NIK enable autofocus and aperture adjustment on the CL?  I removed the chip from mine so that it would work as a dumb adapter on the TL2, but the short and somewhat stiff focus throw of the 300PF eventually tired me of using that combination.

 

If, however, that adapter enables AF, even slow AF, with the 300PF on the CL, I may have to re-think my options (and re-assemble the adapter!).

[thighslapper]

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No ...... the Novoflex AF Canon and Nikon adapters only work on the SL ...... and even then rather variably dependent on the lens/adapter combinations. 

[tritentrue]

CL with 180mm f/2.8 APO-Elmarit-R and stacked teleconverters, yielding a roughly ~750mm AOV.  Setup including handgrip and tripod foot weighs just under 2.1kg.  With both TCs or each separately, the lens benefits from being closed one stop. All combinations are sharp wide open, but prone to veiling flare.

 

Over the years the 180 and 2X have been my most frequently used birding combination, easily handheld in most daylight conditions, and yielding excellent detail at f/8 (f/4 setting on the lens).

 

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[AZach]

Trying CL with Olympus OM 300/4,5,

Mergus Merganser, distance 20m - difficult to focus

 

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[AZach]

Trying CL with Olympus OM 300/4,5,

Cygnus Cygnus, distance 50m - tricky to focus

 

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Edited June 3, 2018 by AZach

[AZach]

Trying CL with Olympus OM 300/4,5,

Barge distance 2,5km, windmill 12km - focus with/without magnification works quite ok

 

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[tritentrue]

Yes, if this looks like a bit of a mismatch, handling--for me-- is even more so.   The CL's crop sensor gives an angle of view of almost 600mm.  Stack  the 2X for almost 1200mm.

 

For some reason it gives a dim finder at f/4 and f/5.6 on the CL, whereas I get normal brightness with another combination at f/8.  Photos look more or less ok until compared with the same lens/TC on the M240, where one can readily see noticeably better contrast, saturation, and tonal gradation. 

 

One nice positive is that inertia makes it easy to get sharp handheld shots without having to juice the shutter speed.

 

The lens and TC really punish the photographer whenever focus is the least bit off, which is probably why I couldn't coax the best images out of this combination on the CL.  I suppose something as simple as a winged eye cup might make some difference, if I can ever find one. 

 

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[vikasmg]

Yes, if this looks like a bit of a mismatch, handling--for me-- is even more so.   The CL's crop sensor gives an angle of view of almost 600mm.  Stack  the 2X for almost 1200mm.

 

For some reason it gives a dim finder at f/4 and f/5.6 on the CL, whereas I get normal brightness with another combination at f/8.  Photos look more or less ok until compared with the same lens/TC on the M240, where one can readily see noticeably better contrast, saturation, and tonal gradation. 

 

One nice positive is that inertia makes it easy to get sharp handheld shots without having to juice the shutter speed.

 

The lens and TC really punish the photographer whenever focus is the least bit off, which is probably why I couldn't coax the best images out of this combination on the CL.  I suppose something as simple as a winged eye cup might make some difference, if I can ever find one. 

 

cl280.jpg

 

Wow :-)

 

- Vikas

[tritentrue]

A shot made with the above setup (mynas were conspicuously unavailable this morning  ):

 

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[wlaidlaw]

A house about 2 km away. Zeiss 600mm/f8 Tele Tessar so 900mm EFOV. My modular Tele-Tessar is much crisper at 600 mm than it is at 1200mm. I suspect with 23 elements at 1200mm there is just too much glass between you and the subject. I also need a rather heavier tripod than my lightweight wooden Berlebach tripod. The only way I could reduce the shake on the CL was to use 12 secs delay to allow vibrations to settle but it is quite windy today. 

 

Wilson

 

PS Just run a bit of de-haze on the DNG and that has improved the contrast. 

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Edited June 14, 2018 by wlaidlaw

[jmahto]

A house about 2 km away. Zeiss 600mm/f8 Tele Tessar so 900mm EFOV. My modular Tele-Tessar is much crisper at 600 mm than it is at 1200mm. I suspect with 23 elements at 1200mm there is just too much glass between you and the subject. I also need a rather heavier tripod than my lightweight wooden Berlebach tripod. The only way I could reduce the shake on the CL was to use 12 secs delay to allow vibrations to settle but it is quite windy today. 

 

Wilson

 

PS Just run a bit of de-haze on the DNG and that has improved the contrast. 

Can you show crops?

[wlaidlaw]

Can you show crops?

 

No. It was of no great interest to me other than a try out of the Zeiss lens at 600mm, so I deleted it other than the 1200 x 800 down rez JPEG for the forum . It is now raining. If it clears up tomorrow, I will take another one and post a crop. I expect a crop to show signs of micro-vibration with the lightweight wood tripod. Both my heavyweights are back in the UK. 

 

Wilson

[jmahto]

No. It was of no great interest to me other than a try out of the Zeiss lens at 600mm, so I deleted it other than the 1200 x 800 down rez JPEG for the forum . It is now raining. If it clears up tomorrow, I will take another one and post a crop. I expect a crop to show signs of micro-vibration with the lightweight wood tripod. Both my heavyweights are back in the UK. 

 

Wilson

That is perfectly ok. This is what I call (for myself), seduction of long lenses. I want the best optical quality in the longest lens at the lightest (and easiest) package all the time and every time I try something, I realize (again and again) that atmospheric condition, technique and tripod (roughly in that order) is more important than the lens+camera itself. But I still keep reading the long lens threads.  

[wlaidlaw]

I think for a really long lens, there is nothing to beat the Leica APO Telyt R module. Someone offered me this kit with the 280/560/800 heads for a not unreasonable £7000 a few years ago (it would  be quite a bit more now). I already had the somewhat ordinary Telyt 400/560 f5,6 Visoflex set and had my eye on the far more compact Zeiss 300/600/1200 modular Tessar kit, so declined. From a financial POV, not a great decision, as I could have made a fair profit but I suspect it would have seen very little use. I have used the Zeiss kit very little but it was far cheaper at around £1200. There is also the quite rare and much more expensive Zeiss APO Tessar modular kit but it is similar in size and price to the Leica APO-R kit. I am much more of a standard and wide angle lens than a tele lens user and I leave those to the birds or at least the people who like to take photos of them. 

 

Wilson

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[wlaidlaw]

Here is the crop. Not brilliant as I expected from micro camera shake but not too bad considering the subject is around 2km away. 

 

Wilson

 

 

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