"Challenging lens"

[marcg]

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This phrase – "Challenging lens" – is being used all over the place on this forum and elsewhere.

What does it actually mean?

In what ways can a lens be "challenging"?

 

[evikne]

Challenging to focus, probably. Especially lenses that produce very shallow depth of field.

Personally, I like such challenges. 😉

[marcg]

Thanks. I'm encouraged that you use the word "probably" – because it suggests that I'm not the only person to be unsure  

Edited March 1, 2020 by marcg

[mike3996]

You can lower the difficulty level by adjusting the aperture.

Edited March 1, 2020 by mike3996

[evikne]

3 minutes ago, marcg said:

Thanks. I'm encouraged that you use the word "probably" – because it suggests that I'm not the only person to be unsure  

Some people may say that older lenses, like the 35mm Summilux pre-ASPH, is challenging to use wide open because of strong glow, or that it easily flares. You can try to "fight" it by learning how the lens reacts in different situations, or you can provoke it for creative effects.

[frame-it]

17 minutes ago, marcg said:

Thanks. I'm encouraged that you use the word "probably" – because it suggests that I'm not the only person to be unsure  

....or like when people buy a gorgeous f1.4 lens only to use it at f8-16

[a.noctilux]

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In M lenses, the challenging lenses are not as challenging than longer R lenses that I used.

Even Telyt like 6.8/400 or 560 (used on Visoflex III for example) are much more challenging (for me of course) than Noctilux or Summilux.

 

Challenges can be good for creative activities

My most challenging lens f/1.0 is at left, never manage to master this one ...

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[microview]

By coincidence another new topic refers to Sean Reid's subscription site and his 35 Summicron on Nikon z7 study. There he keeps using the phrase 'challenging lenses' and means pre-digital era lenses designed for film use are sometimes not optimised for the present generation of cameras.In this feature he's referring to non-Nikon=AF lenses on that camera, eg, the 'challenge' of performance with a glass stack thickness not intended for wide angle non-native lenses and lack of correction for colour drift.

[a.noctilux]

While bored with conventional use, I customize some lenses,

At time of using along two f/1 "only" lenses.

as here Noctilux to use only at f/1 but those challenges never last long 😇

 

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[jaapv]

Challenging to focus, certainly.
But maybe also challenging to use, making composition difficult, like extreme wide-angle lenses, or difficult to handle, like long and heavy lenses. Or producing a weird perspective, like semi-fisheye lenses.

[Ecar]

With "challenging to focus" to include both issues of shallow DOF and focus shift (eg, Sonnar lenses).

[pgk]

1 hour ago, jaapv said:

But maybe also challenging to use, making composition difficult, like extreme wide-angle lenses, or difficult to handle, like long and heavy lenses. Or producing a weird perspective, like semi-fisheye lenses.

Challenging to use in terms of composition etc. is basically due to not appreciating that the subject's lens requirements are not the same as the lens you have chosen to use ..... I use fisheyes and ultra-wides but only when they are suited to the subject matter. The challenge is understanding when such lenses are appropriate rather than using them inappropriately. Bit like using a hammer to clout a screw - that's challenging.

[lct]

Or challenging rangefinders whose effective base length is not long enough to fit challenging lenses .

[spydrxx]

Anything causing people to think a little, whether it be a short focus throw, focus shift, stuff blocking the viewfinder, subject to flare, unwieldy as in heavy, too small controls for fat fingers...etc...etc. Usually reading the text and placing the comment in context does the job of explaining the term's use to me.

[adan]

There is something about photography that makes people forget the first rule of competence - "A bad workman always blames the tools."

[willeica]

I have never found using anything made by Leica challenging, not even using some early I Model As with zone focus. When we were in Wetzlar in 2018, fellow Forum member George Furst described using his UR Leica replica and that did sound a little bit challenging.

For me, challenging is using wet plate collodion and making sure that the plate is fully covered with collodion and then calculating the exposure time in seconds, using an alarm clock to tell when the time was up. There is a lot more to it than that, including a dangerous silver nitrate bath, but some people that I know do this all of the time. However, I found it so challenging that I gave it up after the first day. Challenging is also using a 1915 Vest Pocket Kodak camera with a tiny viewing lens, two shutter speeds and no aperture markings apart from weather conditions which were for designed for a very slow film speed of 'unknown ISO' in today's parlance, I got some half decent results on 127 film. Challenging was using a 1934 Welta Perfekta (a strange looking TLR with an extending bellows) on a windy day. The results on 120 film were very good despite the eccentricities of the design and now I think I prefer it to my 1950s Rolleiflex E.

My 'challenging camera crimes' are as nothing, however, compared to what some people I know get up to, including some of my friends on this forum. Half the fun in photography is the challenge in getting good pictures with our equipment. Auto everything is boring by comparison.

William

 

[Ouroboros]

10 hours ago, a.noctilux said:

While bored with conventional use, I customize some lenses,

At time of using along two f/1 "only" lenses.

as here Noctilux to use only at f/1 but those challenges never last long 😇

 

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Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

If you'd taken that at f11 you might have had something in focus

[luigi bertolotti]

All lenses are challenging : all of them can, in their own way, draw an image on the media, be it an Industar or a Summicron apo asph  : it's up the photographer making it a good, a trivial, or a bad picture.

 

Edited March 1, 2020 by luigi bertolotti

[tomasis7]

russian lenses... try keep focus before them falling apart.

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[derleicaman]

No one has mentioned the Thambar. This is the one lens I consider to be the most challenging lens I own. I often say the Thambar is the Leica lens I love to hate, or perhaps it just hates me. My success rate with it is the lowest of any lens I own. Plus, the effect you will get with it is impossible to predict. I had high hopes with using it on the M10 with the Viso 020 EVF. Nope, that wasn’t the answer either!

the only person I know who has mastered the Thambar is Milan Swolfs.