50 Noctilux / 7A 50/1.1 comparison (meaningless but fun)

[aristotle]

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Worked from home today and had some spare minutes between virtual meetings.  Enough to get up to no good.  For some reason, I'm always more concerned about my lenses than my cameras, so for some things I like having fast cheap lenses to use as an option while cavorting around.  In this case, the 7Artisans 1.1.

Completely uncontrolled and handheld comparison shots with my 50 1.0 Noctilux and the 7Artisans 50/1.1 on the M10M.  This doesn't purport to show anything other than that for some things, the 7Artisans doesn't completely fall apart from a center resolution perspective wide open.  Both shots were focused using the rangefinder (not the display) and I was focusing on the "r".  

The first two are 100 percent crops centered around the region of focus without any adjustments whatsoever to the raw files other than identical JPEG conversion.

The second two images were straight out of the camera, then sized to 12"x8", 300 ppi, with light levels adjust and unsharp mask after the fact.

The third two images are 100 percent crops of that centered around the region of focus.

In all cases, the Noctilux image is first and the 7Artisans is second.

There are plenty of scenes where the difference between the two lenses would be apparent, but there is cheap fun to be had with the 7Artisans for folks looking to dabble in a fast 50.  One odd thing about the 7Artisans is that it doesn't have detents on the aperture ring.  It's a continuous thing.  For this photo, the aperture ring was against the wide stop (f/1.1)

 

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Edited November 4, 2021 by aristotle

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[aristotle]

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[aristotle]

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[aristotle]

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[aristotle]

12 minutes ago, Artin said:

Lol.  I would sell the Noctilux I don’t see much difference at all 

Depends on what you're going for, right?  All that these couple of shots really say (if they say anything at all) is that the resolution is similar on center when wide open.  It doesn't say anything about what an outdoor night color street shot would look like with lights and other subjects off-center in the out of focus regions.  That's a matter of taste anyway.  Even in this shot, I'd argue that the helmet on the far right is rendered more "pleasantly" in the Noctilux version (not that anybody would care in this particular image.)  As I said in the original post, I think that the 7A lens is a source of good cheap fun at a minimum, and likely be put to good use. 

I've had this lens (Noctilux) since new (over a couple of decades...though I don't remember exactly when I got it.)  It has made some lovely images.  Not sure why I'd sell it...

Edited November 4, 2021 by aristotle

[aristotle]

35 minutes ago, Artin said:

That was just a joke you can clearly see the Noctilux has more contrast  out on the edges and more micro contrast in the centre 

take a look at the window frame top left corner even the subtle difference in the baseboard 

The vertical section of the near window frame insert certainly shows more "resolution".  That may be partially a function of the slight difference in angle of the hand-held shot making it closer to the plane of focus...  Again, since it isn't really controlled, the only real thing that I take away is that the 7Artisans focuses well using the rangefinder and that it's not completely horrible in terms of resolution in the center.  Not sure about micro-contrast in the center between the two images either...but I admit to never really having had a handle on the concept of micro-contrast in the context of a lens anyway.  

[HuntingSand]

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Am a Shoei person, myself. Just sayin'... 🙂
(Former 095 owner, too - loved that lens on the M9)

[aristotle]

I understand the words, but to me, the concept really is resolution (or loss of it) as a result of longitudinal or axial chromatic aberration.  Poor contrast (the difference between the brightest bright and the darkest dark) at the "micro" level due to the lens doesn't really make sense to me unless people are referring to the fact that if you look at blurred edges through a soda straw you won't have as much difference between the brightest bright and the darkest dark by definition.  With respect to the resolution on the helmet, the lines on the helmet closer to the camera are definitely higher resolution, but I think that's a function of focal plane angle.  If you look at the near helmet vent, and the lines leading to it from above, they are higher resolution in the second image....I think because of the difference in the angle of the camera to the line of helmets.  In any case, I'm sure that off-center resolution (due to CA or otherwise) is better with the Noctilux...I just don't think that this series shows it (nor was it meant to...)

Edited November 5, 2021 by aristotle

[jankap]

What you can conclude at this point is, that the 7A is far from being crap.