TT Artisans 50mm f0.95 calibration frustration

[Guest]

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So my lens arrives and it needs calibrating.   

Six attempts and 28 hours later i get the chart to look as it is supposed to although the OCD in me wonders if i should make one more attempt ? 

Focus goes past infinity and a youtube expert explains that adjusting the lens to get correct focus at infinity will make everything perfect.

So i get perfect alignment at infinity after some messing around but WTF!! every other distance is way off focus! 

Anyway after much messing i am ready to go with my beautiful metal and glass chinese noctilux copy with lovely smooth focus and nice aperture ring.

Results--- At all apertures sharpness from 0.7m to 1 m distance is poor/soft.

But at 1m to 3m everything brightens up and the lens outperforms the 40mm f1.4 nokton in terms of sharpness at all equivalent apertures and is competitive with my leica 50mm summicrom v5 at f2 f2 to f8 .

Thats where i am at right now but will report on flare/infinity performance etc in future.

My sky teddy bear from paw patrol with big eyes has had enough of this rubbish modelling  lark so will be offering toys and sweets to one of my grand daughters to further test this remarkable lens from TT artisans.

My main driving force so far has been calibrating and sharpness but will now move onto human images using the rangefinder as i have an M262 which has no live view or that focus thingy where you get lots of red specks all over the place.

 

[cboy]

Sorry to hear that. Seems this reviewer(below) has also experienced the same, which is strange since I would expect that's the critical range which this lens should focus??

https://www.47-degree.com/focus-shift/calibrating-focus-on-the-ttartisan-50mm-095

Hats off to you for calibrating without focus peaking. But I doubt focus peaking  will be of any use @f0.95

Heard  mixed reviews regards to calibration with ttarisan lenses particularly with this one. Glad I held off and looking forward to the reviews of the Voigt noct.

All the best.

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[Guest]

On 12/12/2021 at 3:39 AM, cboy said:

Sorry to hear that. Seems this reviewer(below) has also experienced the same, which is strange since I would expect that's the critical range which this lens should focus??

https://www.47-degree.com/focus-shift/calibrating-focus-on-the-ttartisan-50mm-095

Hats off to you for calibrating without focus peaking. But I doubt focus peaking  will be of any use @f0.95

Heard  mixed reviews regards to calibration with ttarisan lenses particularly with this one. Glad I held off and looking forward to the reviews of the Voigt noct.

All the best.

 

I just have to use the lens as if it were a leica noctilux which will only focus from 1 m so its not the end of the world.

The problem with the calibration is that the chart for checking the lens is not really useful for such an extreme design but i think i have got there now and am ready to try out my new lens in the real world.

The voigtlander looks very interesting and will challenge the best leica can offer i am certain.

[a.noctilux]

Hello Steve,

Sorry to hear that your Noctilux-like is not up to your expectation.

Maybe the TTArtisan people wants the customers buying more than one unit and calibrate them to their needs:

- for me letting the customer calibrate the lens is good news but this means that the lens can NOT be calibrated for all use.

- I'd buy many 0.95 ( oh really ?), to calibrate one for near, another for 2-10m, another for infinity  😉.

 

Anyway, Steve, I wish you fun/pleasure using this 0.95.

 

I agree, but Voigtlander 1.0 would cost 5 times or more than this 0.95.

Edited December 14, 2021 by a.noctilux

[Guest]

10 hours ago, a.noctilux said:

Hello Steve,

Sorry to hear that your Noctilux-like is not up to your expectation.

Maybe the TTArtisan people wants the customers buying more than one unit and calibrate them to their needs:

- for me letting the customer calibrate the lens is good news but this means that the lens can NOT be calibrated for all use.

- I'd buy many 0.95 ( oh really ?), to calibrate one for near, another for 2-10m, another for infinity  😉.

 

Anyway, Steve, I wish you fun/pleasure using this 0.95.

 

I agree, but Voigtlander 1.0 would cost 5 times or more than this 0.95.

Very good points about the calibration compromise and i have now got the lens set to perform well [within its optical ability] from 1m to infinity and simply accept it is not good from 0.7-1m.

Its a shame TT and 7 artisans do not produce lens specific focus charts instead of the generic one but i am looking forward to trying out my new lens in the real world and initial results from a few window portraits of my 9 year old grand daughter at various apertures and distances are very promising.

[cboy]

Look it's not too disappointing given you were able to calibrate it from 1m to infinity. Can't expect QC to same standard, but even then you're pushing the limits of the rangefinder when the m262 framelines are set to 2m and is the thus the ideal working distance. I wouldnt do critical closeup unless there's live view anyway.  The fact that a accessory evf is needed suggests the limitation of rangefinder photography...Its important to use the right tool for the job, which is why I use my fp for landscape, close portraiture or macro.

Whilst I hope the voigtlander 50 f1 will be the one to end my search for the dream bokeh lens I have my reservation as it's a FLE and we know it has it mechanical limitations. 

[a.noctilux]

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21 minutes ago, cboy said:

when the m262 framelines are set to 2m and is the thus the ideal working distance.

 

@cboy, this '2m' thing is only for accurate best framing in image field as 'guide in the VF' lines,

nothing to do with 'ideal working distance'.

Maybe I'm picky here, but your writing suggest that this '2m' thing is the ideal distance to use the M262 which for me is ideal for all distance (as user ! ).

Edited December 15, 2021 by a.noctilux

[Guest]

People often say "use live view or an EVF to get correct focus wide open etc"

But when i had a olympus pen and used focus peaking as an experiment i got lots of red specs on the screen,how do you know which red speck to focus on?

Or have things moved on since 2014 regarding focus peaking.

Ps ,,my pen camera and VF-4 evf was clearly better than the original Q evf when i compared them at london camera exchange in bristol but maybe thats not relevant with peaking?

[cboy]

21 hours ago, a.noctilux said:

@cboy, this '2m' thing is only for accurate best framing in image field as 'guide in the VF' lines,

nothing to do with 'ideal working distance'.

Maybe I'm picky here, but your writing suggest that this '2m' thing is the ideal distance to use the M262 which for me is ideal for all distance (as user ! ).

I don't know how you define ideal working distance, but to me framing and composition is important, and the further one is from the 2m optimised framelines the less accuracy in framing ( less at smaller ranges and more at larger ranges). 

Since people in this forum likes to nitpick at things such as focusing, distortion, IQ etc I think framing is equally valid point, otherwise what's the point of a optical rangefinder if framing isn't that important?

My point was that a rangefinder system is not ideal for close working range distances as its not mechanically designed so, thus Leica had made work arounds to compensate this i.e evf / liveview to work around the limitations. So it's not too concerning if a lens doesn't focus at mfd if the system was not originally designed to do so.

Horses for courses. How a person uses their rangefinder is entirely up to them, but I didn't mention 2m is the only distance to work from. Leica optimised 2m framelines.

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But then again in real-world experience the difference is negligible lol

[Guest]

I think on reflection if i bought another TT artisan/7 artisan lens i would find calibration much easier ,it reminds me a bit of the first time i cleaned my camera sensor in that its a bit scary and difficult initially but easier afterwards.

I would like to get the 7 artisans 75mm f1.25 because of the look it produces  as its  based on an old lens design and only copies the leica noctilux in terms of focal length and aperture.

I have read its based on an old 75mm biotar but also read its a sonnar design complete with focus shift at f2.8- f4 but maybe they are one and the same type? 

[NigelG]

Bumping this old thread. My TT 50 0.95 arrived a while ago but I haven’t really started to use it yet.

I have a Leica-serviced digitally-tweaked /6-bit coded Noctilux f1.0 v4 and previously had (twice !) the 50 f0.95 Noctilux so I’m intrigued by the opportunity to focus the TT down to 0.7m - but realistically I’m assuming that adjusting the lens to focus accurately with the RF at that MFD might be a frustrating exercise that throws focus off at other distances…

I’m guessing that your experience of an effective 1m MFD like the Leicas might be a better place to start calibrating - will report back.

As an aside I paid less that $700 for the lens (Singles’ Day discount ???) so I’m not expecting the earth…

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1 hour ago, NigelG said:

Bumping this old thread. My TT 50 0.95 arrived a while ago but I haven’t really started to use it yet.

I have a Leica-serviced digitally-tweaked /6-bit coded Noctilux f1.0 v4 and previously had (twice !) the 50 f0.95 Noctilux so I’m intrigued by the opportunity to focus the TT down to 0.7m - but realistically I’m assuming that adjusting the lens to focus accurately with the RF at that MFD might be a frustrating exercise that throws focus off at other distances…

I’m guessing that your experience of an effective 1m MFD like the Leicas might be a better place to start calibrating - will report back.

As an aside I paid less that $700 for the lens (Singles’ Day discount ???) so I’m not expecting the earth…

Just to say that having both the TT 50 f0.95 and the 7 artisan 75mm f1.25 i am now totally happy with the calibration process and actually think its an advantage for RF use.

I ended up calibrating both lenses with the lens set at about 1.5m and found this the best solution for sharp results from near distance to infinity.

However the 50mm especially i find struggles to get sharp results at MFD but is sharp just beyond 1m  but with the 75mm i get better results at MFD of 0.8m though the 50 is sharper generally at all apertures.

Will be interesting to find out how you get on with your TT 50mm especially regarding your findings at minimum focus 0.7m.