CV 35 1.2 Colors

[woodyspedden]

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This starts with a question for Sean Reid. Sean, I just got the CV Nokton to compare with my Leica 35 Lux (with the hope that I would like it enough to sell the lux to pay for my WATE).

I found the colors to be very unatural. I am using it without filter and menu set to off. I thought that something must be wrong with the lens but when I looked at your review of the 35mm lenses I noticed that the colors for your Nokton were off as well. This was particularly noticeable in your CA tests where the green of the leaves were way different from all the other lenses.

 

Any insights?

 

Woody Spedden

[sean_reid]

Hi Woody,

 

I almost missed this thread because I didn't know the question was for me. What's your workflow and how are you setting white balance?

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

[bradreiman]

i have this lens but no problem with the colors. less contrast than the noctilux that i'm used to by leaps and bounds but still a great reportage lens and really light and fast-ha just seeing if your paying attention. its quite large but seems small compared to the noct and fast as a whip to focus....b

[wlaidlaw]

Woody,

 

I think it is another case of the AWB doesn't like the CV 35/1.2 very much. I have virtually given up, pro tem, on AWB with the M8. Because I am using a B+W 486 on the Nokton, as there is no Leica 52mm filter, I would manual WB anyway, to get rid of the over saturated greens of the 486. If you manual WB (I use an Expodisc), I think you will find the colours are just fine. I use the Nokton for almost all shots involving people, where I want a 35mm focal length, as I find it is so much kinder than the Biogon 35, which is too contrasty for this and tends to age people, showing up every little wrinkle.

 

Wilson

[teehas53]

Woody -

 

Unless you need the speed, you might also want to look at the CV 35/1.7. Only a half-stop slower than the Lux, and the look is quite like the pre-Asph Lux - plenty sharp and beautiful OOF rendering. With an LTM8 adaptor, it codes perfectly. Also much smaller, lighter and less intimidating than the 1.2.

 

T

[sean_reid]

Woody -

 

Unless you need the speed, you might also want to look at the CV 35/1.7. Only a half-stop slower than the Lux, and the look is quite like the pre-Asph Lux - plenty sharp and beautiful OOF rendering. With an LTM8 adaptor, it codes perfectly. Also much smaller, lighter and less intimidating than the 1.2.

 

T

 

If only someone on the forum were selling a silver version of that lens in mint condition...<G>

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

[farnz]

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Sean,

 

It's available at Aperture new. Aperture Photographic Tel. 020 7242 8681 Fax. 020 7242 8680

 

Pete

[sean_reid]

Sean,

 

It's available at Aperture new. Aperture Photographic Tel. 020 7242 8681 Fax. 020 7242 8680

 

Pete

 

Hi Peter,

 

Thanks but I was joking because I have two of them (one black and one silver) and the latter is up for sale.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

[gmaurizio]

This starts with a question for Sean Reid. Sean, I just got the CV Nokton to compare with my Leica 35 Lux (with the hope that I would like it enough to sell the lux to pay for my WATE).

I found the colors to be very unatural. I am using it without filter and menu set to off. I thought that something must be wrong with the lens but when I looked at your review of the 35mm lenses I noticed that the colors for your Nokton were off as well. This was particularly noticeable in your CA tests where the green of the leaves were way different from all the other lenses.

 

Any insights?

 

Woody Spedden

I took a silly picture of our dinner table with the red baby seat next to it at F1.2 under incandescent light. The M8 and the CV 35mm F1.2 just nailed both the exposure and the WB. It is at very close range, and much better than the ones with D2X and D200. Blacks are black, greys (laptop) is OK, colors of the faked fruits are as they are in real life, and the red seat with pinkish top looks fine to me. Wood table (lacquered) looks good too. I think it is a great lens, with a very nice boke.

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[woodyspedden]

Hi and thanks to all for the responses.

 

Firstly, all the shots I took were raw and processed in Lightroom. I am also going to try the new C1 4.0 beta to see what happens. I processed the images just as I would do with all of my other lenses including the 35 lux. The Nokton definitely has a different color palette than the other lenses.

 

Sean, did you look at your images from the various 35's under review to notice the very different color from the nokton in the CA tests. This is what I was referring to in my original question.

 

Again, thanks to all for your help

 

Woody

[sean_reid]

Hi and thanks to all for the responses.

 

Firstly, all the shots I took were raw and processed in Lightroom. I am also going to try the new C1 4.0 beta to see what happens. I processed the images just as I would do with all of my other lenses including the 35 lux. The Nokton definitely has a different color palette than the other lenses.

 

Sean, did you look at your images from the various 35's under review to notice the very different color from the nokton in the CA tests. This is what I was referring to in my original question.

 

Again, thanks to all for your help

 

Woody

 

Hi Woody,

 

Sure, the green is more intense in that CA shot. But if one really looks at a group of lenses rendering a variety of colors, many of them will show slight differences in palette. And, of course, palette changes again with IR filters and again with RAW conversion profiles, etc.

 

So, I think of color, in digital imaging, as being somewhat amorphous. The final color one sees is highly dependent on various links in a chain.

 

So, in my experience, does the 35 Nokton tend to show problematic color rendition? No. Do each of these lenses have subtle differences in color rendition? Absolutely. Can we describe how this translates into the final print? Only if we specify each step of the digital imaging chain involved.

 

In other words, count me among those who feel that, in digital imaging, color is whatever we want it to be. Our choices make it what it is. A lens, we could say, might propose a certain direction but the image may not follow that path.

 

Aside from commercial work, broadly defined, I don't make many color pictures. But when I do so with the M8, I've decided to often leave off the IR filter and let the color "have its head" - let it go where the camera and lens take it. But that's an aesthetic choice that has little to do with accuracy per se.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

[farnz]

Hi Peter,

 

Thanks but I was joking because I have two of them (one black and one silver) and the latter is up for sale.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

D-oh! <grins>

[woodyspedden]

Hi Woody,

 

Sure, the green is more intense in that CA shot. But if one really looks at a group of lenses rendering a variety of colors, many of them will show slight differences in palette. And, of course, palette changes again with IR filters and again with RAW conversion profiles, etc.

 

So, I think of color, in digital imaging, as being somewhat amorphous. The final color one sees is highly dependent on various links in a chain.

 

So, in my experience, does the 35 Nokton tend to show problematic color rendition? No. Do each of these lenses have subtle differences in color rendition? Absolutely. Can we describe how this translates into the final print? Only if we specify each step of the digital imaging chain involved.

 

In other words, count me among those who feel that, in digital imaging, color is whatever we want it to be. Our choices make it what it is. A lens, we could say, might propose a certain direction but the image may not follow that path.

 

Aside from commercial work, broadly defined, I don't make many color pictures. But when I do so with the M8, I've decided to often leave off the IR filter and let the color "have its head" - let it go where the camera and lens take it. But that's an aesthetic choice that has little to do with accuracy per se.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean[/quote

 

Sean

 

Thanks for taking your valuable time to answer my question.

 

I don't yet have a uv/ir filter for the nokton so I can only shoot with lens detection off and let the colors fall where they may. I totally agree that in digital imaging we get the colors we want. I was surprised only because using the default settings for lightroom for all my comparisons of the Nokton vs the Leica 35 lux shooting the same scene one after the other and then finding such differences in color. I can't explain why this is so but i will continue my investigations and report any results I find.

 

It is encouraging to hear that others don't see this color difference so I will just have to see if I am doing something untoward to cause the problem.

 

Thanks to all for responding

 

Woody Spedden