Sean Reid's positive/ constructive review

[sean_reid]

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Hopefully Sean will see that many users have bought the CV lenses (especially the CV 15, 21, and 24 lenses) and many of us are happy with the results.

.

 

Chip,

 

You asked for my guesses about those lenses and I gave them to you. Don't shoot the messenger. By all means, try them and see what you think. I'll know more when I've done the tests. When the coupled CV 25 comes out, I will try it.

 

One of the challenges involved in trying to be objective is that you sometimes upset people on either side of a viewpoint. Goes with the territory but a reviewer who can't be honest isn't of much use to anyone who actually needs photographic tools to work with.

 

Sean

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[sean_reid]

The weight of the kit has to be another—I took 400+ images on Saturday afternoon with a DSLR and zoom, and flash... luckily I go to the gym pretty often. Still, I could feel all the muscles in my back the next day!

 

Hi Kit,

 

I certainly agree. I used to shoot weddings with a 1Ds and a 28-70L as *one* of the bodies hanging on my poor old bones. I definitely prefer lighter and smaller.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

[rvaubel]

Hi Rex,

 

Discrimination has nothing to do with it. As usual, I'm just trying to be honest. I own four CV lenses and they all perform very well, esp. for the cost. But a lens that doesn't perform well doesn't perform well even if it's free. Again though, I need to actually do the tests with the M8...........

Software vignetting correction (speaking generally) is not a panacea. If the vignetting is strong, the corners will be significantly underexposed.

 

Sean

 

Sean!! I was kidding, notice the smilies:) Although after spending $5000 on a body there isnt much money left in the kitty for lenses that cost more than $400 .

 

One advantage(besides price) that the VC 21,25,and 28mm/F slow have over everyone elses F2.8 is size. I have been testing the 25mm/4 for a few hours, never having used it much before, and it is tiny. The click stops @ 1, 1.5 and 3meters seem to be pretty useful and really fast to use. It seems like an ideal travel lens combo.

 

I have downloaded a couple dozen photos from around the house/backyard, and the results look pretty good. I have a standard test shot I use to evaluate resolution and it seems to be very sharp in the center and good enough at the edges. The center resolution maintains sharpness even @ 400%, i.e. individual pixels have a clear delineation between telephone wires and sky. Thats a pretty tough test of any lens.

 

Vignetting is moderate, but enough that many shots would have to be photoshoped. Hopefully, the new M8 with its special microlensing pattern will reduce the effects of the oblique rays enough to rarely need PS correction. I agree with you that strong vignetting correction in software results in excessive noise levels in the corners. Thats another reason that I don't want the in camera software messing with the files. There is a real judgement about just how much vignetting to remove, if any.

 

Anyway, I'm surprised at how cool this lens is. I was going to sell it because I have its focal length range bracketed by my 21mm/2.8 Kobalux and my 28mm/1.9 VC. But those are much larger lenses, and I'm sort of getting into the simplicity and speed of the detant focusing.

 

Well, the proof is in the pudding, so we will see. I'm going up to an old Russian fort on the Northern California coast tommorrow, and will do more testing. As this lens is no longer made I quess I should consider myself lucky to get a chance to evaluate it.

 

Rex

[sean_reid]

Sean!! I was kidding, notice the smilies:) Although after spending $5000 on a body there isnt much money left in the kitty for lenses that cost more than $400 .

 

One advantage(besides price) that the VC 21,25,and 28mm/F slow have over everyone elses F2.8 is size. I have been testing the 25mm/4 for a few hours, never having used it much before, and it is tiny. The click stops @ 1, 1.5 and 3meters seem to be pretty useful and really fast to use. It seems like an ideal travel lens combo.

 

I have downloaded a couple dozen photos from around the house/backyard, and the results look pretty good. I have a standard test shot I use to evaluate resolution and it seems to be very sharp in the center and good enough at the edges. The center resolution maintains sharpness even @ 400%, i.e. individual pixels have a clear delineation between telephone wires and sky. Thats a pretty tough test of any lens.

 

Vignetting is moderate, but enough that many shots would have to be photoshoped. Hopefully, the new M8 with its special microlensing pattern will reduce the effects of the oblique rays enough to rarely need PS correction. I agree with you that strong vignetting correction in software results in excessive noise levels in the corners. Thats another reason that I don't want the in camera software messing with the files. There is a real judgement about just how much vignetting to remove, if any.

 

Anyway, I'm surprised at how cool this lens is. I was going to sell it because I have its focal length range bracketed by my 21mm/2.8 Kobalux and my 28mm/1.9 VC. But those are much larger lenses, and I'm sort of getting into the simplicity and speed of the detant focusing.

 

Well, the proof is in the pudding, so we will see. I'm going up to an old Russian fort on the Northern California coast tommorrow, and will do more testing. As this lens is no longer made I quess I should consider myself lucky to get a chance to evaluate it.

 

Rex

 

Well, they certainly are quite small and perhaps they'll do better on the M8 than they did on the R-D1.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean