rob_ww wrote:
Wow Brad. These are stunning. What a lens. The pictures make it instantly desirable!
Thanks! I really think it's my favourite lens for portraits. I spent last weekend shooting a dance event with another set of lenses and kept kicking myself for not bringing this one.
nehemiahphoto wrote:
Brad for the win—great set! Picture 3 in particular is just lovely.
Thanks, and thanks again for convincing me to get this lens (although all the great images in this thread from you, Fred, and many others convinced me as well...your advice pushed me over the brink.
We had to move quickly for the portraits under the spruce trees, as we were being eaten alive by mosquitoes. Most of the retouching I did on these photos was to remove mosquitoes from her face and neck. This looks like a remote wooded area but in fact it's a little trail at the northern end of the former city dump in Montréal, which is gradually being converted into a beautiful park. The photos in the sunflower fields were taken in that park as well.
bjhurley wrote:
Thanks, and thanks again for convincing me to get this lens (although all the great images in this thread from you, Fred, and many others convinced me as well...your advice pushed me over the brink.
We had to move quickly for the portraits under the spruce trees, as we were being eaten alive by mosquitoes. Most of the retouching I did on these photos was to remove mosquitoes from her face and neck. This looks like a remote wooded area but in fact it's a little trail at the northern end of the former city dump in Montréal, which is gradually being converted into a beautiful park. The photos in the sunflower fields were taken in that park as well....Show more →
I am not the first to love this lens—I think it’s been beloved since its release by a subset of shooters
Great job scouting—wonderful to find locals just like you have, for photography and just the pleasant experience of life in them.
I love the C-Sonnar more when it's adapted to a mirrorless camera because the extreme focus shift is a bit annoying when using a Leica M. Also,, the minimum focusing distance is quite long compared to today's lenses. What's impressive is the high level of contrast this lens produces, and I love the way it renders images at any distance.
when this lens, came out there was a lot of chatter about the focus shift and then Ziess offered a fix for it free of charge, I sent mine in, don't remember what the side effects were from the fix
msadat wrote:
when this lens, came out there was a lot of chatter about the focus shift and then Ziess offered a fix for it free of charge, I sent mine in, don't remember what the side effects were from the fix
I don't think they "fixed" the focus shift; they just changed the calibration point; I think early versions were calibrated for f2.8 and later versions (which is what I have) were calibrated for f2. Calibrating for wide open (1.5) will produce back focus at f2 to f4. Calibrating for f2 is a better compromise, but this lens still has plenty of focus shift.
Yes, I calibrated mine (using shims) for the best performance wide open, but when using a rangefinder, performance really degrades when stopped down to f/2.8 and even f/4. After that, the depth of field masks the issue. However, that, along with the long minimum focusing distance, were the reasons I sold mine, despite really liking its output.
A commenter pointed out earlier in this thread that the focus shift isn't all that noticeable on film, probably due to film's lower resolution; I've been using mine on my Leica M2-R and have gotten some nice sharp images, although I generally try to avoid shooting wide open and from f2.8 to f4 if I can. But even when I shoot at those apertures the results haven't been bad enough to bother me. Definitely not an everyday 50mm lens; the new 50/2.2 Color-Skopar would be a better choice for that but the C-Sonnar has the magic.
On mirrorless cameras like my Sony, as Fred mentioned focus shift is a non-issue. For portraits I usually start shooting at f2 as it's "safer" with a more modern, sharp look, and then once I've got some good photos I'll move toward shooting wide open to get the glow.
bjhurley wrote:
A commenter pointed out earlier in this thread that the focus shift isn't all that noticeable on film, probably due to film's lower resolution; ...
I thought it was the thickness of film that helps mask focus shift.
Fred Miranda wrote:
I love the C-Sonnar more when it's adapted to a mirrorless camera because the extreme focus shift is a bit annoying when using a Leica M. Also,, the minimum focusing distance is quite long compared to today's lenses. What's impressive is the high level of contrast this lens produces, and I love the way it renders images at any distance.
Any particular recommendations for an M-to-E adapter for using this lens on Sony? I became curious based on the wonderful examples here, but when I started looking, there is an entire and confusing forest of possible adapters to use, each with merits and de-merits. I imagine simpler is better, since the C-Sonnar is not 6-bit coded. Thanks!
rob_ww wrote:
Any particular recommendations for an M-to-E adapter for using this lens on Sony? I became curious based on the wonderful examples here, but when I started looking, there is an entire and confusing forest of possible adapters to use, each with merits and de-merits. I imagine simpler is better, since the C-Sonnar is not 6-bit coded. Thanks!
Personally I like using adapters that include a close-focus helicoid as that opens up a new set of possibilities with this and other M-mount lenses; it allows you to focus quite a bit closer than their minimum focus distance, and can create some beautiful effects and changes in the bokeh. I think the cheapest of those close-focus helicoid adapters is from 7artisans, although I've seen a few complaints of oil leaking out of them into the camera so I don't use mine anymore. Light Lens Lab makes one that's quite a bit pricier but should be good quality. I have the Voigtländer one, which is excellent but very expensive compared with some of the other options.
In general, though, I find the close-focus helicoid really useful and have gotten some of my favorite photos by extending it a bit. Note that the Voigtländer close-focus helicoid adapter is prone to sagging if you use long and/or heavy lenses on it, but with some notable exceptions (e.g., the Zeiss Distagon 35/1.4 and probably some of the heavier 90mm lenses) most M-mount lenses aren't heavy enough to be a problem.
