For landscape use, of course the depth of field is less than a 50, which is a bit surprising sometimes though it shouldn't be. It's something to take into account. Here I was focusing more on the mid-field rather than infinity, and at f9. The background surprised me that it's not sharp. I think with the Loxia 50, which I'm used to, I might have been happier with the DOF here. I'll have to think about stopping down more for images like this:
DannyBurkPhoto wrote:
Well, lots of us do prefer MF. There are many lenses that I wouldn't buy due to their AF, especially if they are FBW.
This looks like a great lens and I'd be tempted to get it, but if I'm going to carry a fat heavy lens at this focal length, I may as well just take the Otus 55.
We are talking twice as heavy with adapter though. The Otus is a stop faster but not as long and without macro...I would try the CV 65/2 APO first as I have a feeling you're going to like it.
The Batis 135/2.8 and CV 65/2 are the best lenses I have.
Fred Miranda wrote:
We are talking twice as heavy with adapter though. The Otus is a stop faster but not as long and without macro...I would try the CV 65/2 APO first as I have a feeling you're going to like it.
The Batis 135/2.8 and CV 65/2 are the best lenses I have.
True enough, after I wrote the quoted post, I checked weight and saw that the Otus is indeed twice as heavy. More than I thought. The Oti work great with extension tubes, though; I use them for flower closeups quite a bit.
But who knows - maybe when flower season rolls around again in the spring, I'll let myself be tempted by the 65. It's not like I have a 65, other than the Canon 65 1-5:1 macro, which I don't use outdoors...
The focus-magnify was so intermittently twitch with the CV 65 on my camera, this morning I was contemplating sending it in for warranty. The magnification just would not hold, even moving the focus box around was weird. I had also started to notice some weirdness with the camera when using this lens, like the tripod timed exposure sometimes would fail and I'd need to restart the camera to get it reliable. This morning it seemed particularly bad, and I suddenly had the thought: Camera Firmware. I was still at 3.30 on the a7rii. When 4.0 came out in the summer I made the choice not to mess with anything before the August Iceland trip, and since then I've been really busy and had forgotten about it. I updated the camera to 4.0, and I do believe it is much much better. It was always a bit intermittent so it may be too soon to say for sure. Makes sense though: new lens, new firmware to deal with it.
jlehet wrote:
The focus-magnify was so intermittently twitch with the CV 65 on my camera, this morning I was contemplating sending it in for warranty. The magnification just would not hold, even moving the focus box around was weird. I had also started to notice some weirdness with the camera when using this lens, like the tripod timed exposure sometimes would fail and I'd need to restart the camera to get it reliable. This morning it seemed particularly bad, and I suddenly had the thought: Camera Firmware. I was still at 3.30 on the a7rii. When 4.0 came out in the summer I made the choice not to mess with anything before the August Iceland trip, and since then I've been really busy and had forgotten about it. I updated the camera to 4.0, and I do believe it is much much better. It was always a bit intermittent so it may be too soon to say for sure. Makes sense though: new lens, new firmware to deal with it....Show more →
I would send it in as don't get this behavior with my copy. Did you try cleaning the contacts?
I bet you're running firmware 4.0, Fred? Anyone running 3.30 or lower and using this lens without glitches in focus-magnify?
If the answer to the latter is yes, than I think I will send in. As it is, it seems good now that I updated the FW. I just made some afternoon exposures and the glitch didn't happen at all.
jlehet wrote:
I bet you're running firmware 4.0, Fred? Anyone running 3.30 or lower and using this lens without glitches in focus-magnify?
If the answer to the latter is yes, than I think I will send in. As it is, it seems good now that I updated the FW. I just made some afternoon exposures and the glitch didn't happen at all.
Whatever was funky seems to be abruptly and definitely fixed by upgrading the firmware. It's also possible there was something funky in the firmware altogether, and the replacement was a fix even though the issue wasn't tied to the version 3.3 specifically but rather something in my camera being corrupted. I know on Apple computers we do voodoo of resetting the "Parameter Ram" when things get generally weird. Though there's no way to do that on the camera I know of, maybe that happened with the firmware update. My settings were maintained with the update, which I was happy about. Maybe the last time I updated firmware on an Olympus camera my settings were all lost, and with an Olympus camera that means a lot of time doing web searches to try to figure out how to set the damn thing. (Overall I like the Oly cameras, but setting them up is a pain.)
I made another hundred+ exposures this morning with four lenses, including the 65/2 quite a bit, and the issue didn't happen at all. ( used two smart lenses, including the Lox 21, and two dumb lenses). This issue with focus was only with the 65/2.
There had been other issues with the camera besides the focus magnification, even just before I got the new lens. I was worrying about the camera as well as this lens. But now it's all good, I think. One issue before I got this lens was that if I made a quick series of exposures, as I am prone to do, going through a few or several apertures -- then part way through the relatively rapid exposures with the same settings, one would be overexposed by a stop or so. Lightroom would report approximately the same brightness value, but the exposure would be off, always overexposed. Then with this lens on I started having trouble with the two second timer not firing.
Anyway, in the 400-ish exposures I've made with the camera, mostly with the CV 65, there have been no issues. knock wood.
Out of the 6 or so copies of Loxias that I've had, there was one 50 that was replaced by Zeiss because it was crashing my camera, over a year ago. Zeiss could not reproduce the issue. I've had two copies of the Loxia 50 since that first crashy one (and two 21s) and none of the other ones had an issue with the camera. Voodoo. Firmware. Electronic issues. Who knows?
jlehet wrote:
Whatever was funky seems to be abruptly and definitely fixed by upgrading the firmware. It's also possible there was something funky in the firmware altogether, and the replacement was a fix even though the issue wasn't tied to the version 3.3 specifically but rather something in my camera being corrupted. I know on Apple computers we do voodoo of resetting the "Parameter Ram" when things get generally weird. Though there's no way to do that on the camera I know of, maybe that happened with the firmware update. My settings were maintained with the update, which I was happy about. Maybe the last time I updated firmware on an Olympus camera my settings were all lost, and with an Olympus camera that means a lot of time doing web searches to try to figure out how to set the damn thing. (Overall I like the Oly cameras, but setting them up is a pain.)
I made another hundred+ exposures this morning with four lenses, including the 65/2 quite a bit, and the issue didn't happen at all. ( used two smart lenses, including the Lox 21, and two dumb lenses). This issue with focus was only with the 65/2.
There had been other issues with the camera besides the focus magnification, even just before I got the new lens. I was worrying about the camera as well as this lens. But now it's all good, I think. One issue before I got this lens was that if I made a quick series of exposures, as I am prone to do, going through a few or several apertures -- then part way through the relatively rapid exposures with the same settings, one would be overexposed by a stop or so. Lightroom would report approximately the same brightness value, but the exposure would be off, always overexposed. Then with this lens on I started having trouble with the two second timer not firing.
Anyway, in the 400-ish exposures I've made with the camera, mostly with the CV 65, there have been no issues. knock wood.
Out of the 6 or so copies of Loxias that I've had, there was one 50 that was replaced by Zeiss because it was crashing my camera, over a year ago. Zeiss could not reproduce the issue. I've had two copies of the Loxia 50 since that first crashy one (and two 21s) and none of the other ones had an issue with the camera. Voodoo. Firmware. Electronic issues. Who knows?...Show more →
Very odd. I remember you mentioning the magnification issue when you first got the lens. I never saw this on mine. I'm glad the FW upgrade fixed it though.
JimKasson wrote:
I have no problems with 3.30 on an a7RII.
Spoke too soon. I had been using the EVF with no problem, but when I put the camera on a copy stand and use the LCD panel for viewing, now I have it, too. Guess I'll upgrade.
Sure wish there were an option to invert all the LCD menus. But then, the way the back multipurpose dial would have to me rejiggered.
I'm still finding losing the magnification is solved in general with 4.0, quite a few exposures later, but I do find that if I touch the aperture ring at all when magnified, I might lose it. I do have a tendency to have a finger on that ring, so I know -- but now it's very clear that is the trigger for losing it. Before, with 3.3, I suspected that as a problem but it was not at all clear. I would lose the magnification also without touching the lens, even the focus ring. I suspect maybe my copy of the lens is a bit extra sensitive about registering any movement of that ring.
I lose magnification if I change any camera setting while it is magnified (EV, Aperture, but not focus) with this CPU lens. I haven't really registered whether this is the case with the Loxias.
I compared the CV 65 to the Rokkor 58 1.2 in a sharpness/bokeh test for whatever it's worth. Handheld, unfortunately. The light changed a little bit between lens changes. I think this test would be a "normal" bokeh situation, neither extremely soft nor extremely contrasty. Sun was hitting the birch trees and foliage across the little pond, and those bright trunks and leaves were casting reflections on the water. Focus was on the mid-field, where a cattail leaf folds over another one. I think the distance was about what you might call "normal" portrait distance.
First the Rokkor at f2, legendary bokeh:
Next the f2 CV 65. Bokeh is very close. There was a little bit more light on the foliage at this point, so I think it is a bit contrastier naturally:
Rokkor focus point (midfield at f2, not a strong point)
cv at f2 :
I expected at f2.8 the rokkor would step up the sharpness quite a bit while the CV would start to show structured bokeh. But I think the bokeh is still pretty close.
Rokkor f2.8:
cv f2.8:
focus point rokkor f2.8 (maybe my focus was off?):
cv f2.8
by f4 the Rokkor is getting pretty sharp. But surely the bokeh of the cv will be getting ragged, as I would expect? No. Running pretty even still.
rokkor 58 at f4:
cv 65 at f4:
This time bokeh details:
rokkor f4:
cv f4:
It's funny, I "feel" like the CV is not a bokeh lens particularly. I tend to have an expectation that the CV might struggle to have good bokeh once it is stopped down a bit -- and it certainly can if the scene is very contrasty. But in a test like this it's hard to pick the Rokkor as being particularly better at bokeh, while it's clearly struggling in sharpness in the midfield before f4.
