Hoods add too much size for me in general, I'd rather just keep them off. Mine are all mostly small compact lenses and it's not too difficult to just use a hand to block the sun and hold the camera with the other.
Yogifi wrote:
Hoods add too much size for me in general, I'd rather just keep them off. Mine are all mostly small compact lenses and it's not too difficult to just use a hand to block the sun and hold the camera with the other.
Would rather get the space / appearance savings.
Yeah, to each their own.
Here is an example, an indeed sloppily taken image:
No filter to worry about, no front lens cap, just take off the rear (in this case Viltrox :-)) lens cap and mount it.
As for me, I always wear protection An under-appreciated aspect of hoods is that they shield the lens front element from light rain, which is pretty useful for someone like me living in England. It's not so much that I'm worried about the lens being damaged; it's more that raindrops cause the image to blur etc and are a pain to mop up when you're trying to shoot on the go. (If anyone can recommend a decent hood for the Panasonic 18-40 on L-Mount, let me know - seems that even Panasonic don't offer a hood for it even if one is willing to pay!)
I just got my copy of this lens, and tried the firmware that came with it out of the box 20250814 and the one posted here 20250811, and actually have a slight preference towards 20250814 which seems to be a bit better at dark conditions, but also honestly, they are very close.
Are people here really finding 20250811 much better?
647k41 wrote:
I just got my copy of this lens, and tried the firmware that came with it out of the box 20250814 and the one posted here 20250811, and actually have a slight preference towards 20250814 which seems to be a bit better at dark conditions, but also honestly, they are very close.
Are people here really finding 20250811 much better?
For me, the 20250811 version reduced the focus hunting issue at higher aperture. It is still there but much better than the official release of the firmware.
Received the lens a couple of hours ago. Took some test shots, although I had a Glimmerglass filter (strength 1) on, which probably affected the sharpness a little bit. Will do some further testing tomorrow.
In theory yes. I can never quite get along with that lens between the high degree of distortion and meh color/contrast. Having said that, it has produced some really nice photographs for me over the years in the right situations— I should give it another try. I do always like an aperture ring.
I had ordered directly from TTA and it arrived yesterday. My USB dock seems to be dead—I've tested it with three different cables on two different computers and neither machine recognizes that there's a device plugged in.
I asume there is no other way to check or update the lens firmware?
Can anyone give a synopsis of what the various FW updates were addressing? After some quick test shots, my lens seems to be quite sharp, I don't notice any extreme vignetting (and definitely none of the hard-edged type that was discussed early in this thread), and it seems to focus pretty well. Maybe a bit more hunting than I'd like in low-light situations, but nothing too horrible so far.
nehemiahphoto wrote:
In theory yes. I can never quite get along with that lens between the high degree of distortion and meh color/contrast. Having said that, it has produced some really nice photographs for me over the years in the right situations— I should give it another try. I do always like an aperture ring.
It's a bit hard to really like the FE 28/2. How hard is personal I guess. I don't care about problems related to distortion and the color and contrast is, at least often, fixed in post with a couple of presets. The end result is, as you say, some character.
I don't use any of these two lenses if I am looking for any kind of perfection.
Yes, a good lens has an aperture ring, par definition.
VetraLens wrote:
I had ordered directly from TTA and it arrived yesterday. My USB dock seems to be dead—I've tested it with three different cables on two different computers and neither machine recognizes that there's a device plugged in.
I asume there is no other way to check or update the lens firmware?
[...]
First, and probably already done: Check that your USB cable can transfer signals and not only power. Then make sure you really insert the USB-C connector properly in the lens connector. You may have to push harder than usual. Another guy had the same problem and it was solved this way - so no guarantee in your case.
If you are happy with the lens AF performance you don't need to fix it. The unofficial beta of fw v2 I share (version 250811, page 8, post #14) improved AF a bit, see Fred Miranda's comment on page 9, post 10.
Jonas B wrote:
First, and probably already done: Check that your USB cable can transfer signals and not only power. Then make sure you really insert the USB-C connector properly in the lens connector. You may have to push harder than usual. Another guy had the same problem and it was solved this way - so no guarantee in your case.
If you are happy with the lens AF performance you don't need to fix it. The unofficial beta of fw v2 I share (version 250811, page 8, post #14) improved AF a bit, see Fred Miranda's comment on page 9, post 10.
Thank you, Jonas! I got a little rough with the cable and it worked
My lens is FW 202508141557 so it looks to be as updated as possible. Now to start testing against my other compact 40ish lenses.
Some more pictures (without a diffusion filter). I think the lens is plenty sharp, and vignetting isn't bad. I just wish there was an Adobe profile for it to correct the distortion.
An under-appreciated aspect of hoods is that they shield the lens front element from light rain, which is pretty useful for someone like me living in England. It's not so much that I'm worried about the lens being damaged; it's more that raindrops cause the image to blur etc and are a pain to mop up when you're trying to shoot on the go. (If anyone can recommend a decent hood for the Panasonic 18-40 on L-Mount, let me know - seems that even Panasonic don't offer a hood for it even if one is willing to pay!)
