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I was thinking about buying a 28mm lens for one of my cameras, but, I didn't want to sink a lot of money in a lens I might not use much (something I have done in the past). I remembered I had bought a 28mm Soligor lens that would fit my Konica Autoflex TC a couple of yeas ago. Now Soligor lens are reputed to be cheap low quality lenses. If memory serves me correctly I paid $12 for this one. I also have a 40mm Konica Hexanon that is reputed to be very sharp. In fact many people are buying this lens and using it on Sony mirrorless cameras. I decided to put both lenses through their paces and see what happened. Now I don't shoot test patterns. I like my tests to be more like something I might shoot in real life. I went to Chatham National Monument a near by park.
First of field of view. Exactly how much wider is a 28mm than the 40mm. I like to use 40mm as a normal lens. Notthe usual 50mm lens, which, I find a little long in many situations. Standing in the same spot I took a shot with each lens F11 at 1/125 sec. hand held. Once scanned I put a black border on the 40mm image and imposed it over the 28mm lens image. I resized the 40mm to get a close match. This shows the wider field of view but really doesn't tell us much about sharpness.
The next shots were of a cannon with Chatham Manor in the back ground. First shot was with focus on muzzle of cannon and second shot was with focus on shutters on Chatham Manor. All shots were set at F11 1/125 sec. hand held. Again I put a black border on the 40mm lens image and imposed it over the 28mm lens to show field of view. Still doesn't tell us much about sharpness.
Next I cropped the muzzles and shutters where I focused the camera from each image and pasted them all on one image. Still a little hard to draw a conclusion. So I cropped the muzzle area and shutter area into images to show details.
The muzzle images: 28mm images on top row and 40mm images are on bottom row. First column images are focused on Chatham Manor the second column focus is on muzzle. Clearly the 40mm is the sharper lens.
The shutter images: Here the 28mm images are in first column and the 40mm images are in the second column. The images in the top row are focused on the muzzle of the cannon and the bottom row of images are focused on the shutters. Here things are much closer. The difference between the images where the focus is on the muzzle of the cannon are negligible. The images where the focus is on the shutters, the 40mm may have a slight edge but practically speaking there is no difference.
Conclusion: The tests give me more of a feel for how wide a 28mm lens is, but, I would need to shoot it some to really decide if it is something I would use of enough to justify the cost of another lens. Up close and personal the 40mm is the sharper lens, in the distance they are a dead heat. The Soligor lens did better than it's reputation would suggest.
First of field of view. Exactly how much wider is a 28mm than the 40mm. I like to use 40mm as a normal lens. Notthe usual 50mm lens, which, I find a little long in many situations. Standing in the same spot I took a shot with each lens F11 at 1/125 sec. hand held. Once scanned I put a black border on the 40mm image and imposed it over the 28mm lens image. I resized the 40mm to get a close match. This shows the wider field of view but really doesn't tell us much about sharpness.
The next shots were of a cannon with Chatham Manor in the back ground. First shot was with focus on muzzle of cannon and second shot was with focus on shutters on Chatham Manor. All shots were set at F11 1/125 sec. hand held. Again I put a black border on the 40mm lens image and imposed it over the 28mm lens to show field of view. Still doesn't tell us much about sharpness.
Next I cropped the muzzles and shutters where I focused the camera from each image and pasted them all on one image. Still a little hard to draw a conclusion. So I cropped the muzzle area and shutter area into images to show details.
The muzzle images: 28mm images on top row and 40mm images are on bottom row. First column images are focused on Chatham Manor the second column focus is on muzzle. Clearly the 40mm is the sharper lens.
The shutter images: Here the 28mm images are in first column and the 40mm images are in the second column. The images in the top row are focused on the muzzle of the cannon and the bottom row of images are focused on the shutters. Here things are much closer. The difference between the images where the focus is on the muzzle of the cannon are negligible. The images where the focus is on the shutters, the 40mm may have a slight edge but practically speaking there is no difference.
Conclusion: The tests give me more of a feel for how wide a 28mm lens is, but, I would need to shoot it some to really decide if it is something I would use of enough to justify the cost of another lens. Up close and personal the 40mm is the sharper lens, in the distance they are a dead heat. The Soligor lens did better than it's reputation would suggest.
Curating Your Work
I got this idea from someone on YouTube and I apologize to him because I don't remember who it was. He suggested if you want to build a portfolio of your best work to pick a category such as cars. His suggestion was the first roll of cars select the best five images and copy them to a separate folder. The next roll you pick the best five images and copy to this folder and then delete five images. Over time you should build a group of really good images. You can vary this to suit your needs. Let's say you want to make a photo book that contains 20 images. You do same thing except you keep 20 images in your folder. I plan to do a slight variation of this with the diptych photos I post here and on Instagram. After each roll is edited I will pick what I think are the best five and copy to a post folder. After image is posted I will delete from post folder. This will save time scrolling through computer looking for photos to post and wondering did I already post this
Inexpensive Color Film???
I thought I might try some color film and was shocked at the prices of color film and processing. Looking around I did find a place with some inexpensive film at $5.76 a roll it is a bargain compared to most color film. Fujifilm 200 35mm | Bay Photo Film I ordered five rolls for a which came out to $7,27 a roll including tax and shipping.
365 Project 2024
The last couple of years I become bored with photography. Too much the same stuff the same look. Last year I decided I wanted to shoot film, again and took trips to Colonial Beach to take photos. That kind of fizzled out too much traveling. Too much other stuff going on. I am hoping the 365 Project for 2024 will motivate me to photograph more. I am changing the way I photograph. 365 Project for 2024 Plan (the plan is still evolving): Half frame cameras only Portrait format only Photos to be in diptych format Minimum one diptych each day Photos of something in my life I bought two half frame 35mm cameras that are point and shoot. These cameras have one f stop, one shutter speed and no focus. One meter minimum focus distance. This reduces photography to the essentials. Since these are half frame cameras you get two exposures in the same space as one 35mm negative (hence half frame). I intend to try and make as many diptychs as possible using adjacent
Matt Marrash - Youtube - large format
If you are considering getting or using a 4x5 camera. Matt Marrash's youtube channel is a good place to start and in my opinion of the best. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnNpToTfpj8
© 2016 - 2024 rdungan1918
Comments9
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As TLO-Photography says, some Soligor lenses are quite reasonable, especially the earlier ones. Soligor was originally the other half of the company that was parent to Miranda, and many (all?) Miranda branded lenses were actually made by Soligor. Later it became a "name" slapped on lenses made by Cosina et al, and the quality slipped somewhat.
You are quite reasonable in your preference for a 40mm lens; if you apply the "diagonal of format" rule the "correct" standard focal length for 35mm is 43mm! We seem to have arrived at 50mm by something of an historical accident, probably something to do with Leitz (most fundamental things to do with 35mm can be traced to the design of the original Leica!) Of course, Pentax went even further out with it's early SLR's, being one of the companies that plumped for 55mm. I tend to wobble between 35 and 50mm.
All in all a rather fun exercise! The visual perception of sharpness is horrendously complicated, with a number of factors involved, so really you just have to go with what you like; unless you make a habit of using Pan F developed in Perceptol and make huge enlargements most lenses will comfortably outperform the film/print combination......
You are quite reasonable in your preference for a 40mm lens; if you apply the "diagonal of format" rule the "correct" standard focal length for 35mm is 43mm! We seem to have arrived at 50mm by something of an historical accident, probably something to do with Leitz (most fundamental things to do with 35mm can be traced to the design of the original Leica!) Of course, Pentax went even further out with it's early SLR's, being one of the companies that plumped for 55mm. I tend to wobble between 35 and 50mm.
All in all a rather fun exercise! The visual perception of sharpness is horrendously complicated, with a number of factors involved, so really you just have to go with what you like; unless you make a habit of using Pan F developed in Perceptol and make huge enlargements most lenses will comfortably outperform the film/print combination......