The Offering

The Offering -- 5D & EF 85mm f1.2 @ f1.2. Larger Picture.

Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of the passing of my mother-in-law. She witnessed the first day of a new millennium before she went. Very kind and loving woman. She's still missed.

As an annual ritual, the family prepared and offered to her her favourite foods on her anniversary.

Vivitar 28mm f2.0 Part 4 -- Sharpness Test

For many days, I was looking for my tripod. Finally found it couple days ago. Perfect timing for the Vivitar 28mm f2.0 sharpness test. This is the first "serious" sharpness test I have done for a lens, and I learned that I didn't have to do the previous vignetting test at all, as the sharpness and vignetting test can be done at the same time. Oh well, live and learn. Better planning next time.

First thing first. This is not a scientific test. Please take it with a grain of salt. Also, copy variance exists, so this lens may perform better or worse than yours. I take no responsibility and no guarantee of the results will resemble your lens.

Also, the test images were shot as RAW + Jpeg (L). I used the camera generated jpeg files instead of converting the images from RAW. I think this equalizes the results across all of the images. The RAW file, when converted, is slightly sharper with better quality. If you need the RAW file, leave a comment and I will send you a copy.

Finally, doing test like this is tedious and boring. It takes up a lot of time, but I hope the results are usable for you if you are thinking of buying one of these lenses used.

Test setup:
Lens -- Vivitar 28mm f2.0 Ai-S mount, serial #28409972.
Lens Condition -- Excellent physically and cosmetically. No sign of abuse.
Adapter -- Cheap Focus Assist Ai to EOS adapter. Focus Assist feature not used
Camera -- Canon 5D with EE-S screen to aid manual focusing. Mirror lockup and timer used
Tripod -- Volbon Carmagne 630 carbon fiber tripod
Tripod Head -- Acratech Ultimate Ball Head
Test Target -- Wall

Summary of test --It's a nice little lens. Quite sharp even wide open at the center. Moderately heavy vignetting until f4. As expected, far corners performance isn't very good but improves a lot by f8. You can see the barrel distortion in the full picture. Sorry I don't have software or instrument to test the amount of distortion, but it's visible.


Full Image. A little under exposed -- Larger Picture.


Wide Open at f2. 100% Crops. Larger Picture.


Half a stop down at f2.5. 100% Crops. Larger Picture.


One stop down at f2.8. 100% Crops. Larger Picture.


f3.5. 100% Crops. Larger Picture.


Two stops down at f4.0. 100% Crops. Larger Picture.


f4.5. 100% Crops. Larger Picture.


Three stops down at f5.6. 100% Crops. Larger Picture.


f6.3. 100% Crops. Larger Picture.


Four stops down at f8.0. 100% Crops. Larger Picture.


f9.0. 100% Crops. Larger Picture.


Five stops down at f11.0. 100% Crops. Larger Picture.


Minimum Aperture at f16. 100% Crops. Larger Picture.

Love Birds

Walking on Queen & Church -- 5D & Leitz 120mm f2.5 Projection Lens. Larger Picture.

Got a Leica Hektor 120mm f2.5 Projection lens the other day and was itching to see what kind of picture I can get from it.

Lonely Bench in Snow

Lonely Bench -- 5D & Leica Summicron 90mm f2 @ f2.5, ISO 1000. Larger Picture.

You may be wondering why most of my recent pictures are of evening and at night. The answer is simple. I am busy working during the day, and by the time I am off work, the winter evening is already like night time.

Homeless in Toronto

Homeless -- 5D & Vivitar 28mm f2 @ f2. Larger Picture.

This picture is unfortunately too common in Toronto. I see this everyday in the downtown core each day I ride my bike to work, even in the frigid cold winter weather. In the shadow of many happy people, there are some who are less fortunate. I am sure it's not unique to Toronto, but it's a social problem that all of us, and the government, must face.

Locked Wheels

Wheels -- Canon 5d & Hanimex 105mm f2.8 T-Mount. Larger Picture.

Vivitar 28mm f2.0 Part 3 -- Vignetting & FlareTest

Like most fast lenses, this Vivitar 28mm f2 (Komine version), vignettes pretty severely wide open. However, it's basically gone by f4. One of the nice touches of this lens is the half-stop settings. You can set half stops from f2.5 to f11, and between f11 and minimum aperture of f16, there is no half stop.


Vignetting Test from f2.0 to f3.5. Please excuse the dirty sensor. Larger Picture.


Vignetting Test from f4-f8. Please excuse the dirty sensor. Larger Picture.

In terms of flare, it didn't fair too well wide open, but improves quite a bit as aperture closes down to about f4. I did not use a lens hood. It might have been better if a hood was used. To be honest, this was expected as most older lenses were not very good at flare control, even with multi-coating, as in this one. But, this kind of condition is tough on even the best of lenses.


Flare test wide open at f2.0. Larger Picture.


Flare test at f4. Two stops down, must better. Larger Picture.

Next up, sharpness test.

My Take for 2010 in Photography

2009 was a great year for photography. The biggest advances I see is 1) full 1080p movie introduced by Canon for its 5D Mark II, and followed by Panasonic with its DMC-GH1, and 2) usable ultra high ISO. In 2010, more manufacturers will jump on the 1080p movie wagon with their DSLRs, and high ISO performance will get even better.

Canon will likely introduce the long waited full frame EOS 3D. This will fill the gap between the 1D Mark IV and 7D. 7D prices will be lowered to around $1500CAD by mid 2010. The 7D is a nice camera but image quality, when compared to the 5D II, still leaves a lot to be desired. The 3D will get 1D IV image quality with slightly lower frames per second. Of course, we will see the 1Ds III replacement this year.

Canon will likely introduce a new Rebel can do real 1080p video at 30 frames per second. In the lens department, we will see a few new lenses that updates the existing focal lengths, and perhaps a couple of completely new designs.

The mirrorless micro 4/3 cameras has been a big hit in 2009. I think this took many manufacturers by surprise, even Panasonic and Olympus. The EP-1/EP-2 and GF1 has a big impact on Sigma's DP-2. Sigma may be forced to introduce a Foveon based micro 4/3 camera. This will only be good news for Foveon as well as micro 4/3 lovers. To some, this will be a marriage made in heaven.

Samsung as already introduced the NX10 mirrorless micro 4/3 competitor. The success of this platform is hard to guess. On one hand, it's has a larger APS-C sensor, with slightly more pixels, which may translate into better low light performance. On the other hand, the NX10 uses a completely new mount, and no one else does.

Ricoh's GX-R is an odd ball camera system, and will remain a niche product. I don't see the GX-Rs flying off the dealer's shelves any day soon, due to its radical design and high price.

To conclude, I don't think there will be any revolutionary products for 2010. We will continue to get better and more usable high ISO range and excellent image quality from all manufacturers. More cameras will have 1080p capabilities, including the only camera maker that does not have movie mode in their DSLRs--Sony.

2009 in Review

In terms of equipment, 2009 has been a year of changes for me.

2009 started uneventfully and for the first few months, nothing really much happened.

In April, I sold my old and trusty Canon 1Ds (mark I). That camera brought me many memorable frames and was used a lot during its short 10 months that I got it. I love the image quality in the low ISO, but despise the tiny, horrible LCD, slowness, and high ISO noises.

Also in April, I bought my first NEW digital camera in many years, the Panasonic DMC-G1. It has become the most heavily used camera for me, at least for the first six months or so. I have shot close to 18,000 frames with this fun little camera. Mounting all kinds of lenses on it. Great kit lens, decent image quality but not comparable to Canon files. This camera had a defect since day one. The first frame was invariable over exposed, sometimes by as much as 2 to 3 stops. The camera was sent in and fixed.

August, 2009, I bought a used Canon 5D (mark I) and started using it more than the G1. I am still amazed at the image quality this old but great little camera that revolutionized the low end full frame market. The only complain I have is that many manual focus lenses would hit the mirror of the 5D, that worked fine on the 1Ds/1D II/30D. This is the camera I take with me when going out in the evenings. Pair it with a 50mm f1.2L or 85mm f1.2L, it's almost like a dream made in heaven. One other minor gripe is the dust in sensor.

September, 2009. Sold my 1D Mark II. This is probably the longest held camera I have had. Love the image/handling/speed of this beast. Only sold it to buy the 1D III, which turned out to be a mistake. The 1D III is a great camera, except for the auto focus module. Regardless how I configured the auto focus system, it work well most of the time, but the keeper rate is far below that of the 1D Mark II. Image quality of the 1D III is exceptional, especially in the high ISO range.

November, 2009. Sold the 1D III. I had become sort of more comfortable with it, but could not fully trust its auto focus system. Can't live with a camera I can't trust. It's from this month on that I have been using the 5D more and more. I can hardly find any fault with it except dust in sensor, and the mirror clearance issue with manual focus lenses.

December, 2009. One major lens purchase of the year -- the Kinoptik 210mm f2.8 Special Cine lens.

As you can see, I have spent most of my efforts on cameras. But, there are few lens acquisitions as well as lenses sold.

Leica R -- Bought 28mm f2.8, 35mm f2, 50mm f2, 90mm f2. Got rid of the 90mm f2.8 Elmarit, which is probably a mistake.

Cine Lenses -- Few cine lenses were bought, including Kodak 25mm f1.9, 50mm f1.6, 63mm f2, 152mm f4. Also got a few exotic c-mount lenses, including Taylor & Hobson 25mm f1.4, Kern-Pillard 50mm f1.4, 25mm f1.4, 75mm f1.9. Angeneiuex 75mm f2.5.

This year I started to blog. First on LiveJournal and then here on BlogSpot.

Looking forward, I will be doing more in depth reviews on old lenses I have, to help those who are looking for information on used lenses but could not find any details on them.

2010 will be a GREAT year!!!!

Happy New Year!

I would like to wish everyone who reads my blog a very happy new year! Wish you happiness, good health, and lots of gear that Santa forgot to bring you on Christmas.

Cheers!!!