Michael Carter
Veteran
With all the interest in 35mm film lenses for DOF converter use, thought I'd post the results of some testing I did this week.
I'm a long-time product & fashion shooter, using Nikon gear. (I used to shoot product shots with a 4x5 view camera, but I haven't touched that thing in ages... Digital is just too attarctive for my uses). Had a shoot this week -- tabletop handbags & accessories on white seamless. I was shooting around f5.6 until I really needed to hold deeper focus, so I beefed up the lights and went to F22. Retouching the shots in Photoshop, I found the f22 shots were noticeably soft. Soft enough that I re-shot a few.
Now, I've read plenty of lens reviews mentioning the sweet-spot Fstops for lenses, but didn't give it much thought as I only used 35mm for fashion in the past and generally shot from f2.8 - f5.6. But yesterday I grabbed a few lenses, propped up a software box (good non-scientific test pattern, with text and offset dots to judge sharpness). For those thinking of a 35mm adapter on an HVX, you may find this interesting.
My Nikon 50mm 1.8 -- likely the most common first-lens for a DOF adapter with a Nikon mount -- was soft at f1.8; decent at 2.8; better at 4.5... but only reached its maximum resolution at f5.6; with softness growing rapidly at f8 and beyond.
My Nikon AF 18-35 3.5/4.5 short zoom (considered a damn good lens at $400, the next step up being about 3x the price) was sharpest at 5.6, wide and zoomed, with f8 looking good as well when zoomed. Suprisingly, an older Sigma 28-70 2.8 AF was as sharp as the Nikon, from f4.5 to f8. Re-googling a bumch of Nikon lens review boards shows similar focus ranges for a lot of Nikon glass.
For a DOF adapter, recording hi-def, I'm guessing there's a lot of shooting at f1.8 to f4.5, what with the light loss inherent in the setup. Food for thought -- you're really losing a lot of HD resolution at those Fstops (though as stated, the 50mm was "good" at 2.8). I also tested a few other lenses, including my beloved 85mm 1.8, with similar results.
Starting to wonder if a Mamiya 645 or 67 lens mount might be worthwhile... that's some dang fine glass...
And also wondering -- how do Cinema primes stack up in this regard??
Hope someone finds this interesting! --MC
I'm a long-time product & fashion shooter, using Nikon gear. (I used to shoot product shots with a 4x5 view camera, but I haven't touched that thing in ages... Digital is just too attarctive for my uses). Had a shoot this week -- tabletop handbags & accessories on white seamless. I was shooting around f5.6 until I really needed to hold deeper focus, so I beefed up the lights and went to F22. Retouching the shots in Photoshop, I found the f22 shots were noticeably soft. Soft enough that I re-shot a few.
Now, I've read plenty of lens reviews mentioning the sweet-spot Fstops for lenses, but didn't give it much thought as I only used 35mm for fashion in the past and generally shot from f2.8 - f5.6. But yesterday I grabbed a few lenses, propped up a software box (good non-scientific test pattern, with text and offset dots to judge sharpness). For those thinking of a 35mm adapter on an HVX, you may find this interesting.
My Nikon 50mm 1.8 -- likely the most common first-lens for a DOF adapter with a Nikon mount -- was soft at f1.8; decent at 2.8; better at 4.5... but only reached its maximum resolution at f5.6; with softness growing rapidly at f8 and beyond.
My Nikon AF 18-35 3.5/4.5 short zoom (considered a damn good lens at $400, the next step up being about 3x the price) was sharpest at 5.6, wide and zoomed, with f8 looking good as well when zoomed. Suprisingly, an older Sigma 28-70 2.8 AF was as sharp as the Nikon, from f4.5 to f8. Re-googling a bumch of Nikon lens review boards shows similar focus ranges for a lot of Nikon glass.
For a DOF adapter, recording hi-def, I'm guessing there's a lot of shooting at f1.8 to f4.5, what with the light loss inherent in the setup. Food for thought -- you're really losing a lot of HD resolution at those Fstops (though as stated, the 50mm was "good" at 2.8). I also tested a few other lenses, including my beloved 85mm 1.8, with similar results.
Starting to wonder if a Mamiya 645 or 67 lens mount might be worthwhile... that's some dang fine glass...
And also wondering -- how do Cinema primes stack up in this regard??
Hope someone finds this interesting! --MC