New Canon FD 50mm sharpness test

[slyn4ice]

Hey guys,

I have been an amateur photographer for some time now and the GH1 really opened up some possibilities for me. I recently bought a Rainbow imaging FD->m43 adapter and cheap Canon FD 50mm f1.4 and 70-210mm f4 lenses (both in excellent condition). Since it was my first time ever with manual lens, let alone manual lens on an adapter I wanted to share my findings. I wanted to test the lens sharpness since i read so many reviews about it myself and i wanted to find the sweet spot between sharpness and brightness. So here it is (bear with me - this is the first time i'm uploading a photo so i hope it works fine).

I am going to post the results of the 70-210mm soon.

As a final thought, I love both lens - for the money they cost it gives amateurs like me the ability to play around in a great way

--Canon FD 50mm f1.4--
Ok, I guess resolution was crappy. Here is a link to the whole image:
http://picasaweb.google.com/svetoslav.dankov/Canon50mmF14SharpnessTest#5571409930916453042



--Canon FD 70-210mm f4--
-Here is the link to the first test for the Canon FD 70-210mm (at 70mm):
https://picasaweb.google.com/svetoslav.dankov/CanonFD70210mmF4SharpnessTest#5571662407792671458



-Here is the link to the first test for the Canon FD 70-210mm (at 100mm):
https://picasaweb.google.com/svetoslav.dankov/CanonFD70210mmF4SharpnessTest#5572346586181374114



-Here is the link to the first test for the Canon FD 70-210mm (at 135mm):
https://picasaweb.google.com/svetoslav.dankov/CanonFD70210mmF4SharpnessTest#5572346597777452930



-Here is the link to the first test for the Canon FD 70-210mm (at 210mm):
https://picasaweb.google.com/svetoslav.dankov/CanonFD70210mmF4SharpnessTest#5572346607916450754

 

[itimjim]

There's nothing wrong with the resolution of that 50/1.4 at all. Shows low contrast like internal flare/ghosting at f1.4, but it's great through to about f16. The sides of the images are misleading as they're out of focus at such shallow depth of field wider open. As the aperture closes, the sides begin to get more in focus all the way through to f22.

Ghosting at f1.4 on the FD 50/1.4 is normal behaviour on digital cameras...I've not tried it on emulsion.

 

[slyn4ice]

Oh no, I meant the resolution of the attachment - that's why i linked the Picasa images

But yes, only when it's wide open I have some ghosting. I think the best sharpness/contrast is between 2.0-5.6.