Evaluating the cheap focal reducer with "real world" images: part 2

I've been a bit tardy in this review. Poor weather and a busy job would to that I guess. This time though I've gotten a decent variety of images for testing 3 fast lenses with the cheap focal reducer.

The Bower (Samyang) 24mm F1.4 (17mm F1.0), Vivitar (Samyang) 85mm F1.4 (61mm F1.0) and a special case - Spiratone 135mm F1.8 (97mm F1.3).

So, here we have a wide 35mm Equivalent, short-tele/long portrait ~120mm equivalent, and telefocal ~200mm equivalent. When we say equivalent, we're simply comparing focal length of these lenses with what we would need on a 35mm "full frame" sensor to get the same angle of view.

For Part 1, click HERE.




These shots are from the Bower 24mm F1.4 (EF). As far as fast wide lenses go for full frame cameras, this is wide, fast and cheap. So you probably wont expect good optical quality, however I think anyone would be surprised to see how well it does. This is also a good choice for astro-photography.

ISO 200 1/2500 F2.8

ISO 200 1/100 F1.4

ISO 200 1/320 F2.0

ISO 200 1/800 F2.4

ISO 200 1/30 F1.4

ISO 200 1/25 F2.8

ISO 250 1/125 F2.0

Next up we have the Vivitar 85mm F1.4 (K). The lens has been modified slightly. Being a Pentax K mount, it will just work on any EF adapter really, but the lever gets in the way of the mirror on my 5D, so I clipped it off with a dremel. This lens is just fantastic on Full Frame. It's not too long to make it unwieldy, and the smooth bokeh is breathtaking. 

ISO 200 1/640 F2.8

ISO 400 1/10 F1.8

ISO 640 1/160 F1.4

ISO 200 1/500 F1.4

ISO 200 1/800 F1.4

Finally, here's pictures from the titan of the bunch, the Spiratone 135mm F1.8 (YS mount with F adapter). This lens is impressive. It's not much longer than the 85mm, but it's 82mm filter and massive elements immediately tell your brain to put some strength in your arm when picking this up. Then you're surprised because you still should have used a bit more. It's heavy, solid, and will built. It's all metal, with straight, square lines. While prone to flare, it can deliver sharp detail, although some processing may be needed to bring out the best from this beast.

ISO 200 1/1600 F1.8

ISO 200 1/1600 F1.8

ISO 200 1/2500 F2.8

ISO 200 1/1250 F1.8

I'll have to get around to posting how my EP3 looks with these lenses.

Hope you enjoyed this as much as I do :) GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) can be costly, but ofter buying used lenses can be quite cheap.

The focal reducer has gone beyond my expectations. The wider focal lengths are more usable, and the stop extra more light is fantastic. The center of the image shows a small boost in sharpness as well, and since the image is wider, it's also less prone to shake giving a couple advantages for sharper pictures. I haven't found any increase in flare, or odd bokeh.

The 24mm in particular is a favorite of mine, and has supplanted the Panasonic Leica 25mm F1.4 as the "standard" lens on my EP3. It's a combination of the 25mm Focal length, and F1.0 speed.



Happy Shooting!

Evaluating the cheap focal reducer with "real world" images: part 1

Focal reducers really set something off with the mirrorless world. Not only for Micro Fourthirds, which is my "main" system, but also APS-C systems from Fuji and Nex.

Under a Focal reducer, the APS-C systems are "full frame" equivalent, giving the same image with the same lens for a photographer. Micro Fourthirds still gives a bit of a crop with 1.44x, but that's still pretty usable.

I figured I'll try some older lenses and see what I can get with this focal reducer adapter. Not only can it be used with old Full frame lenses, but there's a couple APS-C lenses out there as well, which would be very well utilized to deliver a wide image. I don't have many APS-C coverage lenses, because most would not have an aperture ring. I do have a samyang 8mm fisheye for APS-C. Looking forward to their 10mm lens.

The following Shots are from a Vivitar 17mm F3.5 (Nikon F). The lens is among the widest available from old film days, and delivers decent quality stopped down to F5.6. On the focal reducer, it's still not that fast, bearing F2.5, but it is wider than most MFT lenses, coming in at 12.2mm

ISO 2000 1/25s F5.6

ISO 320 1s F5.6

ISO 3200 1/25s F5.6

These shots are from the 8mm Samyang (Nikon F). Though it's a recent APS-C lens, it's completely manual, including the aperture ring. It should be noted that my copy never focused properly, and has been modified to achieve proper focus. Using this fisheye is very fun. While it is possible to "de-fish" the image to a rectilinear the fun and utility of a fisheye lies in the distorted projection. Ultra wide rectilinear lenses show heavy stretching towards the edge of an image.

ISO 400 1/20s F3.5

ISO 400 1/100 F5.6

ISO 400 1/80s F5.6

ISO 200 1/6s

ISO 200 1/2.5s F3.5

ISO 200 1/6s F5.6

These shots are from the Kiron 28mm F2 (Nikon F). Of all my old lenses, the quality here is probably the lowest. It's not a BAD lens. Few lenses are actually "BAD" This lens when stopped down is decent, but wide open is a little soft. Colors come out fairly well though. My pictures are probably looking repetitive here since my "testing" is really on my way home from my day job. I suck at street photography, so here's what we get. The third picture here looks extremely soft towards the bottom. All in all, I think the lens is quite usable. These pictures look nice and bright when in reality it was fairly dark outside. This is an effective 20mm F1.4, perhaps I should run a test of this vs the venerable 20mm F1.7.

ISO 400 1/80s F2

ISO 400 1/50s F2.8

ISO 500 1/20s

ISO 1250 1/40s F2

ISO 640 1/40s F2

These are the Canon 55mm F1.2 SSC (FD). This mount was converted to EF using the popular "EdMika" conversion kit. This is where we leave behind common thought and see what a $500 40mm F0.86 lens will look like. The focal reducer and 50 F1.2 combine to form a shockingly fast and capable lens. Shots here range from wide open (F1.2) to F2.

ISO 640 1/40s

ISO 200 1/40s F1.2

ISO 400 1/60s F1.2

ISO 200 1/60s

ISO 500 1/60s F1.2

ISO 400 1/60s F1.4

Up next I'll be trying lenses like the 85mm F1.4 and 24mm F1.4 Samyang lenses. I decided to break it up a little since the page loading gets heavy with too many pictures. 

It's interesting to note that even fast lenses on the focal reducer can be sharp and while it wont have as much contrast as stopping down a little, they can have enough contrast.

NB: to add ISO and shutter speed on these pictures comments. Blogger strips EXIF (why?!)