An Autumn wander with my MF 135mm Sunagor f2.8

-halli-

-halli-

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I took my 400D and M42 135mm Sunagor f2.8 lens around the garden at the school where I teach. (a request from a user on another forum) and thought I'd share them here.

Pics straight from the camera, resized with no sharpening or colour/contrast adjustment.

I'm new to this MF stuff, and my new prism viewfinder screen is messing with the metering too - so a lot for me to work with!

All wide open, unless stated

EDIT TO ADD MORE EXPLANATION: I was contacted to take some random images using the lens at different apertures, this is why there are multiple images at different f stops. This is also why no PP was done to the images initially. It was purely an exercise in testing the lens and giving me a bit more practice in manual focussing (I need it!) Not a lot of thought went into the composition of the images, I only had 5 minutes while the kids were having playtime.

1.
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2.
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3.
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4. f2.8
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5 f5.6
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6. f11
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100% crop of first image

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Also, remember the above images have had no PP applied to them at all, and I'm no expert photographer ;)

A couple of the above images with some PP (though again, I'm no expert)

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Anyone else have some constructive crits about the images? I've got to learn somehow.
 
Mike Jackson said:
What were you trying to achieve with the images? I'm afraid they do nothing for me.
Click to expand...

Just what I said in the OP. A wander with the lens to take pictures for someone on another forum. They had a similar lens and I offered to take some random pics at different apertures.
 
Well - to be honest, as a set of test shot's for a lens, they're a decent enough workout, and illustrate the different DOF that can be achieved pretty well. Sadly, as you say, the exposures are a bit up and down to be honest, which makes comparison harder. Also, while I appreciate you were doing it as a quickie at playtime, the best way would have been to have set the camera on a tripod, got the exposure right with the histograms for the first shot on wide aperture, then just adjusted "by the numbers" - close aperture 1 stop, decrease speed by 1 stop, repeat until lens is stopped all way down - shouldnt take long enough for the light to change that wildly.

And I'd like to add, that the lens looks like it's doing a really nice job when the exposure's right - far from being a candidate for the bin.

I'm not 100% sure that they were posted to the correct area to be honest - I'd say technical reference shots (which is what I'd call a lens test series) might be better in the talk equipment section - presumably you weren't looking for any artistic critique?
 
Halli, I am by no means an expert, but if you are going to test a lens for sharpness, colour contrast and performance at different apertures, then try the following:
Pick a couple of subjects, one with a very wide colour spectrum, well lit and in broad daylight - multi coloured golf umbrella would be good, and another with similar tonal range - small cluster of Autumn leaves, fungi.
Then give the lens a a good workout, going right through the aperture range, using the shutter speed to control things (You may need to choose a medium ISO - 400 - 800 to achieve this).

As the BigYin (love the name, I am chuckling at some of his better jokes now) says, you need to use a tripod, for consistency.

The onset of the digital age has made photography relatively easy, but if you want good results, then you still have to practise and be methodical.
 
Thank you for the feedback, Mark and Andy. Some very helpful pointers. I need to sort out some time to test out all of my recent acquisition of MF lenses (around 20 various lenses) and will give them a proper work out. If I concentrate on one a week I shouldn't lose motivation.

And practice is something I definitely need more of. Especially with the exposure side of things since putting in the prism screen. Even just changing the aperture on the AF lenses can result in inconsistent results. Allowing the camera to automatically adjust the speed with the MF lenses (manual stopping down) results in even more inconsistent results depending on the aperture selected.

If I've posted in the wrong section, perhaps a friendly Mod could move it, please?
 
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