Sunday, July 13, 2014

Lenses On The 645Z

Just back from a quick series of infinity landscape test shots, somewhat into the sun (lens shaded by hand), f 11 because that's what I shoot 90% of my landscapes and industrials at.

Conclusions

25 mm. edges ok but corners are a bit soft - useable but frustrating for the cost of the lens - exactly as Lloyd Chambers reported. Mind you my Zeiss 15 wasn't perfect, but this is worse - useable, probably ok in most prints, and better for the auto correction in Lightroom, but not ideal.

35 mm. - sharp corner to corner - nothing to criticize.

75 mm. - sharp corner to corner

120 mm. - tack sharp - the best I have, and contrasty, which the other sharp lenses aren't

150 mm. - sharp

200 mm. this is the old version, one lens element less - and sharp only in the centre - not even edges (which is fine, it didn't fit in my bag).

300 mm. - sharp , though a bit low in contrast. Can't comment on corners as lack of depth of field prevented checking, even at 300 yards.

I don't have the 55 or 90 - can't see paying for the 90 when the 120 is so good, and do I really need something between 35 and 75 - so far my experience says no.

3 comments:

Ian Moore said...

Hi George - this is Ian in England....I'm looking at buying the 645Z....the lenses you quote in this blog are the new 645Z dedicated lenses or the older 645 lenses from the 645D (or even older?). Would appreciate a fuller description of each one Thanks & Regards , Ian Moore (in Boston , England)

George Barr said...

Ian asks about various generations of lenses - all the lenses i own are pre digital era, exc. the 25 that I bought new with the camera. The 35, 75 and 120 are manual focus A lenses, the 200 and 300 FA, the 25 is DFA implying recent and waterproof. The two lenses I don't have are the 55 that came out with the 645D, and the 90 IS macro that came out with the recent 645Z.
At least part of the practicality of the 645 for landscape (where atufocus is entirely unnecessary) is that the lenses can be obtained inexpensively. They only down side is that there is no coding to the metatada so you can't look up what lens you used.

Michael Reichmann of Luminous Landscape seems to be having some success with the two zooms he uses 40-80 and 150-300.

Ian Moore said...

Thanks George....very interesting....I also have a couple of lenses from the 67ii era which I plan to try using the Pentax adapter. Thanks again , Ian