Fun with the Lumix/Leica 45 macro

[jonoslack]

Ahhhhhh peace and tranquility in macro land.....:thumbs:

After a moderators heart . . I notice that my super duper is no longer red and throbbing - have I offended Jack?

Diane - thank you - It's tough isn't it, everybody wants to know . . . but just having the lens for a few days doesn't even make me 'know' (let alone being able to communicate it!).

Vivek - you taught me to shoot brick walls!!! (not really). I usually do it with new lenses, but not actually with this one yet. Normally to check if they're decentered etc. - I must be getting lazy!:sleep006:

Jonas - I will attempt never to spell your name wrong again :salute:

Amin - It's so much better for the blood pressure

all the best

 

[Vivek]

My post (post #48) was not aimed at you. It was my opinion regarding whether certain things can be learned from small, resized images, and no place did I ever say that I was talking about you.

I think we should just take a lesson from Jonas and Jono and simply drop it.

You did, with your "guess". If you read my earlier post regarding the "bite" (for which Jono responded), you would realize those guesses were wrong.

 

[Vivek]

Vivek - you taught me to shoot brick walls!!! (not really). I usually do it with new lenses, but not actually with this one yet. Normally to check if they're decentered etc. - I must be getting lazy!:sleep006:

Decentering goes out the window when the OIS is activated, no?

BTW, I've been checking out a few diopters with the 45-200 zoom. At 45mm, slower than 1/100s, handheld (~1/4 to 1/3X magnifications), OIS does not seem to help and appears to mush up the images.

 

[Amin]

Amin - It's so much better for the blood pressure

Agreed. I'm going to let it go.

 

[jonoslack]

Agreed. I'm going to let it go.

you should just see what I've been going through on LUF :deadhorse::wtf:

But the 45 macro is still a little gem:

 

[Amin]

Beautiful, Jono. I am sorely tempted!

 

[Terry]

Ahhh my sweet little lens has arrived. Went out shooting for a while this afternoon (yes I buzzed out of work a little early) but I mostly missed the light. You want macro shots? ooooops

Yes, this was from the 45 macro.

 

[Bob]

Terry,
Infinity works, and looks quite nice.
Next oh how about a shot of George Washington or maybe the eye of Horus at 1:1?
-bob

 

[ggibson]

Looks good, Terry!

Where'd you get it from? I've been crossing my fingers for Panasonic direct to get it, but nothing so far.

 

[slau]

Terry,
Infinity works, and looks quite nice.
Next oh how about a shot of George Washington or maybe the eye of Horus at 1:1?
-bob

Bob,
How can you tell from Terry's shot that the 45f2.8 macro lens works well for infinity? I haven't shot enough macro shots or used enough macro lenses to know if that lens work for infinity from looking at Terry's shot. Just need some education. Thanks.

Btw, my shooting buddy has been using his 45 macro and is quite happy about it. He bought his from Japan a little more than a month ago.

 

[Bob]

Bob,
How can you tell from Terry's shot that the 45f2.8 macro lens works well for infinity? I haven't shot enough macro shots or used enough macro lenses to know if that lens work for infinity from looking at Terry's shot. Just need some education. Thanks.

Btw, my shooting buddy has been using his 45 macro and is quite happy about it. He bought his from Japan a little more than a month ago.

There are three distances over which I tend to evaluate macro lenses.
1) Infinity (or lets just say far away) this is sometimes a challenge for many macro designs which have been optimized for close range work. I consider any reasonable level of sharpness at infinity a good thing for a macro and I think that although there might have been better test subjects there is adequate contrast in it to give a sense of contrast and sharpness.
2) Portrait distance. This depends on focal length. Looking for sharp eyes, dof for background separation and pleasing oof areas. A good macro lens will be very useful for head and shoulder shots.
3) Real close up. This is what the lens should be optimized for and for sure ultra-sharp in-focus areas and pleasing oof areas are the hallmark signature of a good macro lens.
-bob

 

[jonoslack]

Ahhh my sweet little lens has arrived. Went out shooting for a while this afternoon (yes I buzzed out of work a little early) but I mostly missed the light. You want macro shots? ooooops

Well - it's a lovely shot, macro or not.
How are your general feelings?

 

[Brian Mosley]

Bob,

we'd need at least a 100% crop to judge sharpness... and so Jono's vague question is probably going to be more useful.

I'd just love to see a lot more portrait examples - with varying light and background conditions.

Plus, maybe a few entries to our 'Photographing your bokeh' thread

Thanks Terry,

Kind Regards

Brian

 

[Bob]

Bob,

we'd need at least a 100% crop to judge sharpness... and so Jono's vague question is probably going to be more useful.

I'd just love to see a lot more portrait examples - with varying light and background conditions.

Plus, maybe a few entries to our 'Photographing your bokeh' thread

Thanks Terry,

Kind Regards

Brian

Actually, I HAVE seen a sample of lens perform at 100% based on my tests at Yodobashi.
-bob

 

[Brian Mosley]

Aha! then will you please share your own general feelings with us?

Cheers Bob

Brian

 

[Joan]

Congrats on your new lens, Terry. Look forward to seeing more shots as soon as you have the chance.

Jono, love the bowl of lemons, beautiful.

I am half thinking I might sacrifice my 14-140 to get this ... would that be insane? I seem to use the long end of the zoom mostly to get in close for "macro type" shots anyway, so it really seems like I might be happy doing that.

 

[Terry]

Sorry, for leaving you without impressions, before posting, I was trying to sort some picturess out. It didn't help that yesterday started with a phone call from a friend (in a different time zone) at 4:19am. When I finally said "do you know what time it is" she replied "yes, but you are always awake anyway" . That was followed by a 3 hour conference call starting at 5:15am on our 2010 plan :lecture: and then to work and a dinner until 10:30 PM.

The lens is small and light. It's little shorter than two 20mm pancakes stacked. Anything non-macro in distance is a complete breeze to focus and the lens is fast and sure. Once you get really close, I've have had the focus rack in and out but I also haven't really worked out the working distances and want to work with changing around the size of the focus box.

So far I only have some macro test shots of some flowers around the apartment and some tests of specular hightlights. This weekend I will do more and will try and get some input from Jono and post it all in the new review section.

First up...during the conference call the sun was just beginning to rise. from my bedroom. The lights in the upper left are the Bay Bridge.

Not well exposed and not critically sharp but pretty low light ISO 800 f2.8 1/20

Looking at the bokeh - as Jono's pictures have pointed out, simply lovely.

Ok, lets move to portrait distance (ok not a good joke)

Yes you can get infinity focus and get good detail-excuse color of water user error on making the jpeg.

On my way home from the bridge I was caught in some rush hour traffic so what's a girl to do. Play with lights. So I focused close on the dashboard of the car and then lifted the camera to get the lights from the streets and the cars and see what happened. Yes, I know this needs to go in the "photographing your bokeh" thread...just there is really no subject matter here just trying to see how they rendered.

yellow + red is the car in front of me

same idea at f9

So, I will formalize all of this over the weekend

 

[JBurnett]

Looking at the bokeh - as Jono's pictures have pointed out, simply lovely.

Yeah, my initial impressions (based on the announced specs, DPR's review, and the price) are rapidly changing. Thank-you Terry, Jono and others for providing some illustrative pics, and first-hand experience.

 

[Roel]

Terry & Jono,

Thanks for posting your images from this lens. It looks like this lens won't be available in Canada for a while (where I live)... what was your experience like buying it from a vendor in Japan?

Take care,

 

[Bob]

My general impression of the lens, as much as one can get in a camera shop, is that its detail rendition is pleasing at ong and close distances and that its bokh is very nice to my eye.
When I evaluate a lens for my personal use, I usually do not critique it for absolute sharpness or microcontrast or whatever, but look to see if the combination of its optical and handling characteristics on-camera generate both results and a shooting experience that I find rewarding.
I have lots of sharp and soft lenses and they are good for different things.

I would say that the sharpness of this lens both center and in the corners is acceptable for routine use as a mid-tele in the micro four thirds format.
Close-in, it produces nicely with no obnoxious color-cast with the sharp edge contrasting nicely and set-off by its pleasant bokh. Close-in focusing seems to hunt a bit but locks after sweeping almost full stroke.
In summary, I would buy this lens and feel pretty good about using it.
-bob