The GetDPI Photography Forum

Great to see you here. Join our insightful photographic forum today and start tapping into a huge wealth of photographic knowledge. Completing our simple registration process will allow you to gain access to exclusive content, add your own topics and posts, share your work and connect with other members through your own private inbox! And don’t forget to say hi!

D800/E and Leica R Lenses

Roger:

When your 28mm comes, be sure to read Erwin Puts' description of it when pixel peeping. I was obsessing over my copy not being perfect to the edge of the frame, but it actually was performing like Mr. Puts described.

In regards to lens profiles in Lightroom, when did they come out? I downloaded Lightroom 4 last week and I only saw Leica M and S lenses in the profiles.
Rob,profiles here

Download Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw 7.3 Beta - Adobe Labs

Way to obtain sharpness on full field is to focus on side/corner full open and than stop down to required aperture. (depth of field is greater on the far side)

Sergio
 

robsteve

Subscriber
Way to obtain sharpness on full field is to focus on side/corner full open and than stop down to required aperture. (depth of field is greater on the far side)

Sergio
Sergio:

I just did a bit of testing and you are correct, except when the lens is at its optimum aperture, which is f5.6. In this case the center is much sharper with more contrast, when focused to infinity. As you top down from f8 to f11, the performance in the center is about equal i focused using the edge of the frame. I did not test f2.8 and f4, nor try to find a compromise focus between the edges sharp and the middle sharp. I jus used Live view on the side of the frame.

This may explain why some Leica lenses do no focus at infinity on digital. Leica probably fine tuned the infinity setting just shy of infinity to factor field curvature and other lens properties into the calibration.

I am off to my young son's basketball game. I will be shooting with the 50 and 85mm Nikon G lenses, but I also converted my 180mm f3.4 APO and may try a few shots with that. On the DMR, I would use the 180mm APO Summicron, but I sold that lens last week in my transition to Nikon.
 
Sergio:

I just did a bit of testing and you are correct, except when the lens is at its optimum aperture, which is f5.6. In this case the center is much sharper with more contrast, when focused to infinity. As you top down from f8 to f11, the performance in the center is about equal i focused using the edge of the frame. I did not test f2.8 and f4, nor try to find a compromise focus between the edges sharp and the middle sharp. I jus used Live view on the side of the frame.

This may explain why some Leica lenses do no focus at infinity on digital. Leica probably fine tuned the infinity setting just shy of infinity to factor field curvature and other lens properties into the calibration.

I am off to my young son's basketball game. I will be shooting with the 50 and 85mm Nikon G lenses, but I also converted my 180mm f3.4 APO and may try a few shots with that. On the DMR, I would use the 180mm APO Summicron, but I sold that lens last week in my transition to Nikon.
Your test corresponds to my findings.
When stopping down to 5,6 you must slightly compensate for focus shift,to center the focus area.
You can see the results on the test targets of the previus post.
I have the 180 3,4 and it is also a splendid and underrated lens.
Good luck to the young player...
Sergio
 
Roger - I struggle with the same focusing / composing / screen challenge on the 800E with any manual focus lens.

For tripod based work I use a simple hotshoe mounted HDMI monitor. I currently use a Sony, but am thinking of upgrading to a SmallHD electronic viewfinder (see smallhd.com). Still need to figure out how that would work with my glasses.

Sorry for the OT reply.
Does this solution has better resolution on screen than the original camera screen?? Or is it just for the bigger screen area?
 
Sergio

Great examples . You seem to have the R on D800E very well understood . I found a new old stock 28EM which should come today or monday . Waiting on the chips from Leitax to allow me to calibrate my D800E s (using default for Ai-s lenses in the AF adjustment menu) . I have converted the 50 and 80 summiluxes .

Adobe just released lens calibration profiles for most of the R lenses in the new CS and LR releases .

Biggest limitation left for me is the viewing screen . The after market brightscreen and katzeye etc seem to be leaving the D800 out . I am used to focusing on the screen and not recomposing .
Thanks Roger.
Thanks also for the info on lens calibration profiles. Downloaded, and very
good, especially useful for elmarit 19 and 28.
The fact that Adobe decided to create these profiles is a clear indication of increasing interest on r lenses.
(sooner or later, focusing problem will be solved, when live view viewfinders on full frame cameras will reach adequate quality)
Sergio
 

robsteve

Subscriber
Sadly, there is no 180mm f3.4 APO profile, just the 180mm APO Summicron.

Here is the 180mm at the basketball this afternoon. The venue had evening sunlight coming in one end providing very odd lighting for basketball. I am at the cottage this weekend and processed this on my ancient MackBook Pro, so forgive any colour problems. It looks a little over sharp on the laptop too, but was just regular Capture One 7 settings. This was with the 180mm f3.4 at f3.4.

 

robsteve

Subscriber
I also used the Leica 28mm Elmarit-r for the basketball. This one was processed in Lightroom with the lens corrections.

 

glenerrolrd

Workshop Member
Rob

How would you compare the color between C1/7 and Lr4? The RED s are very different which one is accurate ? Other observations ?
 

robsteve

Subscriber
Roger

I don't think the basketball images are a good comparison for the two processors because the 180mm shot was lit with sunlight from the windows and the 28mm was lit by mixed lighting. It was a brand new building put up a couple years ago, so I have no idea what the lights are.

If I get a chance today, I will try the 28mm shot in both. It was balanced off a grey card shot of the area under the basket, but some of the players may be lit by reflected light off the floor.

edit:

Here are the comparisons. Keep in mind I am working off an old MacBook Pro that hasn't been calibrated since 2009. On both images, the grey card colour balance was used for the colour balance settings. I used shadow recovery and fill or whatever it is called in Lightroom these days to bring up the two subjects with the ball.

Here is the Lightroom version:


This is Capture 1 version 7.
 
Last edited:

robsteve

Subscriber
I took the time today to try the 90mm Summicron on the D800E and compare it to the Nikkor 85mm f1.8 G lens. In the end, the Nikkor was sharper across the frame, the Leica images looked better when not pixel peeping. I am in the process of uploading the test shots, but in the meantime, here is my dog Bea shot on the Summicron and the 85 G, though on different days and different lighting.

The first is the Summicron, shot at 100iso and f2.8. I should have chose a higher ISO to get a higher shutter speed.



This is the 85mm f1.8 G at 1600iso and an overcast day.

 

robsteve

Subscriber
Here are my 90mm Summicron and 85mm Nikkor f1.8 G tests. I found the 90mm Summicron focus shifts, so I reshot the the test image for the crops. The full size image is the one with the focus shift, but it is not noticable in a small image and I wanted to keep comparable lighting to the Nikkor image for the big picture comparison. I used tripod, MLU and live view focusing, focused on the bricks on the right of the building.

I will put the labels at the bottom of the photos.


This is the full frame of the 90mm Summicron at f8.





This is the full frame of the 85mm Nikkor at f8.





The 90mm Summicron crop.





The 85mm Nikkor crop.





This is the 90mm Summicron near the right side of the frame.





The 85mm Nikkor near the right side of the frame.
 
Last edited:

Paratom

Well-known member
I took the time today to try the 90mm Summicron on the D800E and compare it to the Nikkor 85mm f1.8 G lens. In the end, the Nikkor was sharper across the frame, the Leica images looked better when not pixel peeping. I am in the process of uploading the test shots, but in the meantime, here is my dog Bea shot on the Summicron and the 85 G, though on different days and different lighting.

The first is the Summicron, shot at 100iso and f2.8. I should have chose a higher ISO to get a higher shutter speed.



This is the 85mm f1.8 G at 1600iso and an overcast day.

The Summicron looks slightly "better" to my taste (overall look).
On the other side ... can you focus manually accurate with a D800 except live view?
 
V

Vivek

Guest
Nikon G image is the hands down winner. Sharpness, OOF areas, the light and more importantly the composition.
 

robsteve

Subscriber
Nikon G image is the hands down winner. Sharpness, OOF areas, the light and more importantly the composition.
The Nikon image was pretty good considering it was one of the first shots I took when the D800E arrived.

Though the images are not similar, I find the Nikon out of focus objects a bit too refined and a swirly sort of bokeh like the old Zeiss lenses. For example, the tree branches or the leaves in the left background in the Nikon image.
 
V

Vivek

Guest
I look at "bokeh" as a tool for composition. It can not stand on its own. What good is a lens if it can not get the job at hand done? For the dog action shots, the two examples are like night and day.
 
Top