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Anyone using the Coastal Optics 60mm??

J

jagsiva

Active member
Anyone out there with this lens for both IR, normal colour, and full-spectrum use?

I have read the DL articles and they praise the lens highly. I am assuming that with LV focussing for IR, the "no IR shift" capability of this lens is somewhat irrelevant....of course notwithstanding all its other great qualities.

Cheers.
 
T

Tejpor

Guest
jagsiva said:
Anyone out there with this lens for both IR, normal colour, and full-spectrum use?

I have read the DL articles and they praise the lens highly. I am assuming that with LV focussing for IR, the "no IR shift" capability of this lens is somewhat irrelevant....of course notwithstanding all its other great qualities.

Cheers.
Click to expand...
It appears that no one here does multispectral work and/or you asked no real question? So no replies... Then I dare to direct you to another forum, namely NikonGear (Nikongear), where the "father of multispectral imaging" Bjorn Rorslett, and others actually have and use the Coastal 60mm.
 
J

jagsiva

Active member
Thanks, will go take a look. I did see the site come up in a few searches, but needed registration, so I thought I'd stay close to home here. Will go check there regardless. In any case, I have one coming this week along with 2 modified D800's (one full-spectrum,a nd a second for 720nm).

Will post feedback shortly.
 
V

Vivek

Guest
I had the pleasure of trying out one (very briefly) from its creator, Brian Caldwell, a few years ago. It is fabulously made. As it is mentioned in the pdf data, it is a diffraction limited lens. So, even wide open, it is great (not just good). Congrats!

The forum mentioned has a long thread but is open only to subscribers. If you just register, it won't do you any good.

I foresee one problem with your set up- the 800s will create problems when doing long exposures as Nikon have put an IR sensor near the shutter curtain to ascertain accuracy. This will interfere with any imaging at slow shutter speeds.
 
V

Vivek

Guest
Tejpor said:
It appears that no one here does multispectral work and/or you asked no real question? So no replies... Then I dare to direct you to another forum, namely NikonGear (Nikongear), where the "father of multispectral imaging" Bjorn Rorslett, and others actually have and use the Coastal 60mm.
Click to expand...
No disrespect to Bjørn but he is not the father of multispectral imaging or ultraviolet imaging or infrared imaging. He certainly is a well regarded photographer in these areas.
 
J

jagsiva

Active member
I got the lens today, and on the D800E, it is better than any other glass I have in that focal range. The 200F2 may be close, but it is a different beast altogether. I should have my two modified D800's tomorrow, cannot wait to give this thing a go on them...will update with images shortly.
 
T

Tejpor

Guest
Have you managed to do some shots? Not many images float around the web, and Lloyd's samples are rather tiny and mundane. It would be interesting, for example, how the Coastal lens behaves during night city shots. Flaring/ghosting, "sunstars", shape of lights, color fringing...
 
J

jagsiva

Active member
Some samples with the Coastal Optics 60mm.

these are processed with defaults using C1 7. Focus was on the house number. All at F8. RAWs and JPGs are available here:
https://www.dropbox.com/home/IR

Two shots comparing in visible light - D800E 85/1.4G and CO 60F/4
85G


CO60


Two shots comparing in 720nm IR - D800 modified on sensor 85/1.4G and CO60/F4

85G


CO60/F4


All shots done in manual focus on LV via Camranger. Manual exposure and WB.

Findings so far:
1. Interestingly, WB appears different from each lens, even though both used the same custom WB.

2. In visible light, both lenses are quite good. The Coastal has more neutral colours. Also not seen in this test, but at wider apertures, the coastal has almost no fringing or colour shift.

3. In IR, it is a different story. The Coastal is clearly resolving better.

I also have a full-spectrum D800 with on lens filters as well that I need to put through the paces.

Feel free to download and play with the raw files.

Cheers...
 
P

paulraphael

Member
jagsiva, can't get any links to work, and the dropbox link isn't leading to a public folder ... it's asking for login info ...
 
J

jagsiva

Active member
Also not sure what Nikon and Dropbox are doing to the files. Make sure you download the files if you want to make any serious comparisons.
 
T

Tejpor

Guest
I think you have done a great service to the photographic community by providing RAW files with these interesting lenses. So now everyone can see themselves for real the performance of these.

What I gather from these samples, that even under demanding, low-contrast conditions, the lenses deliver high contrast. I'm surprised how good the bokeh of the CO 60mm is, very smooth even in the foreground with no trace of purple outlining.

I do not want to push your patience, but if you could post e.g. wide-open results under high-contrast conditions, and/or some night shots, that would be also very revealing! :)
 
V

Vivek

Guest
jagsiva said:
All shots done in manual focus on LV via Camranger. Manual exposure and WB.

Findings so far:
1. Interestingly, WB appears different from each lens, even though both used the same custom WB.



.
Click to expand...
What kind of filters did you use for the visible light captures?
 
J

jagsiva

Active member
Vivek said:
What kind of filters did you use for the visible light captures?
Click to expand...
No filters. The visible light photos were with an unmodified D800E body.

In visible light, I do feel the 85G, a great lens in itself, with some PP could come close to the coastal...but off-spectrum, I'm not sure there is anything to match the coastal.

Initially, I expected the coastal to be an advantage in focus shift for focussing, and was a little concerned about the cost of it given that LV somewhat equalizes this. However, what I am seeing is that even when the focus is bang-on, the normal visible light lenses are loosing detail. Likely the effectiveness of APO in IR area is not in the same league as the Coastal.
 
V

Vivek

Guest
Well, that answers a few questions.

1. Without a proper UV/IR cut on any lens with a modified D800/E you are capturing Visible light contaminated with IR (trace UV in case of the CO lens).

2. Yes, the sharpness will not be there with a regular lens (like the Nikkor 85) corrected only for Visible light spectrum when IR is also registered.

For proper color balancing with your modified cams, you need a stacked UV/IR cut filter. This blog (Aug 12, 2010) details the perfect solution: Near Infrared Photography | Infrared Atelier's Infrared Photography Blog | Page 7
 
J

jagsiva

Active member
Vivek,

1. Not sure I understand. On an unmodified body, the sensor already has a UV/IR cutoff filter. The visible light photos with both lenses was done with an unmodified D800E, so there should be no UV/IR contamination.

2. The modified D800 used for the IR shots here, has the UV/IR removed and replaced with the 720nm IR cutoff filter on the sensor. So no spectrum below 720nm is captured - this would allow minimal visible light and no UV. So not sure where the UV contamination would be from

3. I also have a D800 converted to full-spectrum. I did not post any shots from this camera, but on this one, I agree, on-lens filters would be required for whatever spectrum you are interested in capturing.

4. Fully agree that the regular visible spectrum lenses do not hold sharpness beyond the visible spectrum. This is one of the special qualities of the CO lens - it corrects from UV all the way through 1000+ nm in the IR range.

5. On the WB, I used a custom WB. Same camera with the 2 lenses. Not sure why the WB differences are as much as they and was more of a question on my part. Thanks for the link, I will have a read. But again, the filter on the sensor is already cutting for UV/IR at 720nm, so not sure of the need for stacking filters on the lens.
 
V

Vivek

Guest
An oversight on my part of your camera details and hence the confusion. Sorry about that! :eek:

The link I posted would only come in handy with your D800 "full spectrum" camera.

On the color change based on a custom WB with different lenses. Not at all unusual. Happens all the time. You would find that even with regular Nikkors (though perhaps not as much of a difference from a broadband transmitting lens such as the CO 60/4).
 
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