Guy Mancuso
Administrator, Instructor
Needless to say i have been through several 35mm lenses for the Sony A7 series cameras. Here is the latest lens I am trying now. Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Aspherical Lens which as you see this test your going to wonder why bother about this lens if your a landscape shooter and you would be correct. It has a lot of filed curvature to the point if you focused squarely on the middle of the frame your corners will not look reasonable until F8. Now I have not tried this but my belief is if you actually focused out of the center zone stopped down to F5.6 the DOF would carry until the middle zone. A test to be done. But centrally this lens is very sharp and it has a lot going for it as a environmental portrait type lens or street because it has great color, great falloff, and yes take advantage of the bokeh from the OOF areas and I will show some images later on bokeh, onion rings and such. I tested my Loxia 50 F2 at the same time so Ill just show some samples of that to compare against the VC 35 centrally and a corner so you have a reference on what your looking at but keep a open mind as this is a very nice lens but it is not your grandmas flat field lens, maybe your evil cousin. LOL
Later in this thread even though shot at different times and days i do run the same boring test on every lens at the same place the same spacing and all that and that will give us some idea how this lens and others get into our bags. This is going to take a bit as i have to find everything
But lets start with the VC 35mm 1.7 Ultron. BTW this is as small as a small lemon.
As you can see it struggles with the corners. I also ran a infinity test focused on a middle mountain and same result. I believe if you focused before infinity and stopped down you could get a sharp image over the full frame. But if you shoot landscape this maybe not the perfect lens for you IF you care about corners or are very anal about them. Again keep a open mind on usage and what you have in your hands on subject.
Now centrally its very nice, check this out against my Loxia 50
Another test in different area
Just a full image at 5.6
Okay moving on lets compare a few lenses at 5.6 which doing landscape type work maybe the minimum you would stop down. I usually use F8 and F11 if its a DOF issue but need to watch diffraction at F11
But 5.6 is a good comparison aperture. Now remember all these lenses are different test days so there could be some variable . But Im always the same framing as I move the camera depending on focal length but my frame of reference is always those two top lights. Its why i go to the same boring place all the time as i can compare lenses at different times i run the test. I know your all falling asleep. LOL
Tamron 35mm 1.8 SP lens
Now Im going to try and find similar images from other lenses . Obviously that will take some time but I will add those to this thread.
Infinity test
Later in this thread even though shot at different times and days i do run the same boring test on every lens at the same place the same spacing and all that and that will give us some idea how this lens and others get into our bags. This is going to take a bit as i have to find everything
But lets start with the VC 35mm 1.7 Ultron. BTW this is as small as a small lemon.
As you can see it struggles with the corners. I also ran a infinity test focused on a middle mountain and same result. I believe if you focused before infinity and stopped down you could get a sharp image over the full frame. But if you shoot landscape this maybe not the perfect lens for you IF you care about corners or are very anal about them. Again keep a open mind on usage and what you have in your hands on subject.
Now centrally its very nice, check this out against my Loxia 50
Another test in different area
Just a full image at 5.6
Okay moving on lets compare a few lenses at 5.6 which doing landscape type work maybe the minimum you would stop down. I usually use F8 and F11 if its a DOF issue but need to watch diffraction at F11
But 5.6 is a good comparison aperture. Now remember all these lenses are different test days so there could be some variable . But Im always the same framing as I move the camera depending on focal length but my frame of reference is always those two top lights. Its why i go to the same boring place all the time as i can compare lenses at different times i run the test. I know your all falling asleep. LOL
Tamron 35mm 1.8 SP lens
Now Im going to try and find similar images from other lenses . Obviously that will take some time but I will add those to this thread.
Infinity test
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