Differences of XCD 38v?

[usm]

Hi. Are there differences in quality between actual and 1 to 2 years old XCD 38v lenses?
Did Hasselblad change anything between the first patches and the actual lenses?

There where some users they had problems with corners…?

Meaning buying a 3500 clicks lens should be the same as a new one, right?

thanks. Mario

 

[Paul2660]

There have been user reported QA issues on all the new V lenses. From what I have read if you get a good one it’s a stellar lens. Best to make sure you can have an option to return it after you test it.

Paul

 

[MGrayson]

The problem with XCD V lenses is that, unless you know what the edges and corners are supposed to look like, you can't be sure you have a good copy. If the aberrations are asymmetric, you know it's bad. But soft corners? Some extraordinary lenses have soft corners wide open, so that isn't dispositive. I'm with @Paul2660 - make sure you can return it if you're not completely satisfied.

Matt

 

[usm]

The problem with XCD V lenses is that, unless you know what the edges and corners are supposed to look like, you can't be sure you have a good copy. If the aberrations are asymmetric, you know it's bad. But soft corners? Some extraordinary lenses have soft corners wide open, so that isn't dispositive. I'm with @Paul2660 - make sure you can return it if you're not completely satisfied.

Matt

Do you have an example of asymmetric aberrations?
Didn’t you sent back a bad XCD lens? Was it the 21 or 28?
Can I see it on the camera screen?
Thanks

 

[usm]

How to test/provoke asymmetric aberrations?

 

[MGrayson]

Do you have an example of asymmetric aberrations?
Didn’t you sent back a bad XCD lens? Was it the 21 or 28?
Can I see it on the camera screen?
Thanks

I returned my first 28P directly to Hasselblad and purchased a second copy from CI. I returned my first 25V to CI and they got a replacement for me.
You can see it on a camera screen when magnified.

Here is CI's test of my first copy. (Thank you, Brad Kaye and @Steve Hendrix ) Wide open. Images are Center, Left, Right

There are VERY few (like only this one) medium format lenses with this focal length and aperture, so it's not a given that the performance here counts as poor. That it's much worse on one edge, though, is a sign of a misaligned lens.

Here's their test of the second copy. (EDIT: This is at f/5.6 - My mistake. I did not mean to mislead here. I just screwed up.)


It goes without saying that I am very happy with this lens.

Matt

 

[PeterA]

Goodness gracious Matt - that is an eyebrow-raising difference. Quality control with lens scarcity is a bit of a hill to climb.

 

[Ai_Print]

I bought and returned both the 38V and 55V last Fall as both had asymmetric aberrations which to be honest, blew my mind for lenses costing over $7K as a pair. I got lucky with my 28P right out of the gate though and the 55V I bought this year is well centered, super sharp with corners that get soft as one would expect in a compact F2.5 prime.

For Leica level pricing, one should be able to expect better QC than this but as stated above, buy from a dealer with a good return policy.

 

[jng]

I returned my first 28P directly to Hasselblad and purchased a second copy from CI. I returned my first 25V to CI and they got a replacement for me.
You can see it on a camera screen when magnified.

Here is CI's test of my first copy. (Thank you, Brad Kaye and @Steve Hendrix ) Wide open. Images are Center, Left, Right

There are VERY few (like only this one) medium format lenses with this focal length and aperture, so it's not a given that the performance here counts as poor. That it's much worse on one edge, though, is a sign of a misaligned lens.

Here's their test of the second copy.


It goes without saying that I am very happy with this lens.

Matt

Doing a proper test is not always so straightforward, since parallelism is very difficult to achieve in Brad's demonstration and one doesn't always have the building on the far side of Central Park that Matt used to establish that his original copies of the 28P and 25V were decentered. I wonder whether a quick and dirty star centering test - place Siemens star's dot at center, defocus, and observe whether the out-of-focus halo is rendered symmetrically (OK) or asymmetrically (not OK) - would have picked up these deficiencies. All that said, I was struggling with a lens that was clearly rendering the opposite edges differently but appeared to be perfectly centered using the star test. So ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

John

 

[usm]

I returned my first 28P directly to Hasselblad and purchased a second copy from CI. I returned my first 25V to CI and they got a replacement for me.
You can see it on a camera screen when magnified.

Here is CI's test of my first copy. (Thank you, Brad Kaye and @Steve Hendrix ) Wide open. Images are Center, Left, Right

There are VERY few (like only this one) medium format lenses with this focal length and aperture, so it's not a given that the performance here counts as poor. That it's much worse on one edge, though, is a sign of a misaligned lens.

Here's their test of the second copy.


It goes without saying that I am very happy with this lens.

Matt

Thanks for that. One question: The first test is with f 2.5 the second test with f 5.6.
Why?

 

[usm]

But what I can read out of these comments is that it is not an effect of the age. A new one could be misaligned and a one year old demo lens also.
The demo lens has the same guarantee as the new one.

 

[MGrayson]

Thanks for that. One question: The first test is with f 2.5 the second test with f 5.6.
Why?

Damn.

It's because I'm an idiot and didn't notice that the second one was at f/5.6. I guess that makes my example a lot less convincing. Let's just go with the first test that shows the asymmetry of the first copy.

M

 

[MGrayson]

All right. Here's a shot across the park with the old copy (left edge 100% crops)


Here's this morning's horribly back-lit attempt to get the same scene, although I'm one set of buildings to the left here. Wide open, I promise!



Matt

 

[Paul2660]

That first lens was a mess for sure. Glad you got it straightened out. I have used the 25V and the example I was able to rent was excellent. I can't speak to the issue of focus shift as I don't worry about it with modern software sharpening. I realize that Lloyd feels that all the V lenses are terrible and has written extensively to this on his blog. I don't pay for the site, just at times read his free blog.

Paul

 

[nazdravanul]

My very early 38v, bought new, was very good. My xcd 30 and 45, both bought used, are just better

 

[hcubell]

The problem with XCD V lenses is that, unless you know what the edges and corners are supposed to look like, you can't be sure you have a good copy. If the aberrations are asymmetric, you know it's bad. But soft corners? Some extraordinary lenses have soft corners wide open, so that isn't dispositive. I'm with @Paul2660 - make sure you can return it if you're not completely satisfied.
Matt

Yes, that’s so true. When the XCD 25V was first released, I was lucky to be able to purchase two copies so that I could evaluate them side by side. One copy was excellent and discernibly better than the other copy, but that was with serious pixel peeping on a Siemens star test chart. In day to day real world photography using advanced sharpening software, I am Not sure that I would notice the difference in a print.

 

[usm]

I bought a new one. Here are the test from the corners. First f2.5, second f8. The camera was on a tripod (Novoflex carbon, Arca Swiss P0 hybrid, Arca Swiss L-bracket) in portrait orientation. Left_top, right_top, left_bottom, right_bottom:

 

[nazdravanul]

I bought a new one. Here are the test from the corners. First f2.5, second f8. The camera was on a tripod (Novoflex carbon, Arca Swiss P0 hybrid, Arca Swiss L-bracket) in portrait orientation. Left_top, right_top, left_bottom, right_bottom:
View attachment 215644View attachment 215645

Hmm, the first obvious question: what's with the serious colour shift / cast between corners and the various shots ? (the colour cast changes between the stops, and the various corners)

 

[MGrayson]

I bought a new one. Here are the test from the corners. First f2.5, second f8. The camera was on a tripod (Novoflex carbon, Arca Swiss P0 hybrid, Arca Swiss L-bracket) in portrait orientation. Left_top, right_top, left_bottom, right_bottom:
View attachment 215644View attachment 215645

Upper left looks a tad softer wide open, but it’s not terrible. Certainly great at f/8.
I think I’m going to make some synthetic examples of images with different MTF curves. Sigh. Another long post is likely to come of it….

Matt

 

[usm]

Hmm, the first obvious question: what's with the serious colour shift / cast between corners and the various shots ? (the colour cast changes between the stops, and the various corners)

The light is mixed with a window in my back on a sunny/cloudy day. For colorcast I have to repeat the test.