tashley
Subscriber Member
So we've all seen the posts of fuzzy shots from this lens, noticed that it is late arriving and that it doesn't feature at all in the current Phase special offers. We've also seen the post here quoting Phase's lens tech guys saying that the fuzzy edges are within tolerance.
I, however, have a clear memory of a shot that Michael Reichmann had on his review of the lens (a shot that is no longer there but I am really quite sure about this) which demonstrated the lens as being reasonably sharp to the corner.
So I bought a S/H one at my dealers the other day having tested it and found it not perfect by a long shot, but better than the loaner Phase version I had, and by a long shot.
And I am really growing to like it. Over large parts of the frame, and as long as stopped down to the F8-11 range, it's pretty damned good.... sort of authoritative in its drawing. So here are some examples including a direct comparison to the edge performance of the loaner I had.
First, a centre crop at F11 ISO 100 1/25th Sec, tripod MUP to show what I mean about 'authoritative drawing':
View attachment 11413
Now two strips from about centre to left hand edge. The first I have posted before and is the shot at F5.6 from the loaner version I had. The second is an almost identical shot but with the S/H lens I just bought, same aperture.
View attachment 11415
View attachment 11414
Very interesting. This lens is a little unsharp at the right hand edge even at F11 but nothing terrible and I totally think it's useable with a bit if care - and it was about 15% of the price of a new one. I also think this means that when Phase have got the QC issues sorted, there will be a perfectly viable TS solution for use on the Phamiya body - and that has to be good news!
Tim
I, however, have a clear memory of a shot that Michael Reichmann had on his review of the lens (a shot that is no longer there but I am really quite sure about this) which demonstrated the lens as being reasonably sharp to the corner.
So I bought a S/H one at my dealers the other day having tested it and found it not perfect by a long shot, but better than the loaner Phase version I had, and by a long shot.
And I am really growing to like it. Over large parts of the frame, and as long as stopped down to the F8-11 range, it's pretty damned good.... sort of authoritative in its drawing. So here are some examples including a direct comparison to the edge performance of the loaner I had.
First, a centre crop at F11 ISO 100 1/25th Sec, tripod MUP to show what I mean about 'authoritative drawing':
View attachment 11413
Now two strips from about centre to left hand edge. The first I have posted before and is the shot at F5.6 from the loaner version I had. The second is an almost identical shot but with the S/H lens I just bought, same aperture.
View attachment 11415
View attachment 11414
Very interesting. This lens is a little unsharp at the right hand edge even at F11 but nothing terrible and I totally think it's useable with a bit if care - and it was about 15% of the price of a new one. I also think this means that when Phase have got the QC issues sorted, there will be a perfectly viable TS solution for use on the Phamiya body - and that has to be good news!
Tim