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Available adapters for NEX3/5 thread

volkerhopf

New member
Purple hue shift in the corners using an M adapter and 28 Elmarit

Today I took some photos at midday on a perfect winter day, blue skies etc. On basically all photos I experienced a fairly strong purple hue shift.
Yesterday I took similar photos late in the day and I did not see any shift then, but when I re inspected the shots today I also found traces of purple hue shift.
It is not a big drama because it is easily fixable in Lightroom.
I attach a photo below for demonstration.http://forum.getdpi.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=33101&stc=1&d=1279366744
 

barjohn

New member
What lens were you using? There is no EXIF data with the image. The image seems a little soft like the 18-55 kit but it could be just due to camera shake from the cold winter weather. :)
 

MPK2010

New member
My M adapter arrived early. Initial impressions with a few photos to follow shortly:

Basically clean bill of health, with some caveats: 35 Summarit, 50 1.5 Nokton.
Needs more testing: 35 Skopar.
Failure: CV 15 4.5.

35 Summarit: At f5.6 to f8, the results are superb at all focus distances with no corner smearing whatsoever. Wide open, the results are excellent at close focus through maybe 2/3 of the focus range; as you near infinity focus, the IQ towards the edges slowly begins to decline somewhat -- not m43-style corner smearing, but a drop-off in edge quality that becomes noticeable if you are looking for it (I will try to post examples of this tomorrow). Bokeh sometimes great, sometimes a bit odd. Bottom line: generally great at close- and mid-range focus from wide-open; by 5.6, great across the board.

50 1.5 Nokton: Same pattern as the Summarit but much more disparity wide open between close and infinity focus. At f1.5 to f2, it's really fantastic at close range and the center stays good maybe halfway through the focus range, but IQ becomes disappointing as you get closer to infinity -- edges drop off and a haze sets in over the whole frame. By 5.6, it is stellar at any focus distance. Bokeh sometimes great (esp at close focus), sometimes not. Bottom line: a great look at close range wide open, then great across the board starting at 2.8 and peaking at around 5.6.

35 Skopar: Didn't test this as much but it seemed to have somewhat more IQ degradation towards the edges at infinity than the Summarit; seemed to be very good at close range, although I like the look of the Summarit better and got bored testing this.

CV 15 4.5: Strong magenta discoloration in the corners of every shot. Also, some kind of blurring effect towards the edges at 4.5, 5.6, somewhat at f8. The magenta cast is pretty bad.

So, CV 15 aside, my initial impressions are very positive. The results with the Summarit and Nokton are much, much better than with the 18-55. So far, my impression is that the results are also somewhat better than with equivalent lenses on m43 -- in particular, the color seems deeper and the picture looks less "thin", although the m43 results are already pretty good. The Nokton does better wide open here than on m43.
 
V

Vivek

Guest
CV 15 4.5: Strong magenta discoloration in the corners of every shot. Also, some kind of blurring effect towards the edges at 4.5, 5.6, somewhat at f8. The magenta cast is pretty bad.
Please post some representative shots of these. It would be very useful!

(I never encountered that with my Epson R-D1s!)
 

MPK2010

New member
So here are a few photos. These are snapshots, JPG from camera, imported into Lightroom 3, uncropped (obviously), most with no processing, I think contrast/brightness adjustment on one or two, all exported as JPG at reduced size. Lens and f-stop should appear in the file name. The failure with the CV 15 is first.

I think once we can edit RAW in Lightroom 3, the IQ is going to be very good.
 
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volkerhopf

New member
My M adapter arrived early. Initial impressions with a few photos to follow shortly:

Basically clean bill of health, with some caveats: 35 Summarit, 50 1.5 Nokton.
Needs more testing: 35 Skopar.
Failure: CV 15 4.5.

35 Summarit: At f5.6 to f8, the results are superb at all focus distances with no corner smearing whatsoever. Wide open, the results are excellent at close focus through maybe 2/3 of the focus range; as you near infinity focus, the IQ towards the edges slowly begins to decline somewhat -- not m43-style corner smearing, but a drop-off in edge quality that becomes noticeable if you are looking for it (I will try to post examples of this tomorrow). Bokeh sometimes great, sometimes a bit odd. Bottom line: generally great at close- and mid-range focus from wide-open; by 5.6, great across the board.

50 1.5 Nokton: Same pattern as the Summarit but much more disparity wide open between close and infinity focus. At f1.5 to f2, it's really fantastic at close range and the center stays good maybe halfway through the focus range, but IQ becomes disappointing as you get closer to infinity -- edges drop off and a haze sets in over the whole frame. By 5.6, it is stellar at any focus distance. Bokeh sometimes great (esp at close focus), sometimes not. Bottom line: a great look at close range wide open, then great across the board starting at 2.8 and peaking at around 5.6.

35 Skopar: Didn't test this as much but it seemed to have somewhat more IQ degradation towards the edges at infinity than the Summarit; seemed to be very good at close range, although I like the look of the Summarit better and got bored testing this.

CV 15 4.5: Strong magenta discoloration in the corners of every shot. Also, some kind of blurring effect towards the edges at 4.5, 5.6, somewhat at f8. The magenta cast is pretty bad.

So, CV 15 aside, my initial impressions are very positive. The results with the Summarit and Nokton are much, much better than with the 18-55. So far, my impression is that the results are also somewhat better than with equivalent lenses on m43 -- in particular, the color seems deeper and the picture looks less "thin", although the m43 results are already pretty good. The Nokton does better wide open here than on m43.
Hi,
thanks for your observations. Can you please tell me what brand adapter you bought. I seem to have a problem with my adapter (Jinfinance) very soft images. But the magenta cast with a 28 elmarit is also quite strong.
 

MPK2010

New member
Hi,
thanks for your observations. Can you please tell me what brand adapter you bought. I seem to have a problem with my adapter (Jinfinance) very soft images. But the magenta cast with a 28 elmarit is also quite strong.
I bought the RJ adapter on ebay from jinfinance. It seems to be working well at this point. A couple notes:
-- You can focus past infinity, so the focus scale on my lenses is a bit off, some more than others. Of course, I'd rather have that than the other way around.
-- The fit on the lens side seemed a bit tight at first, and when I tried to take off the Nokton, it actually started unwinding the LTM-M adapter ring instead. After about 10 lens changes, though, it seems to have become much easier to use.
 

MPK2010

New member
Just noticed it is possible to post larger size photos. I have to run, but I'll try to post some larger shots tomorrow, including some more detailed examples of what's going on in the corners.
 

volkerhopf

New member
I bought the RJ adapter on ebay from jinfinance. It seems to be working well at this point. A couple notes:
-- You can focus past infinity, so the focus scale on my lenses is a bit off, some more than others. Of course, I'd rather have that than the other way around.
-- The fit on the lens side seemed a bit tight at first, and when I tried to take off the Nokton, it actually started unwinding the LTM-M adapter ring instead. After about 10 lens changes, though, it seems to have become much easier to use.
Thanks, I bought also from Jinfinance. My normal Leica lenses fit very well. The LTM adapters also, but the 2 C Leica lenses wobble a bit.
 

barjohn

New member
I have two concerns with these adapters. 1) are the truly parallel to the focus plane and sensor? and 2) How precise is the machining when all of us can go past infinity for infinity focus? I guess I have a third question, How do these errors effect lens performance?

As far as the magenta shift, this has been a problem for Leica in the M8 and even M9/ Corner fix may be the only solution for this as long as the corners are relatively sharp. The corners will not be as sharp as the center and in the testing I have seen on Sean Reid's web site that has been rue for virtually all lenses with some having better corner performance than others but usually that was at a price to be paid some where else in the lenses performance. I don't expect performance at the corners that matches the center and to be honest in most images I rarely spend much time focusing on the corner of the picture. I just want decent such that it isn't obvious to the casual observer.
 
V

Vivek

Guest
John, Planarity of the adapter should not be a problem. Machining (RJ, Hawk, etc) are done on pretty sophisticated machines that Novoflex and others use.

Going past infinity is truly trivial. Use the LCD screen to check the focus. This isn't a blind cam (until the LCD fails) to be doing zone focus.

If snaps are made past infinity, then the results will be horrible- no matter if it is a Leica lens or a Lens"baby".
 
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MPK2010

New member
Day 2 with the M adapter, just a few things to add to yesterday's report.

-- For the 35 Summarit, the slight IQ decline I mentioned towards the edges wide open at infinity distance is often very slight to nearly non-existent. It was hard to get decent infinity shots because of the haze today, but below I've posted a shot from yesterday that's maybe about 3/4 of the way to infinity at 2.5 and then at 5.6, with upper right 100% corner crops for each. At infinity, it is usually not too much worse than this, and sometimes better -- i.e., this may not be an issue for most. Again, at closer focus distance and/or stopped down, there is no issue and things look great. For mid-range focus points, sometimes the bokeh is a bit odd; at other times, it is very nice. Overall, the results with this lens are excellent, even without having RAW files to manipulate.

-- For the 50 1.5 Nokton, the IQ issues wide open as you move towards infinity focus are more significant. At 1.5 and generally at 2.0, as you move through the focus range a haze sets in and there is often CA, esp at 1.5. At close focus, on the other hand, it's really great wide open. Beginning at 2.8 and really by 5.6, it is great for any use. Bokeh is great for close-range focus points, sometimes not so hot for mid-range focus points.

-- I tried the CV 75 2.5 a few times today. Seems pretty good wide open, although some CA, very good by about 4.0 or 5.6. So far, I like the look of the Summarit and Nokton better, but this seems like a decent telephoto option and I may use it some more.

-- Did not get a chance to test the 35 Skopar further. Have not tried the CV 15 again since yesterday's magenta corner issues.

I suspect the Summarit or Nokton will stay on this camera most of the time until Zeiss releases primes. I would be very interested to see how a 35 Summilux or 50 Summilux performs.

For the photos, again, lenses and f-stop are in the file name. Focus point for the first photo is "Co.", for the second is the top of the third column. These are JPGs from camera, some minor levels/contrast adjustments in Lightroom 3, exported as JPG. I've played around a bit with sharpening jpgs in Lightroom 3 (but not with these), which is not ideal of course, but the results suggest that when we get RAWs to manipulate in Lightroom the results are going to be really good.
 
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Terry

New member
It takes a lot of patience to test each lens at different apertures and different focus distances. Thanks!
 

MPK2010

New member
It takes a lot of patience to test each lens at different apertures and different focus distances. Thanks!
No problem. I've certainly benefited quite a bit from the tests others here have run with m43 cameras and the Sony full-frames. And I'm sure it would take a lot more patience to test with the kind of rigor you see from people like Sean Reid -- I'm basically just going back to subjects I've shot before and firing off shots at wide open, 1-stop down, 2-stops, etc. Looking forward to seeing what kinds of results you and others get with the M lenses. Glad my adapter arrived early -- the wait is no fun!
 

MPK2010

New member
Ran a few more tests with the CV 15 4.5. I am still getting magenta coloration in the corners. I suppose "strong" is a relative term, but it is very noticeable, especially where the corners are supposed to be white or grey. Seems to be true from wide open at least through f11, haven't tested beyond that. Here are two more examples. FYI -- I am using the M-Mount, not the LTM.

I wonder if the CV 12 or another wide performs better.
 
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MPK2010

New member
MPK2010, do you have the NEX 16mm pancake? would you recommend it over the CV15?
Unfortunately I don't have the 16mm, so I'm not in a good position to make the comparison. If I had to buy either the 16 or the CV 15 this morning for use with the NEX this afternoon, I'd go with the 16 because of the magenta issue on the CV 15. But I'm interested to see more discussion of the 16 as well as other legacy wides and eventually Zeiss offerings.
 
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