Guy Mancuso
Administrator, Instructor
Been wanting to run this test. I was waiting for Capture One lens profile so I can see how it does. One issue when testing something like this is being level and it seems with anybody I pick Nikon, Sony there on screen level is close but not 100 percent accurate. As much as i tried it looks like I'm pointing up ever so slightly. Obviously you can fix this in post before or after the lens profile is applied. It kind of bums me out a little but the best I ever used in any camera setup was a tech cam. Okay 40k less I can live with it. LOL
It just does not make me as accurate as I wanna be but you get the idea here( I'm just very anal when testing). What I did was shoot raw and jpeg so ignore color differences and such. This test is to see how the lens profile works. I have in camera distortion correction turned off on the jpegs and the raws i applied the lens correction in Capture One. So it is the identical shot. I left a little room on the sides so you can see more clearly the vertical adjustment. Anyway the Batis 85mm is known to have about 3 percent distortion which for a mid tele is pretty high. I checked sharpness and I'm not seeing any visible effect on loss of sharpness after the lens profile so that is the good news. The distortion is fixable so for critical work it really looks like a simple pin cushion which is also good so a easy fix... Anyway onto two sets of images
Just for the record Im not posting it but the Batis 25. I can barely see any distortion.
I should ad here a lot of folks have been asking me about the Batis 85 and Sony 90mm Macro. I have to say I never seen two lenses in the same family focal length that are pretty darn equal yet different. Its really a tough call. The 85 1.8 is amazingly sharp wide open to the point I hit the nyquist level for moire' sometimes even wide open so its sharp as a laser. The corners get it really going around F4 and its fast, light weight and the A7rII love it in regards to AF, eye AF, Continuous Af and so on. So it fits the system very very well. Than you see the 90mm macro and its a freaking laser which is awesome but damn does this make the chose harder . It is slower , bigger and heavier so there is a trade off. All I can recommend is try them both or if you have special speed needs than the Batis will not disappoint and even if you don't do much macro the 90 is killer good. Good news on the 90 you can buy it today get it tomorrow. The Macro has less distortion as well so if that bugs you on the 85 you have a option. Im honestly stuck for a definitive buy this one over that one scenario. They are both so good.
It just does not make me as accurate as I wanna be but you get the idea here( I'm just very anal when testing). What I did was shoot raw and jpeg so ignore color differences and such. This test is to see how the lens profile works. I have in camera distortion correction turned off on the jpegs and the raws i applied the lens correction in Capture One. So it is the identical shot. I left a little room on the sides so you can see more clearly the vertical adjustment. Anyway the Batis 85mm is known to have about 3 percent distortion which for a mid tele is pretty high. I checked sharpness and I'm not seeing any visible effect on loss of sharpness after the lens profile so that is the good news. The distortion is fixable so for critical work it really looks like a simple pin cushion which is also good so a easy fix... Anyway onto two sets of images
Just for the record Im not posting it but the Batis 25. I can barely see any distortion.
I should ad here a lot of folks have been asking me about the Batis 85 and Sony 90mm Macro. I have to say I never seen two lenses in the same family focal length that are pretty darn equal yet different. Its really a tough call. The 85 1.8 is amazingly sharp wide open to the point I hit the nyquist level for moire' sometimes even wide open so its sharp as a laser. The corners get it really going around F4 and its fast, light weight and the A7rII love it in regards to AF, eye AF, Continuous Af and so on. So it fits the system very very well. Than you see the 90mm macro and its a freaking laser which is awesome but damn does this make the chose harder . It is slower , bigger and heavier so there is a trade off. All I can recommend is try them both or if you have special speed needs than the Batis will not disappoint and even if you don't do much macro the 90 is killer good. Good news on the 90 you can buy it today get it tomorrow. The Macro has less distortion as well so if that bugs you on the 85 you have a option. Im honestly stuck for a definitive buy this one over that one scenario. They are both so good.
