The Aesthetic (part 2)

[Clark Nikolai]

34 minutes ago, kye said:

Obviously the shape isn't ideal, as I should round it slightly and especially round the corners, but as a proof of concept, this looks promising.

 

I really like this shape in the bokeh. It reminds me of 1950s graphic designs.

[kye]

9 hours ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

If that's the direction you're going, have you considered a Blazar Mantis?  It's a 1.33x squeeze and has an internal oval aperture to give what they claim to be closer to a 2x bokeh look.  I've looked at them a few times and I personally find their bokeh to be a turnoff, but a bunch of people seem to like them.

Otherwise, it might be worth looking into whether any currently-shipping lenses allow a waterhouse aperture.  I had a modern Petzval for a bit that did.  If it's a waterhouse, you could put tape over the biggest and cut out any shape you want for the bokeh.  I think lensbaby have one or more lenses which have both a standard round aperture and a hole for inserting bokeh-shaping cutouts.  I might even have one around year somewhere from around 12 years ago that I've only used a few times - not for the bokeh cutout, but because the front element of it is on something like a ball head so it can be unlocked and moved freely around to get all Scheimpflug-gy(?).

The Blazar Mantis is an interesting lens, and does reduce the weight from 1.3kg down to 800g but the SB+50/1.8 is only 350g, so pretty hard to beat.  Plus the Mantis is probably 20-50x more expensive!  

The Lensbaby Double Glass has a replaceable aperture, but is 50mm F2.8 so on MFT equivalent to a 100mm F5.6 so pretty slow when compared to the Voigt+Sirui combo which is equivalent to a 68mm F1.5, or the SB+50/1.8 which is equivalent to a 71mm F2.6.  

I'm actually quite impressed at how much stretch and how consistent it was with the insert at the rear of the lens.  I'm guessing this is where a 3D printer would come in perfectly, as I could rapid-prototype a completely custom insert for it.  No matter, I'm sure I can do a reasonable job with some cardboard and a sharp knife.

[eatstoomuchjam]

1 hour ago, kye said:

The Lensbaby Double Glass has a replaceable aperture, but is 50mm F2.8 so on MFT equivalent to a 100mm F5.6 so pretty slow when compared to the Voigt+Sirui combo which is equivalent to a 68mm F1.5, or the SB+50/1.8 which is equivalent to a 71mm F2.6.  

I'd have to dig mine out to see what it is - but it's EF mount so usable on a speed booster.  🙂

(But still more expensive than cutting some cardboard)

[kye]

9 hours ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

I'd have to dig mine out to see what it is - but it's EF mount so usable on a speed booster.  🙂

(But still more expensive than cutting some cardboard)

It's funny, but I look at "what if" scenarios for lenses about once a fortnight and I've repeatedly considered getting an EF-MFT speed booster and I never found a reason for it.  The EF lens options never met the parameters of whatever it was that I was contemplating doing, so I never bought one.

On the other hand, my M42-MFT speed booster remains in use continually.  Every time I 'tidy up' my lenses and put the ones I don't use into a box this always seems to stay out for one reason or another.  I always seem to be learning something about images or shooting or something, and will look at my lens collection from a completely new perspective, and the MFT system and M42 system (for adapting FF lenses) always seems to be the winner.

[kye]

My Takumar 50mm F1.4 arrived and I took it out to compare it with the Voigt 42.5mm F0.95 with Sirui 1.25x adapter setup.

The Voigt+Sirui is equivalent to 68mm F1.5 and the Takumar+Speedbooster is equivalent to 71mm F2.0, so a bit longer and a bit slower.

In order to avoid changing lenses all the time, I did a little lap with the Voigt+Sirui, then did another lap with the Takumar and re-created the compositions from the first lap (as well as grabbing other shots too).  These images have had a film-emulation applied, and have had exposures matched, but no other changes, so things like contrast and WB etc should be the same.

My impressions:

• Voigtlander is softer at F0.95 than the Takumar at F1.4
  I haven't compared them with the Voigt stopped down, but I'd probably rather get a bit more subject separation than sharper images.  The extra sharpness of the Takumar makes the focus peaking a lot easier to use when using the screen (using the EVF you can see what is in focus but the monitor you need peaking on)
• The focus ring on the Takumar is a lot looser (not that damped but not too loose either), but of course it's backwards
• The extra width of the Voigt is apparent.  It makes me wonder if the Speedbooster is a little less boosting than I claimed.
• The Sirui has a lot of coma on the edges (stretching light sources horizontally) so the bokeh seems more horizontal than vertical on lights, whereas the Tak seems to have a zoom-blur sort of effect which is a bit odd
• The Tak has slightly lower contrast (hard to see but I noticed it when trying to match exposures)

In addition to those, I also grabbed these with the Takumar:

Swirly bokeh! and it's not a Helios!!

It has a nice halation/glow but the ghosts from the light sources are real.  This is something I am thinking a lot about because I find them to be very distracting.

Seems sharp at the edges at closest focus.  The bokeh is confusing - sometimes with bubbles and sometimes not.

I actually find that the response to light sources in this lens is very complicated - sometimes it stretches along the spokes of a wheel and other times along the rim of the wheel. 

Also something I noticed but isn't really visible in stills is that light sources pointed straight at the camera have a flare that's like a loop, like this, which can look pretty distracting too.

My conclusions are:

• The focus being lighter and peaking being more obvious makes it a bit easier and faster to use, so much so that I changed my process to where I'd adjust the vND, then hit record and then focus in the 2s it takes the GH7 to begin recording
• The size and weight difference is significant and I found I was able to shoot people from a lot closer with it than the Sirui
• The small size and weight mean it's a no-brainer to pack on trips where I'm reluctant to pack the Voig/Sirui combo

Next is to test it with an oval insert to get some stretched bokeh.  As a proof of concept it certainly looks promising.