Lens test

[mtseng]

please explain to me
watching this video
http://www.vimeo.com/12527702
old lenses have way more film look than new ones.
looks like lenses sharp in close ups just turn image more like video
old, and less detail like jupiter lenses acting like strong anti aliasing and retaining the good details and discard the ´´bad ones details´´
jupiter looks way more cine than lumix lens
it´s just a mine taste or you do feel that?

[mtseng]

forget to mension the
great music in the video heuheuhe

[Alexander Ibrahim]

I don't think you can learn anything from these tests.

Well, except maybe about your preferences.

First off... to be useful the tester would have had to document more carefully exactly how he was exposing, and not use ANY auto features.

As far as sharpness being "bad" well, that's a preference. If you look at a lot of older movies that have become available on BluRay they are very sharp and well saturated with good contrast.

You may be thinking of the look of the HVX200 with a 35mm lens adapter... what a lot of people have been exposed to recently and what has been called "film like" in some circles. Those contraptions soften the lens image dramaticaly and then the users photograph it with a camera that is very soft in its image rendering and has a low sensor resolution.

You are also comparing primes to zooms. Primes are almost always better quality lenses than zooms near the same price point. (Although if you had an Angeniuex Optimo in the mix you would get a surprise even compared to some very high end primes.)

One characteristic that the poster of the video did NOT control was shutter. I find that having a properly set shutter approximating 180° delivers what a lot of people call "film look."

Another characteristic the poster of the video played with was the aperture... but one thing to note is that the new Lumix lens has a much more closed maximum aperture. (f/4 or f/5.6 if I recall... I don't use that camera) A smaller aperture means more is in focus.

I think if you gain some experience with higher end lenses and cameras then you'll see that the so called "indie film look" isn't what actual film looks like at all. A digital cinema camera like RED comes closer to looking like film than any other electronic camera... but they have their own different look.

Ultimately if what you want is an end result that looks like 35mm motion picture film, you had better ring up Kodak or Fujifilm and go shoot some film.

[rod bradley]

Besides the obvious limitations of the test, which has its interest, almost any lens will be okay with such an unchallenging "model" with so little meaningful detail. It is the same with many of the DSLR codecs. In close up, you'll be fine. Try some wide shots, especially with a lot of nature in them and bright and contrasty lighting., especially backlit.