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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Illumina S35 vs. Optica Elite Digital S35 Lenses

Rogerhaugen said:
Here is a Elite 28mm 1.3 test I did a while ago. i will do some test not of boards later. Its a jpg still frame from Sony f3. Bad lighting just done in a hurry.

Roger
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Hard to tell but it looks pretty sharp in the middle and a bit softer on the sides. Not too bad though.
 
Hi!
Yes its quite good, besides when you put a lens this close to a test chart its almost impossible to have the whole plate in focus since the edges will be further away then the center.
I have owned a set of zeiss super speed, zeiss cp2, and two sets of canon k-35 lenses. Overall I am very happy with my Elites, both visually and mechanically. I even have a super rare Elite 100mm macro and also the Elite 25-80 zoom:)

Roger
 
Rogerhaugen said:
Hi!
Yes its quite good, besides when you put a lens this close to a test chart its almost impossible to have the whole plate in focus since the edges will be further away then the center.
I have owned a set of zeiss super speed, zeiss cp2, and two sets of canon k-35 lenses. Overall I am very happy with my Elites, both visually and mechanically. I even have a super rare Elite 100mm macro and also the Elite 25-80 zoom:)

Roger
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Out of curiosity, since you have used the lenses and own them, are they useable wide open in a shot with talent? I'm curious why some say they are unusable wide open due to the lack of contrast when that can be added in post with a curve.

I also questioned the difference in the Digital version to the S35 version of the Elite's with the manufacturer and was told the only difference is the size and weight of the digital version, which is less than the regular version. He told me the digital version was a response to the smaller and lighter cameras coming out at the time.
 
Hi!
I will make a test wide open/ stopped down so you can see. I haven´t shot enough with them wide open and played with it in post. I usually shoot at 2.8 and above
Yes I think you are right about the digital being he same. I only know the 24mm has close focus 50cm on the digital and 25cm on the MkIII. I would guess the focus marking is a bit
different since the diameter is shorter. I like the 110mm since I can have matched lenses from 14mm-200mm. But I see the point of lighter lenses.
Roger


I
 
Rogerhaugen said:
Hi!
I will make a test wide open/ stopped down so you can see. I haven´t shot enough with them wide open and played with it in post. I usually shoot at 2.8 and above
Yes I think you are right about the digital being he same. I only know the 24mm has close focus 50cm on the digital and 25cm on the MkIII. I would guess the focus marking is a bit
different since the diameter is shorter. I like the 110mm since I can have matched lenses from 14mm-200mm. But I see the point of lighter lenses.
Roger


I
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Thanks Roger!
 
Nick Gardner said:
I Looooove the 25-80 zoom. I don't know what I'd do without it ;-)
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Hey Nick,
Do you have any motion or still samples you could post here?
 
I also received info that the Elite's have 12 iris blades so the bokeh is nice and round. Anyone know how many blades the Illumina's have?
 
KETCH ROSSi said:
Matt, how did not the Iluminas did well in this tests?

Mind you, I never do this kind of tests, I only use Projectors, and real life situation with well controlled environment, lights included.
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The lenses were soft wide open and had considerable lack of field illumination, had considerable Purple fringing wide open, color changed when you close down, and personally I didn't like the way the lenses handled the highlights. It's all subjective but in the grand scheme of the above tests, they did not fare well against the other lens options.

In saying that I have heard of some owners sets that didn't exhibit these issues which is why in my opening post I said it appears that there are both good and bad sets out there, most likely an issue with the manufacturer QC. If I were buying a set I would test 3 or 4 side by side and pick the best one.

I just wanted to post the information here so it's a collective of everything there is to know on these lenses in one place. Right now there isn't much out there and the information is scattered. My goal for this thread was to provide a place to get everything about these lenses in one thread.
 
Hey Matt, as you know, i shoot almost everything exclusively with my gen 1 illuminas and i love them.. I have been shooting a lot of fashion and using the illuminas for the stills that are printed in the magazine as well. I have never had them tested because they produce beautiful images.. I would post stills from the magazines but i can not until the magazines hit the newsstands...
I think testing any set of lens before you buy them is a great idea.. In my case, I spoke with the Dp at length who was selling them, and Fred at FJS hooked me up with him, and I took a leap of faith in buying them sight unseen.. It was a great leap and im thrilled I bought them! And yes, I will be shooting the feature "The Ten O'Clock People" (based on Stephen King's story), directed by Tom Holland this fall. And of course, the camera will be RED Epic...
 
Nathaniel Kramer said:
Hey Matt, as you know, i shoot almost everything exclusively with my gen 1 illuminas and i love them.. I have been shooting a lot of fashion and using the illuminas for the stills that are printed in the magazine as well. I have never had them tested because they produce beautiful images.. I would post stills from the magazines but i can not until the magazines hit the newsstands...
I think testing any set of lens before you buy them is a great idea.. In my case, I spoke with the Dp at length who was selling them, and Fred at FJS hooked me up with him, and I took a leap of faith in buying them sight unseen.. It was a great leap and im thrilled I bought them! And yes, I will be shooting the feature "The Ten O'Clock People" (based on Stephen King's story), directed by Tom Holland this fall. And of course, the camera will be RED Epic...
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Hey Nathaniel,
Thanks for the input. Once the magazines are released if you could post some pictures here that would be great!
 
I sure will... Kind of off topic but speaking of stills- the one major problem with the epic is shooting verticals.The sensor is long and narrow for verticals.. The aspect ratio is way off the average publication vertical layout. When shooting SLR for print, the sensor is closer to the correct aspect ratio, . Most fashion print editorial and advert are single page verticals..When composing on the epic for vertical print, I typically end up losing about 30% of the image, and that really sucks given the 14mp sensor size (granted its not only megapixel count that equates to image fidelity).. None of the publications have complained yet, but there is no way a big advertising client would allow stiills to be shot on the epic.. I dont think they will even allow it once the dragon upgrade is in place, as the sensor will be only 21mp, equal to a 5d.. They want stuff to be shot medium format - Hasselblad, Mamiya etc piped directly into capture one- so the client is looking at every image you snap and although the workflow is far simpler than RCX, i love pulling stills from rcx, and there are so many more frames obviously......

Red is going to need to produce a much larger sensor than dragon or prove their image quality holds up to a still camera, if they truly want to play with the big boys of stills...We can get away shooting (on Epic) fashion editorial for magazines, but there is no way Cover Girl or any national brand is going to shoot Epic for a print campaign.I wish Red would comment on this as they so want to be involve in the world of fashion photography...
 
Nathaniel Kramer said:
I wish Red would comment on this as they so want to be involve in the world of fashion photography...
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The day RED does a camera with fashion photography in mind they will loose their focus on Digital Cinema.
I know it's not the POW of Jim as the DSMC is his child but as you know there can be different tools for different needs.

Thanks for your very informative thread Matt. Sorry for the out of topic post...

Pat
 
Hmmmm, i dont know about that Patrick, red.com has a large part of their website dedicated to fashion stills, and they did the Bottega Veneta photography contest.. That looks like they want to be in the stills world
 
Just curious if there's any optical difference between the Elite s35 and Elite s35 digital? I understand there is a weight difference and size difference but are the images identical? is one better than the other?

Thanks in advance!
 
William Graydon said:
Just curious if there's any optical difference between the Elite s35 and Elite s35 digital? I understand there is a weight difference and size difference but are the images identical? is one better than the other?

Thanks in advance!
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According to the factory they are identical. Grigory told me Digitals are only smaller and lighter but that they are identical in every other way.
 
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