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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 :)

SALT III- High Speed Lens Shootout "WFO" Results

Thanks guys. Really one of the most useful and thoughtful tests that I have seen in a long time.
Shame about the Cooke's. They should have sent their lenses themselves, the test was that good.

That would have been cool. I was dying to put the 5/i's up against these lenses. We had them, but they got rented out last minute.
 
Great works guys. Matt, fine posting of all the data. Phil, glad we got everything on one page :)

This will be used by many for a very long time.
 
Thank you all for your tremendous effort in making this great test. It really is very interesting, and great for people that don't have easy access to all kinds glass.
 
From the lp/mm numbers, it looks like the MkII set had a bad sample @ 25mm?

Could be the same for the K35 35mm. Always the risk one runs with that old glass.

I think what may ring more true is that these lenses were working lenses and in various stages of service. Also, they are a few years older than I am. If something's out of whack in the lens it could potentially produce an error. It also could potentially be a bad copy. Too many variables. That's the risk you run though.


Really awesome fun side note. Literally the moment I was backing up the data from these tests the hard drive they exist on died. It got two .tif files before it barfed! Gotta go see of the magic hard drive fairies can bring back my test images. *tears*
 
If the optics of that 25mm in the Mark II set are any similar to the 25mm Zeiss Contax still lens, I wouldn't be surprised. It was the single weak one of the wides.
 
Thanks guys.

Massive work!

Very impressive!

Guess we see what is paid for in the Leicas and Masters, and...
The beauty of odd/old glass...
 
Nice work Phil, Will, Matt D and Matt R. - I love the way you presented all the data. Massive effort. Thanks!

Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com
 
THANK YOU TO ALL INVOLVED.
 
Great job!! Very professional.

For me - Nothing beats a Master Prime. I probably should put that on a T-shirt, hehe.

Those Leica Summilux-C came in very close, though.
 
A truly nice piece of collaborative work you guys did with ton of properly exposed info on this lenses, which I can easily find myself in agreement with, as I held similar results in my experience with this lenses, which to some was of course no surprise, while to others will give a better understanding of the very lenses they might have been looking at for purchase.

All I can add is that as it has been suggested, you simply can't expect the best results form cheap glass, yet when budget does not allow for the expensive Master Primes, or you find them just way too heavy and big, but you can't afford neither the even more expensive Leica Summilux Cine Primes, even so they have some added beauty look and fill to them and are much more manageable in size and weight, then worry not... Just get hold of any glass you can accordingly to your budget and go shoot what ever is that you need to shoot, work make money, get experience, and then buy a set of LEICA's... ;)

At list now thanks to the really GREAT job this guys did, you do have some more info to go about it.

And I must say, that admitting that I am a Lens SNOB, I did worked for many years with Canon and Zeiss Still glass, so there is really nothing wrong going about it that way till you can afford the top notch Cine Glass.

I in fact at last am myself trying out some Zeiss Still glass Cine modified which was offered here some time ago and I of course as usually rejected, but this are so light and so inexpensive that for those special needs they just fill in nicely, at list for me till our first set of Leica Cine Glass at last finally get Delivered!!
 
Great test guys. Thanks for posting. Maybe I missed it - but why did you not include Cooke S5i's?

As has already been stated in this thread, they were rented by someone else the day before.

We were originally supposed to have them, but since they were being donated, if a rental came we lost our set. Unfortunately, the day before the lenses got booked out. We contacted everyone in LA who had a set and all were out. We almost lost the Leica's as well but Band Pro stepped in and gave us a couple focal lengths that they had. You wouldn't believe how difficult it was for Will to coordinate getting these sets from all these places for the same 2 days. Somehow it was pulled off. So we're all thankful for Will's hard work, without it there would be no shootout.
 
Thank you so much for doing the extensive testing and for posting the results and analysis. I appreciate being able to see the original files and to hear all your first hand thoughts.

Its a huge amount of work and a terrific resource for everyone on reduser.

Vince
 
tests

tests

Good job guys. The best lens tests we've seen on reduser.
 
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