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This is something everyone should do ( Lenses )

Jarred Land

Jarred Land

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I really enjoy this little test that Daufenbach Camera and Explore Media put together with Jeremy Pinckert and Jamieson Mul.

It is not about technical details.. not a bunch of charts, not about MTF or distortion or which was better or worse, but just a couple guys just spending some time putting a bunch of different lenses on their camera and sitting back and watching the personality of each lens.

Good thing to do.

Sometimes we forget about the emotion.

 
You should hear me and Matthew Duclos talk about lens character. We're nuts. It starts all technical, but then it just gets weird.
 
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Phil Holland said:
You should hear me and Matthew Duclos talk about lens character. We're nuts. It starts all technical, but then it just gets weird.
Click to expand...

I thought about you and Evin all the way through watching this :)
 
Big fan of lens "character". I enjoy exploring what one lens does versus another given the same information. Some lenses bring so much character that it feels so organic, as if I can feel the image with my hands, especially old lenses. Could just be the fungus..hmmm
 
'Lenses are the new film stock' is a phrase I hear a bit from stills photographers - basically with so much being shot on one of 2 brands of digital camera (obviously different models within each brand but the with a similar look or treatment to them) the differentiating feature has become glass. What can set you apart from everyone else with a set of L-series zooms, etc - either that or you pick up a Hasselblad back!

Similar deal in motion I think, except there's a greater range of camera makes/bodies being shot on and perhaps a slightly more limited range of glass out there? But the amount of choice is definitely going up...
 
Such a fun post! Thanks Jarred.

It took me a while to find lenses that I personally liked the character of. I did a lot of growing up as I did research and stopped looking for MTF and really got into feel.

I had started wanting Modern Zeiss SLR lenses, went on a journey, and ended up on (what I feel are very different) Contax Lenses. It's a fun addiction.

The problem is I am now looking to start a NEW set, lol.
 
Shooting a feature in Indianapolis on a set of Schneider Xenar III's and I'm really loving the look of these lenses...they also cover, for the most part, 6K WS...the rolling hills of Indiana are looking very nice.
Great to see all the lenses side by side like that as you can really see the differences in each one.
Here's a quick jpg from this morning's "test"...
 

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Great shot, Jay. Looks very fine in all aspects
 
I used to be obsessed with the technical precision and I have been looking for perfection for ages...

Then after selling my personal set of Master Primes, which in my opinion do get as close to perfection as a Cine Lens can possibly get, I changed...

NOW... I care to see the IMAGE produced by the lens, and worry NOT abut all the defects, artifacts, and so on...

NOW... I care to see a LENS personality, and choose for what image the lens produces on DragonM8 and not about how it looks or reads on paper and charts...

It has taken me years to design my own set of lenses, and now I finally decided that it is not really worth trig to go after perfection, and at what costs really, and at the end for what?

It is indeed all about IMAGE... Always was, and should always have remained so... Love and missed some of the old lenses, those lenses I first called in love with when I was just a kid and looked thru on a camera visit a Film Set, I'll take myself back to those days...

Then I know I'll finally see what is important in a lens... IMAGE!!
 
I really love watching these test. When you have a close to perfect camera sensors, putting a close to perfect lens on doesn't always make the most appealing images. I notice a lot of people get so focused on the gear that they forget you are creating the prism through which your audience will see the world for two hours. It's up to us to decide what that world looks and feels like.

The tools at our disposal as image makers are the best they have ever been. Luckily our lens options are wide wide open with dsmc.
 
This test is seriously flawed. How can I judge emotion with a scruffy dude in a baseball cap? Don't they realize it's a requirement of every lens and camera test to use beautiful women?
 
Should i be surprised at how nice the Zeiss super speeds MKI look? And, how come the canon still glass looks so cool, as in color temp.
 
I have always believed that lenses are the new film stock. Certainly for how they render bokeh, flares and to a certain extent...color (though this is most easily adjusted in grade). I have a collection of lenses that span decades...from 1930's to present day, and I love the seemingly finite possibilities they promise.

I also firmly believe a lens doesn't have to be perfect. In fact, a seemingly BAD lens may be quite GOOD or even EXCEPTIONAL at ONE specific thing. For example, I have a Zenit 50 1.7 "mistake lens". It's very rare, and was mass produced with only 4 iris blades (they removed one or several to save on production costs, presumably). The end result is this affordable Russian budget prime has SQUARE BOKEH. It renders the world in a lovely CHESS/CHECKER BOARD pattern. In the right circumstances, it's gorgeous. Now is it a superb 50? I'm not sure, it looks fine at first glance, but I'm not worried about that...because it can do one SPECIAL thing no other lens I have can do (regardless of cost), which is render the world in a completely unique, and spellbinding way...which...if you think about it....is sort of priceless.
 
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