On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 4:03 PM, Godfrey DiGiorgi <[email protected]> wrote: > Many pre-digital SLR lenses do work very well indeed. Few to none work as > well as lenses which are optimized for digital sensors with respect to > measurable lens performance criteria. However, I often use older lenses > because they have pleasing aberrations, image rendering, and quirks that I > like—so what "works well" is a judgement call beyond simplistic performance > measurement. >
I prefer vintage glass actually for rendering qualities. I find newer lenses a bit too clinical in their rendering IMO. And I'm talking about how the lens paints the image. I like a bit of character in there. A lot of classic lens designs have a look that is very much missing IMO. I would also put my M28/3.5 or M50/1.4 against any modern lenses. Asides from better flare resistance which the old primes are somewhat lacking in, I don't think there is much to complain about with many of the old primes. CA seems somewhat problematic in some cases (like that FA24 you mention), but then I get more CA from modern digitally "corrected" zooms. BTW, in a recent shootout of 24mm lenses, the only two that came close to the canon L lens were an old Olympus OM 24 2.8 and the Sigma superwide 2 looked pretty decent too. The Pentax FA*24 2.0 was out of the race from the start. > FourThirds SLR lenses, however, are a) still in production, and b) capable of > being used on other bodies with an OEM adapter for their full function. They > are fully supported by more than one manufacturer for parts and service. > People are still buying them to use on new bodies. I'd hardly call that "dead > and buried". They are in the process of being obsoleted, however, as their > replacements for the new, derivative lens mount are brought to market. But > obsolete isn't a criteria for dead and buried IMO. Are they really still in production? The last new 4/3 lens was 2008. 5 years ago. I'd be surprised if they were still manufacturing them. I'd imagine all "new" stock is just old stock. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
