The 7Artisans cine lenses arrived not 10 minutes ago, but I was already set up to do this test.
Not totally successful, because the legacy PK 50mm f1.4 decided (probably the adapter), not to close down for me for a “working” aperture shot, but close enough to start.
I am not looking for sharpness or even lens distortion controls, but the look, the “magic sauce” if there is any or more to the point anything to actively avoid.
The camera in the foreground is 1m from the sensor, the flowers about 60cm behind and the picture frame/wall about 70cm further.
Top row; Lumix 50mm S at f2 and 5.6. Modern Bokeh, neither spectacular nor offensive.
Bottom row; Lumix 20-60 at 50mm f5.3, Lumix 50mm S at 5.6. They seem well colour matched.
Nice modern lenses with good control and some character. The kit zoom seems to have different blurring characteristics to the prime, with only .3 of a stop difference.
Next the new 7Artisans lens.
Hell of a thing to do, test a very unfamiliar lens straight from the box, but hey, they work or they don’t. Realised after that all the markings are on the side not the top, which I assume is a cinema thing.
Top row; 7Art at T2 and T5.6
Next row; crops of 7Art at T2, Lumix S at F2. Missed focus a little on 7A lens, because the lens front looks sharp but not the camera top.
Next row; crops 7Art at T5.6, Lumix at F5.6.
Bottom row; tighter crops 7Art at T5.6, Lumix at F5.6.
Quick takeaway.
The 7Art lens needs careful focussing wide open and shows some obvious CA, but I feel, displays better Bokeh. The CA is likely exaggerated by the slight focus miss in a torture test situation. No monitor was used, but the lens scale agreed with the 1m range. I like the Lumix more this wide, but neither is bad.
These things are chunky. I felt like someone had melted my 300mm down to a lump of glass and metal and handed it back to me “compact”. Focussing etc was gorgeous.
Stopped down it is similarly sharp to the Lumix, but less contrasty and slightly magenta/cooler. I like the Bokeh of the 7Art a little more.
Next is the Legacy PK mount 50mm f1.4.
Top row; PK 50 at f2, Lumix S F2
Bottom; PK f2 off centre, Lumix F2 off centre crop.
The Pentax shows some Ni-Sen or “cross-eyed” Bokeh. It is also cooler than the Lumix with some mild issues wider open, but looks decently “cinematic”. There also seems to be more of a 3D effect from the older lens.
I think I actually like the flowers more in the wide open Pentax image. They are more interesting, blooming in the optical senses.
Finally the very cheap TTArt 35mm for crop sensor.
I shot this at the same distance (and the lens scale agreed), then cropped it close to the other 50mm lenses. This was because it has a slightly different rendering on a crop sensor format, so I wanted to confirm how much.
Top; TTArt at f2 and f5.6
Bottom TTArt at F2 and Lumix S at same.
Even thought the TTArt is pleasantly blurred, the full frame to crop difference, or to be more accurate the difference between a cropped 35 and a true 50 is quite obvious.
The difference is even more obvious in close. The TTArt is a little smeary on the little village, but the camera is sharp. The slight stretch in perspective is interesting also. Being half way between full frame and M43, this is telling.
As I said, not as scientific as I was aiming for, but a decent attempt and enough to give me an idea.
The Lumix S lenses are safe and strong without being unreliable. The 7Artisan is slightly less reliable, but interesting wide open and solid closed down.
The Pentax may be a little sleeper. The Bokeh is jittery, but more aggressive.
The TTArt is also interesting.