What is that special something we all chase?
I will have a look at that in a post soon, but part of the answer is in lens rendering.
This is not a lens quality that often aligns with high price, state of the art glass. It is something far more elusive and often runs against the usual current of super lens design.
The five lenses tested below share four things;
The same aperture at f2.8 on MFT format.
A roughly 50mm full frame equivalent focal length.
No post processing from a G9 RAW file.
Unfortunately poor focus control.
Lens 1 is sharp, has nice Bokeh and decent, maybe high contrast.
Lens 2 is very similar, maybe a little pinker and warmer. This lens is also a little wider than marked.
Lens 3 has a softness of contrast, but more than that, a more three dimensional, less sharp/smooth look. It is a little cooler as well. I did miss focus on this one (the front leaf), so the more coherent background may be down to that.
Lens 4 is mre like the two at the top, is slightly wider looking than the top, reference image. It does however look a little different to those lenses.
Lens 5 is a mix of less aggressive contrast, but strong smooth/soft rendering.
Lens 1 (left) and 5 (right). To my eye, and it is hard to be totally objective because I know which they are, the left lens has that very modern, brightness and contrasty and flat rendering. The right lens is deeper looking if that is a thing, maybe more three dimensional?
The variable is focus, which I tried to be accurate with (all manual as three lenses were manual only). Lens three copped a miss I feel, but the rest were pretty good.
Lens 1 is the 12-40 Olympus at 25.
Lens 2 is the Olympus 25 f1.8. I know this lens is wider than marked, about the same as the 24 Sirui as it goes, maybe wider.
Lens 3 is the half frame 25mm f2.8 (which is less contrasty wide open)
Lens 4 is the Sirui 24mm
Lens 5 is the Hope 25mm
The same combo below. Highlight detail is retained well by the Hope, detail looks the same and is it me again, but is the Hope ever so slightly more three dimensional?
The reality is, the “cinematic look” comes down to a lot of elements working together. Cameras and lenses are two, but just two.
To create depth, which is the key, you need all of these elements to work together, but each also needs t be addressed. I am keen to explore lenses first, as I have plenty of them and I can control this space in my space.