A little excited I have added some genuine utility to my kit, I took the new lens for another wander this morning.
Determined to get on top of the close focus performance, something I had read was average wide open in most reviews, I needed to find it’s peak and where it is strongest.
Same scenario as yesterday, but AF set to be more precise, which is needed.
This is soft light, so you get soft contrast, but sharpness is there.
Something that struck me today is how much easier it is to get some of these images with M43 gear and the quality is often indistinguishable.
As soon as you get into that portrait range, it starts to really shine.
Rich and contrasty, nice blur.
Accuracy sorted, getting what I want when I want it, which is the important thing for a working pro.
At the wide end, it holds up well, maybe needing to be at it’s very close minimum focus before it falls apart.
Edges are fully usable.
I would not want a stable of these perfect but bland lenses, but it sure is nice to have one.
In mono, something I find tends to make or break a lens, the high micro contrast and lack of brilliance is handy a bit like the films I used to like and reminds me of my old NEX 7, which did great mono if not much else.
Gentle highlight roll-off is a nice feature for a mono shooter.
This image (from above) is a good example of the ability to open up a contrasty scene in mono without it looking pushed.
Here is my reminder. At f2.8, at even a decent distance, the close background is still soft, so no wonder my semi-macro’s were too shallow and twitchy to be useful by far.