Really tired at the moment, for the right reasons (lots of work), but tired and cannot remember the last time I had a day off*.
Time to play.
Hope 25mm time, revisiting a lens I liked the day I got it and apart from the hiccup of the sub-par 16mm (bad copy, not bad lens), I like the series.
What am I looking for?
Good behaviour, a lens that gets out of the way, is invisible or at worst only adds nice things.
Sharpness.
Beautifully sharp. Like my 300mm, the sharpness holds down to micro levels, but can seem elusive on first glance. Smooth, mild contrast super sharp.
For video, this is lovely, heck for stills it is sublime.
Handling.
Silky smooth ring movement with a touch of resistance, tight mount, decent heft but balanced. I am finding hand held, wide open near macro shooting is hit and miss, but the peaking on the G9.1 is possibly not fine enough.
Bokeh.
Oh yeah.
Smooth, well behaved with a little character.
Nothing to dislike, which tends to be the Bokeh thing. It’s fine or you notice it and don’t like it.
Flare control.
In the image below I am shooting straight into the sun with only a small spring leaf between the lens and old Sol. Some of my best stills lenses would struggle here.
Seriously good performance.
There it is, peaking through.
3d “pop”.
A bit subjective here as “pop” and good transition can be at odds, but for this lens and it’s intended use (interviews), a lovely amount of separation. The shot below also provides a decent check on vignetting and distortion.
My ideal here is when your eye drifts from the sharp to the soft effortlessly, then jumps back to the sharp point without jarring, something I first noticed with some Leica film lenses. What I do not love is a massive step between the two, a real sharp/soft-no transition dynamic.
For some reason I have always struggled to get super sharp Silver Birch trunk images, but there you go.
Not just a good cine lens, but a great lens in any role.
The 50mm next.
*being a day free of camera use or processing.