Recently I purchased a Rokkor 35mm 2.8 on ebay. I couldn't resist, it was going for $30. But using it I realized how much I am in love with this focal length on the GH2. I film a lot of interviews at work and this lens will be a perfect portrait lens at 70mm with the 2x crop factor. Yet using this lens reminded me of my slightly ignored SLR Magic 35mm 1.7. I decided to take it out again today and take some shots with it to extensively examine how it performs. I purchased this lens for three reasons, 1) it's fast, 2) it was only $100, and 3) the swirly bokeh rocks!
Basically I went around today and attempted to see if the fringing could be eliminated when stopped down to say 5.6. Most the time when I use this lens I'm shooting wide open because with a toy lens like this that's what you do. But could this be a potential street performer as well as an artistic tool? That's what I want to know.
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| f/5.6 |
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| f/1.7 |
Immediately what I noticed is that stopping down doesn't take away the fringing completely. It reduces it and enlarges the sweet spot but the edges still suffer from fringing. Stopping down also affects color rendition. The colors are noticeably less saturated and cooler as compared to wide open.
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| f/5.6 |
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| f/1.7 |
Yet aside from the reduction in color saturation and the cooler tones when stopped down, the lens is much sharper and you do pick up a lot more detail. More detail is pulled into the outer edges, yet fringing still persists, as if someone has greased the lens. Another thing I've discovered is that it tends to flare more wide open then when stopped down. So if shooting towards the sun the image is washed out. Stopping down eliminates this effect as seen here.
I will continue to test it out in the week to come but my general conclusion at the moment is it's not an exemplary go to lens and more of an artistic tool when the shot calls for it.
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