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Natural

"PHOTO STYLE"

-0

CONTRAST

-3

SHARPNESS

+4

NOISE

-1

COLOR

-3+3

HIGHLIGHT SHADOW

OFF

iDYNAMIC

OFF

iRESOLUTION

16-255

LUMINANCE LEVEL

 REAL  RATINGS

After testing each lens-sensor combo, I like to know if the rendering is going to look realistic (or not) as this will affect how easy it is to "shot match" (to other lenses).

Greyscale Landscape

CONTRAST

A

 IS THE CONTRAST "REAL"? 

Black and White Building

SHARPNESS

A

 IS THE SHARPNESS "REAL"? 

Lucid

NOISE

A

 IS THE NOISE "REAL"? 

Too-Much-Bokeh.jpg

COLOR

B

 IS THE COLOR "REAL"? 

*Click here to learn more about "REAL" Ratings. These ratings are AFTER my custom settings are applied (most combos don't look real good with default settings).

Published: 

December 11, 2022 at 1:05:08 AM

(These new settings are for using the lens with the Tiffen Black Pro Mist 1/8.) I started this test because I wasn't able to get this lens-sensor combo (or with G85) to work very well UNFILTERED (see my older notes below). So, while testing I noticed a number of interesting things, including that this filter (with the specific settings I use) is reducing the compression artifacts that were occurring in video (when using it UNFILTERED). Also, no surprise, but using this filter makes this lens more prone to flare (need a lens hood or matte box) and though this can reduce the contrast in certain lighting situations (i.e. pointing toward a light source) the flare doesn't look that bad. So, while I didn't like the results of this lens UNFILTERED, I now feel pretty good about using it with these settings (which include the Tiffen BPM18/Black Pro Mist 1/8).

OLDER NOTES (from UNFILTERED test):
When I started this test, I was surprised, as I had heard so many people say good things about this lens, but when compared with a lot of the vintage lenses I've been testing, this thing isn't very good...so let me explain. When I started this test (at -0-0-0-0 using the Natural profile) what immediately jumped out at me were the outlines on the edges of objects, which I'm pretty sure is due to over-sharpening...yet at the same time, the image was soft and needed sharpening! This is a problem, because to remove the outlines on the edges of things, you have to REDUCE the SHARPENING...but doing that will mean the image needs even MORE sharpening during post production, so I may have to see how far I can take the sharpening in post production (using Davinci Resolve).

IDEA: I may try decreasing the NR (Noise Reduction) by 1 (to +3) and increasing the SHARPNESS by 1 (to -4) to see if I can get a little bit more film grain look (the NR is wiping out all of the texture, and you could add it in post, but I prefer to save TIME).

My goal for these camera settings is to improve the "lens-sensor relationship" by adjusting the contrast, sharpness, noise reduction and color with the result that it produces an image that looks less "digital" and more "organic" (more like film, etc). The first step is to apply these settings while shooting (produces an image that looks pretty good straight out of camera) but keep in mind there may need to be slight color grading (or a LUT) applied to finalize each shot.

 SPECIAL THANKS TO
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