Archive for the ‘zenitar’ tag
Preliminary Zenitar 16mm Fisheye Review
Just received my fisheye from the mail. I paid about $150 (used, on eBay) for it and it came with all of the original goodies (carrying case, filters, lens caps, etc.). This is just a preliminary review. I’ve only shot about 20 frames with it just to get a feel for things. I tested the lens on a Canon 5D Mark II body.
The Lens
The lens itself is very compact and very light. It’s a manual focus lens and uses the M42 mount, so an adaptor is needed. Most companies sell the lens with an adaptor already mounted and they have them for most cameras. The focus ring is marked with distances ranging from 0.3 meters to infinity (Yes! Infinity focus!) and it’s made of a nice rubber material. The aperture is adjusted manually via a small ring located towards the back.
Sharpness and Contrast
Most people these days are worried about the sharpness of a lens. I read a few reviews and people said the lens wasn’t too sharp unless stopped down to higher apertures. I find the lens to be sharp even wide open (f/2.8) and pretty darn good stopped down to f/4 ~ f/5.6. At anything higher than f/8, I can see the effects of diffraction and the image quality suffers. The lens itself produces nice, punchy contrast and good colors as well. I haven’t noticed any strange color casts (yet), but I’ll have to shoot more to know for sure.
This is a 100% crop. No sharpening, but I did adjust the levels, which will bump up contrast. Still, nothing you wouldn’t do in post.
Bokeh
For such a cheap lens, it produces decent bokeh. Most wide lenses don’t produce the best bokeh and this lens is really wide. You can notice “rings” in the bokeh, but to be honest, this is pretty darn good.
Another 100% corner crop. I believe this was shot at f/2.8, but could have been f/5.6.
Fishy-ness (Distortion)
So on a full frame camera, I find the lens to be fishy enough. I used to own a Peleng 8mm fisheye which had a huge image circle and you could actually see the inside of the barrel in your pictures. The Zenitar fills the entire frame and doesn’t leave the dark corners, which I like. If you have a crop camera, don’t expect the lens to be so fishy.
The fishy-ness varies with how close you get to the object. I was probably 2 feet away when I took this picture, but it should give you a good idea of how much distortion you’ll get.
Overall, seems like a fun lens. I’ll put it through it’s paces and report back in a few days.