What do I look for when I test a new (to me) lens? What are the parameters that are most important?

 

I moved my schedule around today. Instead of heading to swim practice first thing in the morning I decided to go downtown and mess around with the new 50mm lens I wrote about yesterday. I put the Carl Zeiss 50mm f2.0 Planar ZM on a trusty Leica M240 and headed to my usual parking place across from the Treaty Oak. A hug and magnificent tree that's been right there in the middle of Austin for hundreds of years. 

Usually I go out photographing in the afternoons so I thought it would be nice to see what everything looked like when it was lit from the other side. Or backlit by morning sun.

It's always a good idea to test a lens that you've just bought. The one time you use a lens (new or used) right out of the box for client work you might get bit on the butt by the cruel pinchers of fate. Happens. When using a new-to-me used lens I tend to be very circumspect until I've proved to myself that it works as it should.

When testing a lens I want to see how sharp it is wide open, at both close up and distant focus settings. A lot of lenses are good at infinity and fall apart at their closest focusing distances. Many lenses are optimized for best performance at 50X their focal length but lenses with floating lens elements don't fall under that rule of thumb. But good or bad performance at different distances is something you really want to know if you're messing around with rangefinder cameras because while you are out shooting everything looks like it's nicely sharp and in focus through the viewing window. Mostly because the viewing window is very much NOT looking through the actual lens. Funny as it may seem in 2024 it's also possible to accidentally leave the lens cap on and not find out until it's too late. Because....you are viewing through the little window/optical finder and NOT the lens. Embarrassing. All too common. 

When I want to evaluate the sharpness of a lens at the closer distances I look for subjects with a lot of texture. Things like brick walls, peeling paint, rusty manhole covers and the like. For middle distance evaluation one subject that's just great is a tree that's just starting to bud, against a clean blue sky. This is also a good scenario for checking for purple fringing and magenta and green casts as well. 

Good distance subjects are big buildings with lots of balcony railings and other details. I check for sharpness in all these instances at a lens's widest open aperture, then closed down to what I generally consider to be the "optimum" aperture ( usually f4.0 or f5.6) and then again at f11.

It's great if your lens is sharp everywhere but it's even better if it's nice and contrasty at all these settings too. Once a lens convinces me that it's got great sharpness and contrast I also want to start looking at how much it vignettes at various apertures. Most fast primes are going to vignette a bit when used wide open but in most cases the better lenses don't vignette to the extent that software can't fix the issue. My set rule is a lens has grounds for rejection if an f2.0 lens is still vignetting frightfully at f5.6. That's a problem. And one I'm not inclined to mess with.

For me the best way to check for vignetting is to shoot a clean, even blue sky. Generally with the sun directly behind me. Stark, white walls are also good. Shoot in "A" priority and run through all the apertures you'll usually be using and the bring the files into post production and take a good look. You can also use an "eyedropper" tool to actually measure the fall off from the center of the frame to the corners. 

If you are using an after market lens hood and you see too much vignetting you might want to remove the hood and test again. Could be that a generic hood isn't right for your lens even though it's specified for a set focal length. Sometimes that's down to the physical design of the lens. The lens maker's hood is usually the best bet.

One of the most important tests is whether or not the lens in question focuses accurately on your cameras. Back in the DSLR days I had a run of lenses, both Nikon and third party, that backfocused on a Nikon D810 and front focused on a Nikon D800e. You "could" correct for the front or back focus of the lenses using the camera's software but it was a chore and required much trial and error. If you are manually focusing your lenses on a mirrorless camera you'll nail focus every time. Well, if you know how to focus, you use the focusing aids, etc. But even mirrorless cameras can be guilty of having focus issues in AF. 

I've spent quality time calibrating all three of my M cameras and when I get a new lens I focus on a target at infinity and make sure everything is accurate and then focus on a target in the studio at the close focusing distance and evaluate the results on a big screen at 100%. 

For me the focusing accuracy of a lens and the sharpness and contrast are the most important parameters of a lens. Also vignetting under 1.5 stops when used without software corrections. Some people talk about a lens having saturated color but I prefer a lens that's very transparent when it comes to saturation because it's so simple to add saturation to a file after the fact. 

I do all of these tests with raw files even though my preference is to shoot my personal work with Jpegs. The raw files reveal more of the good and the bad in a lens. And if I've shot something at higher ISOs, get more noise than I bargained for, and want to rescue the file I need raw files to take advantage of the A.I. Denoise in Adobe Lightroom. 

I spent the morning downtown with the camera and lens and I have to say that I'm very happy with the performance of both the camera and the lens under test.

I stopped at Taco Deli for a bacon, egg and cheese taco and a cup of their delicious medium roast coffee and then I headed home. A little later I headed to the Rollingwood Pool (AKA: The Western Hills Athletic Club) for the noon masters workout. 68°, brilliant sun, my own lane, and Julie on deck coaching. Heaven. 

My evaluation of the lens leads me to believe that I've got my hands on a small but high performing lens package. Even wide open it's nicely sharp. Works well at f11 and even f16, as well. The lens is slightly less contrasty than the Voigtlander 50mm APO but that's probably good for the environments I usually work in. For the small sum I paid I think I got a real bargain. 

I'm loving the way Leica M cameras handle the color red. 

no lens review seems complete without some mannequin photos. 

Shot near the close focus distance of the lens with the lens set to its widest 

aperture. At least the mannequins are agreeable about standing still and holding

a pose for a while so I can fiddle with the camera settings...

this is not a suit I would consider buying. Or wearing. Or having in my home on

someone else. It's just.....dreadful. Which is why I enjoyed photographing it.

for a popular city with a burgeoning population there sure aren't a lot of people 

out and about in the downtown area before 10 a.m. Hmmmm.

a time honored, middle distance test target that also stays still....

 a decent close-up target for rangefinder cameras. Their minimum focusing distance 

is usually set to (point) .7 meters. Any closer than that and the rangefinder doesn't work

nor do the frame lines move far enough to prevent a lot of parallax. But ---

at 100% I see really great detail on the rusty manhole cover. right?

A lovely medium distance test target. Here we are on the 1st of March and the 

trees are already starting to bud and bloom. If we get enough rain this Spring we 

may just have a green Summer. 

another good test target. lots of textured detail on the pink wall and a sharp line

(where I set the focus) on the metal flashing at the top of the wall.

Any lens testing tips you'd like to pass along?

Two hours in with the Leica M240. How do I like it so far? What do the files look like? How are the batteries? Would I do it again?

The Leica M240 arrived from the Leica Store Miami yesterday. I started charging the two batteries that came with it. The packing of the product was impeccable. The camera came in the original box along with all the original cables, manuals, and other materials. In addition to an extra battery there was also an accessory thumb grip. Nice. The guys at Leica Store Miami do a great job curating the used equipment the sell. Their standards for accepting used gear are high and that means when you buy used gear from them you get a well inspected, well considered product. This is the fifth Leica camera body I've bought from them in two years and I'm still impressed by their service. 

(Disclaimer: I don't work for them, am not sponsored in any way by them, don't get any free gear and don't even get a mild discount. I asked for one. It was not forthcoming..... just so you know). 

What the heck is a Leica M240? It's Leica's first big attempt to bring the M series rangefinder cameras into a modern field of cameras. It's a well built rangefinder camera in the tradition of the Leica M3 and subsequent film models. It's full frame as was its predecessor, the Leica M9 but where the M9 had a Kodak CCD imaging sensor the M240 was fitted with a full frame, 24 megapixel, CMOS sensor that is NOT a Sony product. The sensor was designed and produced by two European companies. Details from Wikipedia here: 

The M uses a CMOS 24-megapixel (6,000 × 4,000 pixels) image sensor designed for Leica by the Belgian company CMOSIS,^[5] and made by STMicroelectronics in Grenoble.^[5] The pixels are on a 6 x 6 µm² grid.

The move to a CMOS sensor allowed for the inclusion of video capabilities but more importantly it made the M240 the first Leica full frame rangefinder camera to feature live view. Which opens up other features such as more advanced metering and the ability to use punch in magnification for fine focusing.

Except for special editions the M240 was the last M series rangefinder camera in the family to use brass for the top and bottom plates. Cameras after the M240 used aluminum alloy, which is lighter, but doesn't give you that nice warm brassiness when the finishes wear off on the edges of the camera. The brass cameras feel denser and more stout. 

To keep up with the new features unleashed by the CMOS sensor Leica gave the M240 a much bigger battery that the ones found in previous or newer models. If you choose not to use the live view and video features this bigger battery translates into a much improved battery life. When I was out shooting this morning I didn't take along a spare battery --- on purpose. I wanted to see what one of the two batteries I'd been sent would do in a long walk scenario. I switched off live view and even shut off the automatic review on the LCD screen. I left the camera on from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. It was set to go to sleep after 30 seconds of no action on my part but the joyous and exhilarating thing I found out first is that it wakes up in less than a second. A light touch on the shutter button and you're ready to go.

The second thing I found out was that in spite of shooting nearly 200 exposures in the raw/DNG format and chimping nearly every shot the battery still had 85% of its charge left in the tank. Nice. Really nice. 

When I was getting ready to leave the house this morning I knew I wanted to use the Voightlander 50mm f2.0 APO lens on the camera this morning. I had several reasons for this. First, I wanted to shoot a bunch of stuff close and wide open so I could make sure the rangefinder calibration with right on the money. It was. Second, I spent a couple of years back in the 1980s shooting with nothing but a 50mm lens on the Leica M3 rangefinder I had back then. It was a 50mm Summicron. Also an f2.0. A bit of nostalgia for sure, but also a nod toward the fact that I'm now wearing glasses and wanted to see the rangefinder patches clearly, as well as the edges of the 50mm frame lines. Too wide a lens and I'd have to ditch the glasses to take it all in.

The camera and lens together are wonderful. Made for each other it seems. If I knew I'd never accept another commercial job I was rush out and find a couple more pristine M240 cameras, sell everything else, sell everything in the studio and never look back. Getting an M camera back in my hands was like walking back into my Grandmother Tuck's kitchen and smelling cookies baking and peaking into the oven to catch a glimpse of a perfect roast... Like coming home.

I have four lenses to use with the M240. Two are Zeiss (28 Biogon and 35mm f2.0 Planar) and two are Voigtlander lenses. One of the VMs is the ridiculously good 50mm f2.0 APO Lanthar lens and the other is the 40mm f1.4 Nokton "Classic." All four are good, semi-modern lenses and they are a delight to use without the need for adapters which end up adding to their size. 

I thought I'd have a much longer learning curve to get back into the saddle but by the time I arrived back home for lunch, around 1:30, I felt like I knew every square inch of the camera, how to set it up and most importantly --- how to use it. Don't know about anyone else but I find rangefinder focusing quicker and easier than any ANY AF camera I've ever used. It just feels natural. 

So, what do the files look like? Well, I've included a bunch below. A couple have adjacent files which are 100% crops. I think the files are nice and detailed but I didn't expect less. There is more noise at ISO1600 and ISO3200 than on a more modern sensor but not much different than the sensor in the SL cameras. And with the new A.I. noise reduction in Lightroom it's easier to fix the noise than it is to talk about it. 

Would I do it again? Meaning buy an M240 after having played with this one? You've got to be kidding. I'm already on the prowl to add a second nearly similar body - -- the Leica M-P. It's an upgraded version of the M240 with a two GB buffer and twice the speed of the M240. The body is pretty much the same. As is the look of the files. But it's also a bit stealthier --- with no red status logo on the front. I will do it again. Count on it. 

Should you buy one? Naw. You should shun them whenever you see one on the market. And then you should send me a quick note with the name and address of the seller. As quick as you can. 

No animals were harmed in this transaction or test. No bank accounts or investment accounts will collapse as a result of this expenditure. The universe will not implode (any time soon). Just thought I'd share my first time back with an M in a long time. And my first ownership of a digital M camera. It's fun. 

Now, you know, you can click on the images below in your browser if you want to see them enlarged...

B. Having breakfast in the kitchen. Reading. Always reading. 

A 100% crop of the above image one above. 

Post St. Patrick's Day? 

clutter collage. 

It's always fun to walk down the back alleys. Well, maybe not at 2 in the morning...

But around the UT campus the best impromptu "murals" are to be found off the 

streets and in the alleys.

Good dynamic range chops.

The current state of print journalism on the UT campus. 

click in because I think this random photo shows off the 3D characteristics at least of the lens.

While out on the walk I went to the Humanities Research Center (aka: The Harry Ransom Center) to see a new show of very old books. I was the only visitor in the galleries this morning. But it was fascinating to see how well preserved some books from as far back at the 1300s were. 

Most books disappear before they age into permanence. Writers hope for immortality

but damn few see it. The first published book of John Milton's "Paradise Lost" was under glass in a case this morning. Amazing. 

Yes. The Leica M240 does fine at ISO 1600. With an assist from noise reduction in Lightroom.

But you would have had to look into the shadows under the table to really see the noise 

originally in the file. 

A section on the importance of the cover art. In some cases books were produced 

with the content merely being filler for the design and craftsmanship of the covers. 

 The first published volume of Shakespeare's plays....

Exterior. HRC. At UT Austin. Also home of the Gernsheim collection of photography. 

World class collection, indeed. 

the Ellsworth Kelly Chapel on the campus at the Blanton Museum. Exterior. 

From the HRC I headed over to the Blanton Museum of Art to take in two new shows. One is a collection of Mayan art from the Los Angeles museum and the other is a show using articles from the Blanton's permanent collection to create a keen dialog about climate change. Both are worth seeing. 

One upstairs and one downstairs. No freebies today. I had to pay the full "senior" fare of $12. 

this was my favorite modern image in the climate change exhibit.

I ended my visit to the Blanton with a quick visit to the Battle Sculpture Collection. It's a favorite of mine. The entire collection used to be housed on the second floor of the HRC but this small handful of replica sculptures are all that remains visitable by the public. And I'm a sucker for statues. Very fun to photograph and they never move when you don't want them to....

Obviously, a tight crop of the image one above. 

"Alley Art. #1"

"Alley Art. #2"

Trying my timid hand at street photography. Got a rangefinder. Just had to try...

Subjective for sure but... my best shot of the day.

More from and about the M240 to come. 

Please stay tuned. Please consider commenting. 

Please consider doing it authentically instead of advancing

some passive aggressive agent. 

As they say:

have a nice day.