My Minolta 50mm f/1.4 MC Rokkor-PG with the same optical formula as the legendary 58mm f1.2 is an absolute dream to use. Try and get your hands on one if you can!
I own the Minolta and the Canon FD SSC (looks like the one you reviewed is nFD). I can't express how much I love the Minolta, I agree with you, the background just disappears and looks ethereal. That is my favorite vintage lens at this time. Comparing it to the Canon, they both are sharp wide open, but I believe the Minolta has less CA which makes the images better. Thank you for your review.
Owning and regularly using both lenses in the video, the Canon is slightly sharper and yes- has a lot more CA than the Minolta. The Canon is definitely my preferred tool among the two though.
Owning the Canon and Minolta lenses in the video, I use the Canon by far the most. They both have quite a bit of CA but the Canon is a fair bit sharper. The Canon also flares a lot more to my liking- Monolta was never known for their good coatings, tbh. The Canon possesses much busier bokeh than the Minolta with hard outlining to OOF highlights but when shooting portraits (most of what I do), those highlights create fantastic bubbles and the CA does well to smooth out skin. Another strength for the Canon is the 8 aperture blades as opposed to Minolta's 6. Minolta's lens also has a 180° focus throw with a heavy turn where the Canon has a 270° throw that is quite light to turn. . It's not that I dislike the Minolta- I just find the character less obvious and it less often finds its place in my bag when also carrying a Sigma Art 50mm 1.4.
Good explained here; i personaly own the minolta described in the video and i'm agree with your description. i think so the Chinon is more "painterly effect" in trem of rendition, a good lens too. Take care and happy new year.
Chinon lenses can be a bit variable depending on the treatment they've had over the years. If they've been bashed then they, like any other lens, can go out of kilter. Being PK they were interchangeable with Pentax and usually a bit better on film. My 50 f/1.4 is certainly better than my 50 f/1.9 there. And yes better close up than at distance, focus has to be spot-on at distance to get sharpness at say 20 metres. Peaking is easier to discern close up than further away. At the time 'bokeh' was considered a fault to be designed out. Chinon did produce the first AF lens, which was a bit of a beast: they were by no means second water, certainly not in Japan. At the time, Minolta was also a Dixons budget brand, and Konica-Minolta are what Sony are now based on. Chinon did not disappear but became Kodak-Japan (which pioneered digital sensors). On a digital sensor a good lens may be poor and a poor lens good, the 'character'. Film doesn't care about the angle of incidence but digital likes the light rays normal to the sensor.
Very nice presentation. I have the Canon & Minolta from this bunch and like them very much, personally prefer the Canon because of the richer color and softer background.
I definitely agree with you. Though at portrait distances, the Canon tends to have some pretty hard bubbles which I definitely couldn't describe as a 'soft' background but I like nonetheless. Eager to see what he thinks of the Minolta Rokkor-PF 135 2.8 that I sent in with the lot.
I have the Canon and a much earlier 58mm 1.4 Minolta lens... to be honest, I haven't used the Canon that much but I've generally been satisfied with both.
The prices have already gone up the past several years. film is regaining popularity as well so that is putting demand on vintage lenses too. But I agree its getting harder and harder to find a fair deal on vintage glass these days. A lot of overpriced listings even on blemished lenses.
Great comparison !!.. just want to point out something: I first got a Chinon 55mm 1.7 (M42) and got amazed by it's full-of-character Bokeh (yes I know: is not for everybody and maybe not so good of a lens for other purposes) but at least you can capture unique, characterful closeups with stunning Bokeh-Backgrounds .. so when I knew about the 50/1.4 (PK mount) went for it .. but to my delusion it lost the character of their older M42 brothers (to my eye at least) .. so please if you can get a M42 version (whether be 1.4 or 1.7 ) don't think this newer version is the same .. and go for it, I'd love to see it reviewed in your channel as well !
Do you ever use lens filters for your black and white photos? When I was shooting a lot of black and white film 20+ years ago I used red, green, yellow and orange filters often for changing saturation, tone, contrast, etc. I know cameras now have electronic filters to achieve similar results. Do you care to share any results or observations from your experience about real versus electronic filters? Thank you for the lens video! I use adapted lenses with my cameras, but rarely use them fully open at f1.4 or f1.2 (if some open that large). Even with focus peaking it is often difficult to get things in focus at the small f stops.
Good presentation again but one question I'd like to have you answer! When you mention lens performance in black & white, how much (if any) changes are you making in post? I suspect you are adjusting something, in which case references to contrast/blacks etc become really superfluous without telling us about them. This isn't a criticism but I feel it would be helpful to hear about it. Chinon was a rather small Japanese manufacturer and was always regarded as a second rate lens/camera range.
My guess would be that he's mostly just flipping the BW switch in Lightroom. For that silvery look, btw it can be easily achieved roughly by increasing the brightness of a narrow color range or more finely in Photoshop by changing how whites are represented (a lot harder to explain in text though)
In 1978 in Germany a test between the Leica Summicron 2,0 50mm and the Canon FD 1,4 50mm ssc was conducted with industrial standard equipment. The FD won in summary.
I love the Yashinon, especially the 50mm f2 (dx, ml ...) and the one I have very often on my SONY A7 is the Yashinon 50mm f1.7 ML, I just saw this week, while testing it, on my 50mm f2 ML had fungus :( I have to disassemble it
I found the 135mm f2.8 DSB, very powerful! nice surprise, and very solid manufacturing, it joined my camera bag (and yet I must have more than 10x 135mm in my collection) like the very good Pentax M 135mm F3.5, Schneider, or CZJ, you are lucky in the USA your prices are low! here the prices are becoming crazy! especially in France, I hardly buy anything on ebay anymore..... just looking at a Yashica T4/T5 compact that I had back in the day, in the 90s, hahaha, crazy, they often exceed 500€ (550$)🤪
Great video sir but I'm a bit surprised that the Chinon made your list but not the Nikon 50mm f1.4 which happen to be an amazing lens on par with Canon and Minolta.
I included the Chinon out of curiosity, to see how it would fare against more expensive lenses. Perhaps predictably it didn't do too well, but then again I think it needs a good cleaning. I don't have a Nikon 1.4, but would love to try one - more ebay surfing I think!
Zenography hi I owe you an apology I stated Wrong in fact it’s a 28mm f2.8 . My memory is appalling.... so no need to be jealous.... regards and apologies.....fred
great comparison ! I have 55mm 1.4 version of "legendary" Chinon Multi-Coated Auto made in Japan and I have to say its pretty great lens. Comparable to Canon FDn 1.4 in mary respects I have to make some tests and comparisons to check if any of them shine more :) I also red that 55mm 1.4 from Chinon is much better than 1.4 50mm. Chinon.,
I see an 80's film look from the chinon and actually very close to what I'm looking for for video - because of it's flaws maybe. I think it might deserve a place in the film look for video video.. video
i wonder, i have the usual "kit" 50mm f2 and 1.8 respectfully and wonder how important it is to get / upgrade to the 1.4 - assuming i already have another wide angle already. just not sure when is a good time to come back to upgrade a lens focal length i already own. besides the 1 stop upgrade , how much sharpness difference would you get with the "kit" version over the other IF its even a kit to begin with, i wouldnt know just repeating what other people have said.
How important it is depends, of course, on what you want. Taking the Zuiko as an example, the 1.4 wide open loses out to the 1.8 (wide open) in sharpness, but only a little. Personally sharpness isn't my top priority; I'm more interested in the overall look and feel of an image. One of my favourite lenses is the Helios 40 - very soft wide open, but utterly wonderful! If the kit you have is giving the results you want, just shoot it and enjoy it!
respect from Iraq .. what do you think about chines lens like 7artisans , meike ..so on . is vintage lens better then those chines lens ? special chines lens come with good low price thanks to all .
Most of them are pretty good. Generally they are sharper at 6+ feet away and have less CA. The build quality and character of the lenses aren't always stellar tough. If you do buy any, just make sure that they're full frame lenses. A lot of these new bargain lenses are only built for APS-C.
@@vikmanphotography7984 good news so in 90 $ for vintage lens like minolta 50mm 1.4 maybe come with haze or fog i buy chines lens and dont need adapter
Hey Zenography great video as usual. I want ask if you have electronic first curtain shutter turned on. It will effect bokeh for the worse by chopping off bokeh circles on fast shutter speeds. At 3:57 it looks like it's on.
@@vikmanphotography7984 What else would cut the bokeh like that? Most of the samples does not look like that I agree. Either EFCS is turned off on those or it's on but slower shutter speeds are used.
@@blotafton I don't actually see any obvious cutting in that street image. Some edges to out of focus highlights are stronger on one edge than others but the stronger edges have no uniform direction between them. I'd suspect it has to do with spherical aberration and the direction at which the light is reflecting from (sun bouncing off of metallic bits)
I think the Chinon is an evolution of te famed Tomioka made 55mm 1.4 (some versions made by Cosina but same design). Your copy is pretty dirty. You can see it in the bokeh balls. Also I saw a patch of fungus behind the front element. The Oly reminds me of the SMC Takumar 50mm 1.4
The Chinon shouldn't even have made the list. They were never a major manufacturer and contracted out to have their lenses made. Judging by what I've seen, they even came from multiple factories. Of those mentioned, the Olympus is by far the best choice, followed by Canon and Minolta. If you want a REALLY good 50mm f1.4 Pentax is my #1 choice, it has better contrast (feels sharper) and has considerably better flare control than any of the other 4. The last one commonly available would be the Nikon 50/1.4 which is also an excellent lens, probably just a hair better than the Canon. Last comment, the Canon 50/1.8 is a poor lens, not even boasting multi-coating (which is why there are proportionately more Canon 1.4's available as the other vendors 1.7/1.8 and even f2.0 lenses were all completely coated and less than half the price. FWIW
I must admit I think the Zuiko just a whisker better than the Pentax, which at times can be a little soft... I included the Chinon here really just out of interest, to see how it would compare. It may do better after a good clean.
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My Minolta 50mm f/1.4 MC Rokkor-PG with the same optical formula as the legendary 58mm f1.2 is an absolute dream to use. Try and get your hands on one if you can!
I own the Minolta and the Canon FD SSC (looks like the one you reviewed is nFD). I can't express how much I love the Minolta, I agree with you, the background just disappears and looks ethereal. That is my favorite vintage lens at this time. Comparing it to the Canon, they both are sharp wide open, but I believe the Minolta has less CA which makes the images better.
Thank you for your review.
They're both lovely lenses, but I think I slightly prefer the Canon...
Owning and regularly using both lenses in the video, the Canon is slightly sharper and yes- has a lot more CA than the Minolta.
The Canon is definitely my preferred tool among the two though.
Owning the Canon and Minolta lenses in the video, I use the Canon by far the most. They both have quite a bit of CA but the Canon is a fair bit sharper. The Canon also flares a lot more to my liking- Monolta was never known for their good coatings, tbh. The Canon possesses much busier bokeh than the Minolta with hard outlining to OOF highlights but when shooting portraits (most of what I do), those highlights create fantastic bubbles and the CA does well to smooth out skin. Another strength for the Canon is the 8 aperture blades as opposed to Minolta's 6. Minolta's lens also has a 180° focus throw with a heavy turn where the Canon has a 270° throw that is quite light to turn.
.
It's not that I dislike the Minolta- I just find the character less obvious and it less often finds its place in my bag when also carrying a Sigma Art 50mm 1.4.
That Canon is a beautiful piece of kit, no doubt about it!
Those old Minolta lenses are superb. I have the 58mm F1.4 and I love that thing. One of my favourites, for sure!
An older one? From before the focusing rings had rubber grips? Me too!
@@georgeparkins777 Yes, that one! Love that lens.
Very interesting, I actually preferred the FD lens, and I am a die hard Zuiko guy.
I know what you mean, that Canon is really something!
Good explained here; i personaly own the minolta described in the video and i'm agree with your description. i think so the Chinon is more "painterly effect" in trem of rendition, a good lens too. Take care and happy new year.
And happy new year to you too!
Chinon lenses can be a bit variable depending on the treatment they've had over the years. If they've been bashed then they, like any other lens, can go out of kilter. Being PK they were interchangeable with Pentax and usually a bit better on film. My 50 f/1.4 is certainly better than my 50 f/1.9 there. And yes better close up than at distance, focus has to be spot-on at distance to get sharpness at say 20 metres. Peaking is easier to discern close up than further away. At the time 'bokeh' was considered a fault to be designed out. Chinon did produce the first AF lens, which was a bit of a beast: they were by no means second water, certainly not in Japan. At the time, Minolta was also a Dixons budget brand, and Konica-Minolta are what Sony are now based on. Chinon did not disappear but became Kodak-Japan (which pioneered digital sensors).
On a digital sensor a good lens may be poor and a poor lens good, the 'character'. Film doesn't care about the angle of incidence but digital likes the light rays normal to the sensor.
I own an Olympus and a Chinon 50mm 1.4 Happy with both. Great video about an unusual subject.
best asmr channel
Thanks!
I have the Minolta not used of late... must use it again soon.... Ive heard its Cinematic.... truly thanks....
Love my Minolta lemses!
Very nice presentation.
I have the Canon & Minolta from this bunch and like them very much, personally prefer the Canon because of the richer color and softer background.
I definitely agree with you. Though at portrait distances, the Canon tends to have some pretty hard bubbles which I definitely couldn't describe as a 'soft' background but I like nonetheless.
Eager to see what he thinks of the Minolta Rokkor-PF 135 2.8 that I sent in with the lot.
Great video but then again, they always are
Many thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
Liked the rendering from MD and FD a lot. Great review as usual
Extremely well done review and comparison!!
Time not waisted.
I have the Canon and a much earlier 58mm 1.4 Minolta lens... to be honest, I haven't used the Canon that much but I've generally been satisfied with both.
I'm trying to find cheap lenses but if you keep telling everyone, the prices will go up!
The prices have already gone up the past several years. film is regaining popularity as well so that is putting demand on vintage lenses too. But I agree its getting harder and harder to find a fair deal on vintage glass these days. A lot of overpriced listings even on blemished lenses.
Some fresh locations. Some great moody light on those buildings at 9:12.
A winter afternoon in december, if I remember right!
Great comparison !!.. just want to point out something: I first got a Chinon 55mm 1.7 (M42) and got amazed by it's full-of-character Bokeh (yes I know: is not for everybody and maybe not so good of a lens for other purposes) but at least you can capture unique, characterful closeups with stunning Bokeh-Backgrounds .. so when I knew about the 50/1.4 (PK mount) went for it .. but to my delusion it lost the character of their older M42 brothers (to my eye at least) .. so please if you can get a M42 version (whether be 1.4 or 1.7 ) don't think this newer version is the same .. and go for it, I'd love to see it reviewed in your channel as well !
Yes, I've heard the earlier Chinons are better - I'll look out for one! Glad you enjoyed the video.
Do you ever use lens filters for your black and white photos? When I was shooting a lot of black and white film 20+ years ago I used red, green, yellow and orange filters often for changing saturation, tone, contrast, etc. I know cameras now have electronic filters to achieve similar results. Do you care to share any results or observations from your experience about real versus electronic filters?
Thank you for the lens video! I use adapted lenses with my cameras, but rarely use them fully open at f1.4 or f1.2 (if some open that large). Even with focus peaking it is often difficult to get things in focus at the small f stops.
Good presentation again but one question I'd like to have you answer! When you mention lens performance in black & white, how much (if any) changes are you making in post? I suspect you are adjusting something, in which case references to contrast/blacks etc become really superfluous without telling us about them. This isn't a criticism but I feel it would be helpful to hear about it. Chinon was a rather small Japanese manufacturer and was always regarded as a second rate lens/camera range.
My guess would be that he's mostly just flipping the BW switch in Lightroom. For that silvery look, btw it can be easily achieved roughly by increasing the brightness of a narrow color range or more finely in Photoshop by changing how whites are represented (a lot harder to explain in text though)
What do you think about the Nikkor 50 1.4 AIS compared with this list?
I haven't yet tried that lens, though I would very much like to!
Love to see a comparison between nFD vs Zeiss Jena/Contax vs Minolta vs OM and maybe Leica R
In 1978 in Germany a test between the Leica Summicron 2,0 50mm and the Canon FD 1,4 50mm ssc was conducted with industrial standard equipment. The FD won in summary.
Great video! Have you ever tried a Yashinon DX 50mm f2? It's a great little lens, very sharp with lots of color punch.
I've never used that lens, but will look out for one.
I love the Yashinon, especially the 50mm f2 (dx, ml ...) and the one I have very often on my SONY A7 is the Yashinon 50mm f1.7 ML,
I just saw this week, while testing it, on my 50mm f2 ML had fungus :( I have to disassemble it
I found the 135mm f2.8 DSB, very powerful! nice surprise, and very solid manufacturing, it joined my camera bag (and yet I must have more than 10x 135mm in my collection) like the very good Pentax M 135mm F3.5, Schneider, or CZJ, you are lucky in the USA your prices are low! here the prices are becoming crazy! especially in France, I hardly buy anything on ebay anymore..... just looking at a Yashica T4/T5 compact that I had back in the day, in the 90s, hahaha, crazy, they often exceed 500€ (550$)🤪
Have you got a review of the Auto Chinon 1.7 55mm?
Pretty sure it's in the back catalogue somewhere!
Great video sir but I'm a bit surprised that the Chinon made your list but not the Nikon 50mm f1.4 which happen to be an amazing lens on par with Canon and Minolta.
I included the Chinon out of curiosity, to see how it would fare against more expensive lenses. Perhaps predictably it didn't do too well, but then again I think it needs a good cleaning. I don't have a Nikon 1.4, but would love to try one - more ebay surfing I think!
Chinon 55mm 1.7 m42 mount is bokeh beast btw. Chinon had some fantastic lenses made by Tomioka
I've heard the Chinon 1.7 is quite something - never used one though!
Sorry if I missed it but what camera have you shot all these on?
From previous videos he uses a Sony Full frame. I don't remember the specific model though.
Baruch Cohen makes sense, it’s what I use with my vintage lenses. Cheers.
its the original a7 from sony
he mention it occasionally
Great assessment of some great glass. :)
Silky smooth just like your vid ..... I’ve just started using my old Pentax 50mm f 1.7 and 35mm f2...... regards fred
35mm f2 - I'm jealous!
Zenography hi I owe you an apology I stated Wrong in fact it’s a 28mm f2.8 . My memory is appalling.... so no need to be jealous.... regards and apologies.....fred
great comparison ! I have 55mm 1.4 version of "legendary" Chinon Multi-Coated Auto made in Japan and I have to say its pretty great lens. Comparable to Canon FDn 1.4 in mary respects I have to make some tests and comparisons to check if any of them shine more :) I also red that 55mm 1.4 from Chinon is much better than 1.4 50mm. Chinon.,
I've heard that too - apparently the 55 was much nicer.
I see an 80's film look from the chinon and actually very close to what I'm looking for for video - because of it's flaws maybe. I think it might deserve a place in the film look for video video.. video
The Chinon's not a bad little lens - and it definitely has character!
Hello Zeography, I just got the Canon FD 50 1.4 SSC instead. What is your opinion on this beauty? I also have the Takumar 50 1.4 Killer Planar
The FD 50mm 1.4 is a beautiful lens, one of my faves in fact. The Takumar 1.4 is very nice too, but I found it a bit soft wide open...
Thank you very much for your reply. Have a happy new year and stay safe
i wonder,
i have the usual "kit" 50mm f2 and 1.8 respectfully and wonder how important it is to get / upgrade to the 1.4 - assuming i already have another wide angle already.
just not sure when is a good time to come back to upgrade a lens focal length i already own.
besides the 1 stop upgrade , how much sharpness difference would you get with the "kit" version over the other IF its even a kit to begin with, i wouldnt know just repeating what other people have said.
How important it is depends, of course, on what you want. Taking the Zuiko as an example, the 1.4 wide open loses out to the 1.8 (wide open) in sharpness, but only a little. Personally sharpness isn't my top priority; I'm more interested in the overall look and feel of an image. One of my favourite lenses is the Helios 40 - very soft wide open, but utterly wonderful!
If the kit you have is giving the results you want, just shoot it and enjoy it!
@@zenography7923 thank you
How about the Mamiya Auto Sekor 55 1.4? Its a nice lens in my opinion, super smoth and great ambience.
I haven't tried it - it's on my list though!
Ive tried it, bokeh has very strong character, not exactly buttery smooth, but more of disintegation, or melting away of background leaves or objects.
respect from Iraq ..
what do you think about chines lens like 7artisans , meike ..so on . is vintage lens better then those chines lens ?
special chines lens come with good low price
thanks to all .
Most of them are pretty good. Generally they are sharper at 6+ feet away and have less CA. The build quality and character of the lenses aren't always stellar tough.
If you do buy any, just make sure that they're full frame lenses. A lot of these new bargain lenses are only built for APS-C.
I have the 7artisans 25mm for Fuji. I paid $69 USD when it was released. Looks like it sells for $79 now. Great lens IMO.
@@vikmanphotography7984 good news so in 90 $ for vintage lens like minolta 50mm 1.4 maybe come with haze or fog i buy chines lens and dont need adapter
@@barrycohen311 many good review about this lens I thinning to buy it
Hey Zenography great video as usual.
I want ask if you have electronic first curtain shutter turned on. It will effect bokeh for the worse by chopping off bokeh circles on fast shutter speeds.
At 3:57 it looks like it's on.
From what I can tell, he does not- At least in most of his samples, including that street image.
@@vikmanphotography7984 What else would cut the bokeh like that?
Most of the samples does not look like that I agree. Either EFCS is turned off on those or it's on but slower shutter speeds are used.
@@blotafton I don't actually see any obvious cutting in that street image. Some edges to out of focus highlights are stronger on one edge than others but the stronger edges have no uniform direction between them.
I'd suspect it has to do with spherical aberration and the direction at which the light is reflecting from (sun bouncing off of metallic bits)
I think the Chinon is an evolution of te famed Tomioka made 55mm 1.4 (some versions made by Cosina but same design). Your copy is pretty dirty. You can see it in the bokeh balls. Also I saw a patch of fungus behind the front element. The Oly reminds me of the SMC Takumar 50mm 1.4
You're right, that chinon needs a good clean!
@@zenography7923 It can flare by the way flic.kr/p/2dEwvrb
Speed up to 1.25 you're welcome.
No thanks, I enjoy.
can you compare the FD 50 1.4 to AIS 50 1.4?
I'll keep it in mind, thanks for the suggestion!
@@zenography7923 Thanks, and another one, AIS 28/f2, and FD 28/f2, I have both but can not judge!
Whaaw! What a great video ! :)
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
the oly wins. unequivocally.
too bad there wasn't the pentax-m 50mm 1.4 in there...
Nah the minolta was better.
Where’s the Super Tak ?
It's somewhere on the lens shelf - it will feature in another video soon!
8:04 le Chinon 50mm f1.4 MC
I first read the title as Furry !
:)
got my fix
I'm glad!
u said 4 and in the video u just mention 3 hehe
Had to speed up the video to 1.25. Normal speed is just exasperating.
A poor life this if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare...
Try to get a "porst" 55 1.4... this thing is magic... german brand, but made in japan
Look:
instagram.com/p/BRISUaJlASs/?igshid=10272u9ov7yqp
Interesting, I'll check out the Porst...
The Chinon shouldn't even have made the list. They were never a major manufacturer and contracted out to have their lenses made. Judging by what I've seen, they even came from multiple factories. Of those mentioned, the Olympus is by far the best choice, followed by Canon and Minolta. If you want a REALLY good 50mm f1.4 Pentax is my #1 choice, it has better contrast (feels sharper) and has considerably better flare control than any of the other 4. The last one commonly available would be the Nikon 50/1.4 which is also an excellent lens, probably just a hair better than the Canon. Last comment, the Canon 50/1.8 is a poor lens, not even boasting multi-coating (which is why there are proportionately more Canon 1.4's available as the other vendors 1.7/1.8 and even f2.0 lenses were all completely coated and less than half the price. FWIW
I must admit I think the Zuiko just a whisker better than the Pentax, which at times can be a little soft... I included the Chinon here really just out of interest, to see how it would compare. It may do better after a good clean.