Quote:
Do you guys mainly use prime lenses for your coin photography or do you also venture into the enlarging lens arena as well? IYO, which setup is better or not?
I understand that a Prime lens is a lens of fixed focal length. A non-prime lens is a zoom lens. Most Enlarger lenses are prime lenses but there are some notable exceptions such as the Schnieder Kreuznach Betavaron. I tried the betavaron out. It was just too big and heavy and extremely hard to use with marginal results.
I think you were actually meaning Native lenses ( a Lens designed specifically for the camera you use) opposed to an adapted lens.
A native lens most often has the major advantage of Auto focus ( although for DSLRs its a good idea to fine tune the AF) At the same time the problem with Native lenses is price, and the magnification range. Also these days a native lens has a known performance profile that the camera can read and adjust for, making for much better shots due to in camera processing, or more streamlined processing in Light room etc.
Price: A high performing native macro lens costs anywhere from $600 - to a few thousand( depending on the camera system). A decent enlarger lens costing US$300-$400 will match or even exceed the performance of those top end native macros. Even a cheaper Enlarger lens will out perform many mid-price range macro lenses. Enlarger lenses are designed to have a flat field, so they can perform very well with coins.
Magnification: A native lens most often has a maximum magnification of 1-1 ( life sized). To get high magnifications you have to resort to extension tubes and quite often the native lenses performance drops with extension tubes.
All that said, I have three native macro lenses and they are very enjoyable to use with coins. Simple straight forward and having AF is really nice. One of the native lenses coupled to the camera will focus stack any where between 2 and 999 pictures( Olympus 60mm F 2.8 macro on the Olympus OMD-EM10II) with that lens-camera combination one does not need to go and buy a stacking system( another US$500+)
On the other hands for some coins and lighting set ups I prefer my enlarger lenses.
Now as far as this thread goes and some others I have to say that apart from appreciating the nice pictures I come away no wiser. Perhaps its lack of experience on my part but I can not tell what the strengths and weaknesses of the lenses are. The issue for me is my monitor and its calibration. I have no idea whether my view of the pictures posted is the same as Rocky's or any other forum members view. My point being that there is no reference point for me to compare to.
I enjoy seeing Rocky's posts as he has been showing lenses that I have been very tempted to buy. The problem I have is that
I have no real means, from threads like this one, to judge whether the lens is better or worse than the lenses I already have. To explain further. Last week I had some posters printed they had been taken with the sony A7rII. It was phenomenal to see the printed results... what I had seen on screen was no where as good as the printed result.In the print I could see detail that my monitor only hinted at.
I, as I am sure a few others are, am waiting in anticipation for Rays 80mm shoot out. I won't know if I what I see on my screen is what Ray sees on his, but as he will be providing a consistent approach and clear comparison shots I will have a good understanding of how the lenses might perform on my system.
A suggestion for any one posting sample shots it would be really helpful if you also included 100 % crops from your unedited photo.
Posted 06/05/2016 04:13 am
