Amin Sabet
Administrator
Update: The links to raw files in this comparison are no longer functional. If you want to download all the raw files to do your own analysis, here they are: 85mm shootout RAW files.zip
The four lenses compared here are the Panasonic Leica 42.5mm f/1.2 (Nocticron) on Olympus E-M1, Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 on Canon 6D, Nikon 85mm f/1.8G on Nikon D610, and Fuji 56mm f/1.2 on Fuji X-E2.
P4130001 by Amin Sabet, on Flickr
In this post I'll be showing how each lens performs wide open. I like to feel confident that I can use a lens wide open, and the purpose of this thread is to look at how these lenses deliver at that setting. For those wanting to see how these lenses compare at matched depth of field, see post #16 of this thread. For general comments on use, see post #18.
JPEGs were converted from RAW in Lightroom 5.4 with a quick (not always successful) attempt to match overall brightness and white balance during processing. Sharpening and noise reduction settings were left at defaults. I cropped the Olympus E-M1 JPEGs to 3:2 aspect ratio to facilitate comparison.
I recommend comparing JPEGs by right clicking each one and choosing "Open link in new tab" in your tabbed browser of choice so that you can compare one JPEG to the next by switching tabs.
Scene 1 JPEGs:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/P4120001.jpg
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSCF2018.jpg
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/IMG_0028.jpg
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSC_0028.jpg
Scene 1 RAW files:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/P4120001.orf
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSCF2018.raf
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/IMG_0028.cr2
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSC_0028.nef
The first thing I noticed from Scene 1 is how the Nocticron wide open renders a significantly less blurred background than the other three lenses. Having done the subsequent comparisons of the Nocticron at f/1.2 to the Canon and Nikon lenses at f/2.5, I can tell you that even at those respective settings, the full frame lenses produce a background with more apparent blur. In other words, relative to the other lenses, the Nocticron produces less background blur than one would predict for a 42.5mm f/1.2 lens on a Micro 4/3 camera.
On the other hand, Scene 1 also demonstrates that the Nocticron renders the smoothest bokeh of the four lenses wide open. Unlike the Nocticron, the other three lenses demonstrate nisen bokeh in this scene. This isn't the first example of a lens that renders particularly smooth bokeh showing less apparent background blur than one might expect. See for example Neil van Niekirk's excellent examples of how the Zeiss lens on the Sony RX1 produces less apparent background blur than the Nikon 35/1.4G when both lenses are used at 35mm and f/2.
Other things I noticed from Scene 1 are that the Nikon lens has impressive corner sharpness even wide open, that the Fuji is relatively free of the purple fringing shown by the other three lenses, and that the two full frame lenses show the most green bokeh fringing (one component of axial CA).
Scene 2 JPEGs:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/P4120004.jpg
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSCF2022.jpg
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/IMG_0031.jpg
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSC_0031.jpg
Scene 2 RAW files:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/P4120004.orf
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSCF2022.raf
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/IMG_0031.cr2
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSC_0031.nef
In Scene 2, I tried to focus near the front edge of the roof (between the first row of shingles and the second), but the Fuji focused further back. In general, the Fuji X-E2 was the hardest of the four cameras to focus on intended small targets, whereas the Olympus was the easiest. To what extent the lenses contributed to these differences, I cannot say.
In this scene, both the Nocticron and the Nikon clearly outresolved the sensor in the center of the frame where color aliasing is readily apparent. Meanwhile the Canon and especially the Nikon suffer from a lot of purple fringing and green-fringed bokeh. Again it seems to me that the Nocticron produces the smoothest bokeh with this very challenging background.
Scene 3 JPEGs:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/P4120005.jpg
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSCF2023.jpg
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/IMG_0032.jpg
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSC_0032.jpg
Scene 3 RAW files:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/P4120005.orf
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSCF2023.raf
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/IMG_0032.cr2
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSC_0032.nef
The subject of Scene 3 reminds me that I should mention that many of these images are overexposed with irrecoverable highlights owing to the use of fast primes wide open on a bright day without neutral density filters. The Fuji took the hardest hit as it has neither the 1/8000s setting of the Olympus nor the native ISO 100 of the Canon and Nikon.
Scene 4 JPEGs:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/P4120009.jpg
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSCF2029.jpg
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/IMG_0036.jpg
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSC_0036.jpg
Scene 4 RAW files:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/P4120009.orf
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSCF2029.raf
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/IMG_0036.cr2
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSC_0036.nef
Scene 4 comments: Canon front focused a bit here. I didn't do such a hot job matching white balance and brightness here during RAW conversion. The Fuji was the only lens to show flare under these conditions. All four lenses displayed some fairly ugly axial CA.
Scene 5 JPEGs:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/P4120011.jpg
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSCF2031.jpg
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/IMG_0038.jpg
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSC_0038.jpg
Scene 5 RAW files:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/P4120011.orf
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSCF2031.raf
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/IMG_0038.cr2
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSC_0038.nef
Scene 6 JPEGs:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/P4120012.jpg
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSCF2032.jpg
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/IMG_0039.jpg
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSC_0039.jpg
Scene 6 RAW files:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/P4120012.orf
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSCF2032.raf
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/IMG_0039.cr2
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSC_0039.nef
Scene 6 comments: The Nikon is just an impressively sharp lens wide open, isn't it? Certainly has been showing up the Canon if you've been seeing what I've been seeing in these comparisons overall.
Scene 7 JPEGs:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/P4120013.jpg
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSCF2033.jpg
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/IMG_0040.jpg
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSC_0040.jpg
Scene 7 RAW files:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/P4120013.orf
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSCF2033.raf
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/IMG_0040.cr2
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSC_0040.nef
I hope some members / readers find these samples to be useful! Please share your comments and questions below.*
*Except for discussion of the Nocticron price / value proposition. Those comments go here: Nocticron price
P4130002 by Amin Sabet, on Flickr
The four lenses compared here are the Panasonic Leica 42.5mm f/1.2 (Nocticron) on Olympus E-M1, Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 on Canon 6D, Nikon 85mm f/1.8G on Nikon D610, and Fuji 56mm f/1.2 on Fuji X-E2.
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
P4130001 by Amin Sabet, on Flickr
In this post I'll be showing how each lens performs wide open. I like to feel confident that I can use a lens wide open, and the purpose of this thread is to look at how these lenses deliver at that setting. For those wanting to see how these lenses compare at matched depth of field, see post #16 of this thread. For general comments on use, see post #18.
JPEGs were converted from RAW in Lightroom 5.4 with a quick (not always successful) attempt to match overall brightness and white balance during processing. Sharpening and noise reduction settings were left at defaults. I cropped the Olympus E-M1 JPEGs to 3:2 aspect ratio to facilitate comparison.
I recommend comparing JPEGs by right clicking each one and choosing "Open link in new tab" in your tabbed browser of choice so that you can compare one JPEG to the next by switching tabs.
Scene 1 JPEGs:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/P4120001.jpg
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSCF2018.jpg
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/IMG_0028.jpg
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSC_0028.jpg
Scene 1 RAW files:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/P4120001.orf
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSCF2018.raf
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/IMG_0028.cr2
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSC_0028.nef
The first thing I noticed from Scene 1 is how the Nocticron wide open renders a significantly less blurred background than the other three lenses. Having done the subsequent comparisons of the Nocticron at f/1.2 to the Canon and Nikon lenses at f/2.5, I can tell you that even at those respective settings, the full frame lenses produce a background with more apparent blur. In other words, relative to the other lenses, the Nocticron produces less background blur than one would predict for a 42.5mm f/1.2 lens on a Micro 4/3 camera.
On the other hand, Scene 1 also demonstrates that the Nocticron renders the smoothest bokeh of the four lenses wide open. Unlike the Nocticron, the other three lenses demonstrate nisen bokeh in this scene. This isn't the first example of a lens that renders particularly smooth bokeh showing less apparent background blur than one might expect. See for example Neil van Niekirk's excellent examples of how the Zeiss lens on the Sony RX1 produces less apparent background blur than the Nikon 35/1.4G when both lenses are used at 35mm and f/2.
Other things I noticed from Scene 1 are that the Nikon lens has impressive corner sharpness even wide open, that the Fuji is relatively free of the purple fringing shown by the other three lenses, and that the two full frame lenses show the most green bokeh fringing (one component of axial CA).
Scene 2 JPEGs:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/P4120004.jpg
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSCF2022.jpg
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/IMG_0031.jpg
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSC_0031.jpg
Scene 2 RAW files:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/P4120004.orf
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSCF2022.raf
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/IMG_0031.cr2
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSC_0031.nef
In Scene 2, I tried to focus near the front edge of the roof (between the first row of shingles and the second), but the Fuji focused further back. In general, the Fuji X-E2 was the hardest of the four cameras to focus on intended small targets, whereas the Olympus was the easiest. To what extent the lenses contributed to these differences, I cannot say.
In this scene, both the Nocticron and the Nikon clearly outresolved the sensor in the center of the frame where color aliasing is readily apparent. Meanwhile the Canon and especially the Nikon suffer from a lot of purple fringing and green-fringed bokeh. Again it seems to me that the Nocticron produces the smoothest bokeh with this very challenging background.
Scene 3 JPEGs:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/P4120005.jpg
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSCF2023.jpg
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/IMG_0032.jpg
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSC_0032.jpg
Scene 3 RAW files:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/P4120005.orf
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSCF2023.raf
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/IMG_0032.cr2
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSC_0032.nef
The subject of Scene 3 reminds me that I should mention that many of these images are overexposed with irrecoverable highlights owing to the use of fast primes wide open on a bright day without neutral density filters. The Fuji took the hardest hit as it has neither the 1/8000s setting of the Olympus nor the native ISO 100 of the Canon and Nikon.
Scene 4 JPEGs:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/P4120009.jpg
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSCF2029.jpg
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/IMG_0036.jpg
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSC_0036.jpg
Scene 4 RAW files:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/P4120009.orf
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSCF2029.raf
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/IMG_0036.cr2
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSC_0036.nef
Scene 4 comments: Canon front focused a bit here. I didn't do such a hot job matching white balance and brightness here during RAW conversion. The Fuji was the only lens to show flare under these conditions. All four lenses displayed some fairly ugly axial CA.
Scene 5 JPEGs:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/P4120011.jpg
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSCF2031.jpg
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/IMG_0038.jpg
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSC_0038.jpg
Scene 5 RAW files:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/P4120011.orf
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSCF2031.raf
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/IMG_0038.cr2
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSC_0038.nef
Scene 6 JPEGs:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/P4120012.jpg
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSCF2032.jpg
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/IMG_0039.jpg
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSC_0039.jpg
Scene 6 RAW files:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/P4120012.orf
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSCF2032.raf
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/IMG_0039.cr2
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSC_0039.nef
Scene 6 comments: The Nikon is just an impressively sharp lens wide open, isn't it? Certainly has been showing up the Canon if you've been seeing what I've been seeing in these comparisons overall.
Scene 7 JPEGs:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/P4120013.jpg
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSCF2033.jpg
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/IMG_0040.jpg
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/JPEG/DSC_0040.jpg
Scene 7 RAW files:
Panasonic-Leica: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/P4120013.orf
Fuji: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSCF2033.raf
Canon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/IMG_0040.cr2
Nikon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mu43rawfiles/shorttele/RAW/DSC_0040.nef
I hope some members / readers find these samples to be useful! Please share your comments and questions below.*
*Except for discussion of the Nocticron price / value proposition. Those comments go here: Nocticron price
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
P4130002 by Amin Sabet, on Flickr
Last edited: