Mattiscombe Sands, south Devon

[grebeman]

West of Start Point the coast of south Devon stretches to Prawle Point, the southern most point of the county. It's a raised beach, delineating a former sea level in times past. There are several small beaches of which Mattiscombe is the first west of Start Point.
A glorious day with the crystal clear air that occurs on the west coast and some lovely distant clouds as a bonus.

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Panasonic GF1 with 12mm, f/5.6 Voigtlander Ultra Wide-Heliar, iso 200, f/11, 1/500
General view looking west

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Panasonic GF1 with 12mm, f/5.6 Voigtlander Ultra Wide-Heliar, iso 200, f/11, 1/1000
Breaking surf on the beach

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Panasonic GF1 with 12mm, f/5.6 Voigtlander Ultra Wide-Heliar, iso 200, f/11, 1/640
Surf running up the beach as a wave expends its energy

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Panasonic GF1 with 20mm, f/1.7, iso 100, f/11, 1/160
A fresh water stream that flows down over the beach reaches the sea


Barrie

 

[JCD]

nice shots, in particular no.1 & 4

however, how is it the Voigtlander? how is the feeling with the GF1?

 

[grebeman]

nice shots, in particular no.1 & 4

however, how is it the Voigtlander? how is the feeling with the GF1?

I think that all the slower Voigtlander rangefinder lenses go very well with the GF1. I found the 15mm very much to my liking when I got that, now that I have the 12mm as well I find it difficult to say which I like the best, I think perhaps the 15mm still has the edge over the 12mm. Both lenses are not quite as sharp as the Panasonic 20mm and there is probably a hint of vignetting with the 12mm (which I have yet to try and correct post processing).
I have a great affection for these older lenses having started off with a camera which had no other focussing aids other than the settings for focus distance and f number engraved around the edge of its lens. I also think that it might be best to focus the 12mm on infinity rather than try to focus hyperfocally, it seems just a little sharper at distance if you do that, but that might be my imagination.
Given these slight short comings I really love these lenses. I do wonder if the Panasonic 14mm could replace them in my affections, I'm not keen on the idea of software correction and my raw processor doesn't support the 14mm lens as yet.

Barrie

 

[akulya]

Again, Barrie,
An astonishing set.
Number 1 for the shore, and number 2 for the sea.

I don't think I could do that voiglander justice.

PS. I am very much enjoying your "stroll-umentaries", thanks.

 

[grebeman]

Again, Barrie,
An astonishing set.
Number 1 for the shore, and number 2 for the sea.

I don't think I could do that voiglander justice.

PS. I am very much enjoying your "stroll-umentaries", thanks.

"stroll-umentaries", I like that

Barrie

 

[JCD]

I think that all the slower Voigtlander rangefinder lenses go very well with the GF1. I found the 15mm very much to my liking when I got that, now that I have the 12mm as well I find it difficult to say which I like the best, I think perhaps the 15mm still has the edge over the 12mm. Both lenses are not quite as sharp as the Panasonic 20mm and there is probably a hint of vignetting with the 12mm (which I have yet to try and correct post processing).
I have a great affection for these older lenses having started off with a camera which had no other focussing aids other than the settings for focus distance and f number engraved around the edge of its lens. I also think that it might be best to focus the 12mm on infinity rather than try to focus hyperfocally, it seems just a little sharper at distance if you do that, but that might be my imagination.
Given these slight short comings I really love these lenses. I do wonder if the Panasonic 14mm could replace them in my affections, I'm not keen on the idea of software correction and my raw processor doesn't support the 14mm lens as yet.

Barrie

Thanks for the answer

I also think that older lenses have a particular charm and output; the only advantage for the new panasonic 14mm is the AF and - probably? - a better multicoating treatment, so I'd keep the Voigtlander, don't even think about it.

 

[grebeman]

Thanks for the answer

I also think that older lenses have a particular charm and output; the only advantage for the new panasonic 14mm is the AF and - probably? - a better multicoating treatment, so I'd keep the Voigtlander, don't even think about it.

I don't think the 14mm will be finding a place in my lens collection (I've got too many already), the Voigtlander 12mm and 15mm will satisfy my wide angle needs, and now I've started playing around with vignetting correction in Bibble Pro 5 I think I can improve on the results I've been getting so far.

Barrie

 

[pdh]

I'm interested to know if you see image degradation at the edges with those lenses, Barrie.
(I have to say I don't notice any on your images, but they are resized for posting of course)
I've seen many posts here and elsewhere that suggests anything less than 35mm fl with a mFT body is likely to suffer.

As I have just acquired a 28mm Voigtlander, I'll be able to test it myself, but yours are so much wider (and you are so much more experienced!)

 

[grebeman]

I'm interested to know if you see image degradation at the edges with those lenses, Barrie.
(I have to say I don't notice any on your images, but they are resized for posting of course)
I've seen many posts here and elsewhere that suggests anything less than 35mm fl with a mFT body is likely to suffer.

As I have just acquired a 28mm Voigtlander, I'll be able to test it myself, but yours are so much wider (and you are so much more experienced!)

I've printed several from the 15mm lens and have been well pleased with the results. I have only printed a couple from the 12mm lens and felt that overall there was a slight degrading of detail over what I might have expected, but that was picture wide and not particularly related to the edges, it was that that caused me to comment about hyperfocal focusing and whether it might be better to focus on infinity when taking landscape type shots. I haven't printed any of these Mattiscombe shots, I might try one or two before my inks run out. As for lack of edge detail I don't really detect that, although I now realise that there is some vignetting and I think that by correcting that with my raw processor the results have shown an improvement on those posted here.
One thing I have noticed on some peoples shots with the wide angle zooms is what to me is unacceptable distortion at the edges. I don't know if they've applied distortion correction or whether those are jpeg shots out of the camera. Of course they could be as a result of the camera not being level in the front to back direction which can not be post corrected. Whatever I personally find such distortions disturbing. I've yet to feel that the 15mm lens introduces what would be disturbing lens distortion, I haven't really used the 12mm yet on subjects that would show this effect up. I think 12mm is as wide as I would like to go for that reason, the perspective distortion creates an unreal world that I find unsettling (bit of a ramble, forgive me).

Barrie

 

[JCD]

I don't think the 14mm will be finding a place in my lens collection (I've got too many already), the Voigtlander 12mm and 15mm will satisfy my wide angle needs, and now I've started playing around with vignetting correction in Bibble Pro 5 I think I can improve on the results I've been getting so far.

Barrie

yes, I don't think to buy the new 14mm too: for wide angle use I just buyed the m.zuiko 9-18

about vignetting, I have to say that lately this is an effect I like to include in my pics, so I don't care too much about it; for the Voigtlander I'd consider vignetting such as a characteristic of an old, fashinating, lens

Andrea

 

[grebeman]

I'm interested to know if you see image degradation at the edges with those lenses, Barrie.
(I have to say I don't notice any on your images, but they are resized for posting of course)
I've seen many posts here and elsewhere that suggests anything less than 35mm fl with a mFT body is likely to suffer.

As I have just acquired a 28mm Voigtlander, I'll be able to test it myself, but yours are so much wider (and you are so much more experienced!)

Hi pdh,

I've printed nos 2 and 3 at 360 dpi, 288 mm x 192mm on A4 (so no cropping of the image, dimensionally as obtained from the camera at 3:2 aspect ratio) and I can see nothing that would be described as blurring or smearing of edge detail. I expect that they are not quite as sharp as would be obtained from a similar focal length prime lens designed for the format, but with judicious use of the unsharp mask filter (small amounts applied 2 or even 3 times, which produces better results than one application of a larger amount), the results are perfectly satisfactory, at least to my eyes and for my usage.

Barrie

 

[pdh]

hmmm interesting ... I don't have any printing facilities without going to a shop, but some rough experimenting with a tripod and a sheet of newspaper (!) suggests that things get smeary quite quickly at the edges with the 28mm, at f/4 & 5.6 ... unless of course I have a duff copy, a duff adapter or duff eyes ... anyway, I seem to be hijacking your thread and haven't even complimented you on the images, which are lovely, so I'll stop now and hope there's less than 10/10 cloud tomorrow

 

[grebeman]

No problem, quite a few threads go off in unexpected directions. I'll try some shots with fine detail using my 20mm, and both the 15mm and 12mm Voigtlanders. See how they compare to what might be called real world photographs.
Thanks for your comments about my images.

Barrie

 

[Narnian]

@grebeman

Great pictures! I especially love number 2.

It would be interesting to see a comparison of the Voightlander 12mm/15mm against the Oly 9-18 at the same focal lengths. The likelyhood of me being able to afford the Voightlanders is slim.

 

[grebeman]

@grebeman

Great pictures! I especially love number 2.

It would be interesting to see a comparison of the Voightlander 12mm/15mm against the Oly 9-18 at the same focal lengths. The likelyhood of me being able to afford the Voightlanders is slim.

Thanks Narnian.

I'll rise to the challenge if there's anyone in striking distance who's got the 9-18, indeed I would be most interested to see how they would both fare with the same subject matter.

Barrie

 

[michaelfinch]

Hi to everyone. I picked up on Barrie's prints commments. This may not be the right place to post...............but I've always preferred a matt paper......even 30 years ago when there was nothing on offer (for colour). My wee problem now is that I still use matt for printing and I understand all the techie reasons why matt papers don't do shadows/blacks too well. I use Lyson inks/papers/profiles. All is ok except the blacks. I can tweak it pre-printing: BUT what are the best matt papers for shadows/blacks? Is there an answer out there?
Cheers