Lucas Test Shots

Lucas shot with Nikon D800e and Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 wide open.

Lucas serves as a test subject for many of my lens testing exercises. I have been playing around with my Nikon D800E and a Voigtländer 90mm f/2.8 APO Skopar. I want to see how the lens renders the subject and the out of focus areas. The 90mm does not focus very close, maybe about 2 feet plus (about 0.8 meters). It is quite sharp wide open and the backgrounds look lovely.

It is a very good lens and I need to take it out on walk.

Lucas shot with a Nikon D800E and a Voigtlander 50mm f/1.4 Nokton at f/2.8.

This frame was shot with a Voigtländer 58mm f/1.4 Nokton at f/2.8. It will focus quite a lot closer than the 90mm. It is also quite sharp wide open and has excellent out of focus character. Again, this lens will want to go with me on a walk.

One thing I like about the Voigtländer lenses is that they have a chip that provides data to the camera body. So exposure and distance information is available to the camera and stored in the image file. These lenses will also work on my Nikon film bodies.

Lucas Test Shot

This capture of Lucas the Spider (one of my favorite plushies) was done with the Nikon D800E and a Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 Skopar at f/8. I did some light processing with DXO Photolab 7.

This little Lucas the Spider plushie is a favorite test subject for lenses. If I shoot at night, then I have some light sources in the background and I can get a sense for how the out of focus areas are represented by the lens.

I shot this with my Nikon D800E (ancient at this time) and a Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar lens I bought earlier this year. I really prefer legacy glass to modern glass for the older lenses’ character, including their flaws. They often render more interesting images in everything from color, to sharpness (or lack thereof), to background blur (bokeh in photo parlance). Their optical imperfections produce interesting effects that I often like.

The Voigtlander lenses are proving quite interesting and have a modern adaptation. They have a microchip interface to the digital cameras (my Nikons) that enables the camera’s CPU to read the lens settings and incorporate that data into exposure control and fill in the EXIF data in the image file.

I like the Voigtlander lenses enough that I think I will add to my collection of them. I suspect they will become commonly used on my Nikon film bodies.