How to REALLY Understand Your LENS 

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I use 3 rulers, 1 across the center and 1 each going up and down from the center ruler. It allows me to see sharpness in the center and the edges. Add 2 more and you can do all the corners along with the middle plane. No photoshop needed. I use wood rulers as they are easier to see.

YES, I get it, esp. as I shoot nikons, the 105 is a case in point, the z mount lens CANT be hand-held, it is way to unstable, but the afs one CAN, and does work effectively off a tripod,; Also when I shot my 80 and 180 hasselblad Cf lenses, these are both prone to flare, I shot by my local river, architecture mainly, but there is a point, when reading and watching other photographers use them, ALWAYS use a lens hood, you will get highlights, but not bad unusable flared images( I was using asa 400 at the time, with EV 15-17 on the light meter).

Thank you for the wonderful advice. I will start trying each lens for the best F stop and edge softness for each type of use.

Super, well said. Many think 'focal length' or FOV when we talk about getting to know a lens or mastering it (seeing in 28mm or 50mm etc), but there is so much more to it. It's genre and intent specific as well. I don't really need my Pentax FA43/1.9 anymore but I hold onto it because I think it starbursts better than any other lens out there (or at least on my system). And it's about getting to know the weaknesses of an optic as well. Many lenses I love also PF badly, and so I often accept that a monochrome conversion of the image is an easy way around that issue, but I need to weigh up if that is an acceptable tradeoff or if colour really is critical to the success of the image. Taking a hit on the aperture (stopping down) to remove CA and what figure that actually substantially helps is good info to know as well. The biggest problem is remembering it all, all of these optical traits across a wide variety of glass. So I can understand why some reduce their kit to just 1-3 lenses because then the memory issue is not so hard. Great vid.

Not gonna lie, as an amateur and most importantly a videographer using dslrs, it's kinda weird hearing all the shooting being done at such high aperatures. I do understand why, but it's given me something to think about when practicing photography. Gonna need way more light

Every though I am as much of a newb as a newb can be, I always find something I can understand and learn from in your videos. Thank you. 😊

totally can relate. Old telephotos for example have lots of weak points, but you can always find which conditions they suit best and you can achieve really good results if you play them well. And that explanation you gave with the 35 1.8, same as with my old 50 1.4

"Canon cameras like Sigma lenses." INTERESTING, because I wanted faster glass than the Canon lenses can provide short of dropping several grand on L series lenses and even then they don't have everything I want. So I got the Art series 35mm f/1.4, the 50mm f/1.4, and a Samyang MF 85mm f/1.4 as my go-to lenses. Eventually I want to get the Art series 18-35 f/1.8 and the 24-70 f/2.8 zoom lenses, but they're even bigger than the 50mm prime so they don't really make for great walking-around lenses for those of us that do a lot of documentary photography. I've got a Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 that's remarkably sharp even wide open and in low light which serves me well when I need a variable focal length. You just saved me a lot of angst with your description of the 35mm by the way, I thought it was just user error when I ran into these problems with that lens. Turns out it wasn't just me.

I have 2 Mamiya RZ lenses adapted to fit a Sony and love them. Thank you for some great videos. I have subscribed and now slowly working my way through your back catalogue.

This was really great information. Thanks for sharing.

Great video! Simple tricks for testing lenses are always welcome. I also found the part about Sigma lenses on canon bodies really interesting.

Really interesting video Scott. Especially the bit at the end about the edge to edge sharpness. Definitely going to have to try that.

This is such a good topic! Love your videos

Great points. I test my lenses a lot but you brought up a few points I didn’t think of. Thanks! A couple of other points I value a lot. The focus plane of a lens is often curved and not flat especially wide angle lenses, so setting the focus point in the middle might get you less sharp shots. All lenses bokeh perform different at certain distances, at some distances it can look crap but closer acceptable or very good.

"the zooms are not for creative decision making" Surely, what you put in front of the camera is what makes the photos creative?

I agree with everything in this video.

Do you prefer film or digital. I still shoot film for important things with very old canon slrs whot many different lenses. I do have one digital camera but i only use it for snaps as its only 7 megapixel. Cant change the lenses, and no hot shoe for speedlight. But does take nice images. But not a true slr its image generated finepix fujifilm s6500 fd. Handy for travel etc

Underrated episode.

Thank you! will start testing my lenses

This was really helpful. Thank you

Compression depends entirely on camera placement, not at all on the lens. When you adjust camera to subject distance, you also zoom the lens (or choose another one) to get similar framing. The focal length of a lens is an innate quality of the lens. It has nothing to do with the camera or the size of the film or sensor. What does change is the angle of view of the camera system, and field of view on the subject. You can get exactly the same effect by shooting 120 film on the Mamiya 6x7 and then cropping a 35mm fragment from the centre. You can,, of course, crop the 35mm fragment from anywhere in the image for a shift effect. Additionally, you can crop to different shapes/sizes your Canon can't do in one shot. The so-called wide angle distortion you alluded to is caused by the photographer. Essentially, photographers generally but more so landscape photographers are photographing a region from the inside of a tennis ball and then presenting it as a flat surface. A narrow lens, the effect isn't so noticeable. You see it in video, when the cameraman pans the camera.

Hello, wonderful video thanks. What camera are you using a Canon 5DsR or 5DS? Thank you.

I loved the Mamiya 110mm when I shot the RZProII, you might want to check it out. There is also a 140mmMacro for the system.

Interesting, thanks! You talked about f22 on your 90mm Mamiya lens...would you say diffraction is a bit better than on the Zeiss 100mm at f22, or a lot better please?

46s & 52s "Mama Mia"!!!!

Thank you ⭐️

Some excellent suggestions; I would appreciate to hear about your experience with the Cambo system.

Kinda wish I could afford a decent lens. My camera costs 10x more than my lens. And I think a better lens would make a massive difference. Canon RF lenses cost 2500, 3000.

💕💕💕💕💕💕

What adaptor should i use to directly attach the Mamiya sekor z 90mm onto the 5dsr?

Hi I am a bit confused about the lenses you mentioned. Are they older? Mamiya doesn't bring up much. Are they related to Schneider Kreuznach?

Hello Scott, I wanted to ask, if I had some money and I wanted to start ussing a tilt shift lens, do you have any recomendations on a tilt shift lens?

What on earth had happened to your Zeiss lens for then to charge you £900 to fix it?

I''m confused about medium format lens focal lengths when used on the Cambo/35mm camera. A 6x7 50mm has a certain angle of view. Doesn't that angle remain the same no matter which camera is behind it? When you say it comes out to being roughly the same as a Canon 50mm is it because you only use the center of the Mamiya lens? Thanks again for the useful info.