Is the S5 Pro still a worthwhile buy?


Status
Not open for further replies.
That's why the Voigtlander makes an ideal ladies' lens. Everybody will look in the pink of health without makeup.

These lenses are not meant for every photographer but I actual love them.

i agree. diff people diff ways of looking at things. black lens white lens, u like it means its a good lens. :bsmilie:
 

A very good and reasonably priced piece of optics. This lens gives very similar contrast and colors characteristics when compared to Leica Elmarit lenses. Most former Leica-users I know appreciate this lens greatly. Another good buy is the Apo-Lanthar 90mm F3.5 (not even Carl Zeiss ZF lenses have APO coating).

Sounds good there. This will be one of the MF lenses I should get for the S5. Read the Photozone review and the border performance doesn't look too hot. But considering the large max aperture it's respectable performance at a decent price.

More dynamic range test images under blazing bright morning sun. :cool:



Hard to believe these two photos were taken around the same time. The difference is astounding! :bigeyes:

Sharpness test (not sharpening :)):


Sharpnesstestcrop.jpg

Cropped portion.

Is this cropped portion a 100% crop of the sharpest area in the photo? I can still read the numbers but it looks pretty soft. Maybe I'm just spoilt by the sheer crispness from my current setup. Leica glass is evil. Before buying such lenses I thought my Canon lenses were very sharp, but that changed when I saw just how much sharper things could actually be.
 


Perhaps I didn't read into it carefully enough but in the only full frame portraits I see there, the author doesn't actually make it clear as to which camera took which picture. One of them seems to have lower contrast than the other.
 

i had the 105 micro VR, and i could say its probably one of the best nikon lenses ever made, in terms of contrast & corner to centre resolutions, you could even do a 100% crop without applying USM, and people wouldnt even realize its cropped. sometimes i do regret selling it..

and your other question abt voiglander 58mm, i had the luxury of having one for a couple of days on loan from a friend, its sharp wide open, centre and corner performance is good, but there's just this.. voiglander hue that i dont really like.. its like having a 5% warm filter slapped onto your image in photoshop or something..

cz's still ahead in terms of subject contrast rendition, that the subject is often contrastier than the background bokeh, helping it stand out. the voig's a little flatter to that aspect

As a guess, the 105 Micro would cost quite a bit right? Quality always comes at a price. On the S5 it'd work out to be something like a 150mm lens, okay for outdoor portraits I suppose. Moreover I'm lacking a macro lens in my current setup so it wouldn't be such a bad idea to buy this lens. Macro work is another of those things that demands the highest resolution and I wonder how well the S5 will fare.

With the warm tint of the Voigtlander, I suppose it wouldn't be a problem for those who constantly shoot RAW. At the moment the filters that I use on my Leica lenses have a slight warm hue to them also but I never had any issues with color. Often the AWB takes care of the tint. During RAW conversion I usually find myself shifting the WB towards a warm bias as well.
 

That's why the Voigtlander makes an ideal ladies' lens. Everybody will look in the pink of health without makeup.

These lenses are not meant for every photographer but I actual love them.

Warmth in portraiture can be atmospheric I suppose. Generally people lean towards warm rather than cold for people photos, but it would depend on the mood that is desired also.
 

Is this cropped portion a 100% crop of the sharpest area in the photo?

That is a 400% crop of the blurriest area.

And these are the 400% sectional crop of the sharpest area in that image. Keep in mind that it was shot with a mid-end Nikon AF lens.
scale.jpg


scale2.jpg
 

Last edited:
Eh...serious or not? Don't joke like that leh...;)

I am not joking. I shot this image at f4.5 in macro mode. The depth of field is quite shallow.

You'll understand what I meant when you look at the original image and the crop portion:
scalestroke.jpg
 

Last edited:
I am not joking. I shot this image at f4.5 in macro mode. The depth of field is quite shallow.

Thanks for the clarification. I was initially surprised that you would post a crop of the blurriest area in the photo since most would automatically post the sharpest. A 400% crop is really aggressive as well so I guess the image quality is to be expected.

Wah, you've poisoned my mind with the S5!
 

I was initially surprised that you would post a crop of the blurriest area in the photo since most would automatically post the sharpest.

Since you are very concern about the softness of the S5 Pro, I will show you how soft is soft.

To be frank, the Nikon D300 and the Canon 450D are just a tad bit sharper than the S5 Pro.
 

Last edited:
Thanks for the clarification. I was initially surprised that you would post a crop of the blurriest area in the photo since most would automatically post the sharpest. A 400% crop is really aggressive as well so I guess the image quality is to be expected.

Wah, you've poisoned my mind with the S5!


LOL!!! you have been outwitted by the fujifilm master! :bsmilie:

dont think so much already. just it and start shooting. at $1.1k its a steal. :devil:
 

LOL!!! you have been outwitted by the fujifilm master! :bsmilie:

No lah.... Me no master.

Just to show our friend what is "tender softness with details".
 

Last edited:
Perhaps I didn't read into it carefully enough but in the only full frame portraits I see there, the author doesn't actually make it clear as to which camera took which picture. One of them seems to have lower contrast than the other.

The author did mentioned that the right photos are from S5 pro;)
 

Since you are very concern about the softness of the S5 Pro, I will show you how soft is soft.

To be frank, the Nikon D300 and the Canon 450D are just a tad bit sharper than the S5 Pro.

I see...thanks for those samples. I've never shot the D300 or 450D before and hence wouldn't be able to use them as a benchmark. The 1Ds would be an incredible benchmark however, the sheer clarity over even the 8MP 1D MKII was obvious in DPReview's comparison.
 

LOL!!! you have been outwitted by the fujifilm master! :bsmilie:

dont think so much already. just it and start shooting. at $1.1k its a steal. :devil:

Haha, don't tempt me! :bsmilie: I'm still thinking really carefully about this because I will not want to have two cameras sitting in the dry box. If I move to the S5 then I'd need to sell almost all my other gear.

Heart pain for sure. :bheart:

There's still time to consider everything however, because I'm actually waiting for the new catalogue in this nearby shop to be published. Maybe by then they'll have the Nikon 16-85 VR and I'll try to wrangle a package deal with the S5. This lens looks really promising. Mate it with a Voigtlander 58/1.4, plus some old Nikon-mount 28-210mm super zoom in my box, and a Leica 400/5...that is a viable setup.
 

Haha, don't tempt me! :bsmilie: I'm still thinking really carefully about this because I will not want to have two cameras sitting in the dry box. If I move to the S5 then I'd need to sell almost all my other gear.

Heart pain for sure. :bheart:

There's still time to consider everything however, because I'm actually waiting for the new catalogue in this nearby shop to be published. Maybe by then they'll have the Nikon 16-85 VR and I'll try to wrangle a package deal with the S5. This lens looks really promising. Mate it with a Voigtlander 58/1.4, plus some old Nikon-mount 28-210mm super zoom in my box, and a Leica 400/5...that is a viable setup.

why cannot have 2 dslr? get the s5 pro and start with cz 50 1.4 or cv 58 1.4. start small! :devil:
 

why cannot have 2 dslr? get the s5 pro and start with cz 50 1.4 or cv 58 1.4. start small! :devil:

Money...need more money. Besides, no point for me to spend so much on hobby. Must be realistic. Everytime I join competitions cannot even get finalists, hence no point owning all sorts of fancy gear. :cry: That said, I will not downgrade to a P&S because that would probably make this hobby less fun for me.

Also, this shop where I am intending to buy from...the price for the body alone is not that good, but the package deal with the Tamron 17-50/2.8 is great, even considering the old exchange rate of AU$1 to S$1.30 (much higher than it actually is today) it's still a worthwhile buy.

The Tamron is supposed to be a nice lens, provided you get a non-decentered one, as some have said. Still recall talking to that camera shop guy and feeling sorry for him. Obviously he didn't know anything about what he was selling, yet he was under pressure to say something worthwhile.

Thankfully, I did all my reading even before going there. Saved him the trouble.
 

guys i would like to do a rain check... can the hyper utilities v3 be supported on linux?
 

I see...thanks for those samples. I've never shot the D300 or 450D before and hence wouldn't be able to use them as a benchmark. The 1Ds would be an incredible benchmark however, the sheer clarity over even the 8MP 1D MKII was obvious in DPReview's comparison.

Since I use Canon system at work, I can compare and conclude that images from the Canon EOS 1Ds MK II and 5D are visibly sharper. However, this is an unfair comparison as both cameras are full-format DSLRs.
 

Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top