35mm Summaron 2.8 vs C-biogon 2.8

[helenhill]

Originally Posted by semilog

Some people think veiling flare improves their photographs.

Oh Dear I'm One of those
sometimes Flare can add Atmosphere & can be Coool ...
though I much prefer Vignetting , in particular with the 21 Super Angulon

[semilog]

That's a useful comparo, thanks for posting it. My assessments were just by eyeballing the MTF charts.

[jsrockit]

Originally Posted by helenhill

Oh Dear I'm One of those
sometimes Flare can add Atmosphere & can be Coool ...
though I much prefer Vignetting , in particular with the 21 Super Angulon

Helen, I agree with you 99% of the time. It's rare that I think the flare ruined my photo. I also add vignetting often after the fact.

[James6714]

Thank you all for your inputs and lovely pictures.

Very helpful comments from: Tom (always), Semilog, Dektol Dan, and last but not least helen hill (I love your pictures).

I will definitely go for the Biogon.

Regards,
James

[froyd]

I'm a huge fan of the Zeiss look: punchy colors, crisp contrast, no distortions... the reason why I cannot get rid of of the Contax G. However, I'm head over heels for teh Summaron 2.8, especially shot on XP2 at 320. There's so much tonal gradation in the negatives this combo produces that you could mistake it for a bigger format. Simply superb. Sharp enough without the razor's hedge.

I posted some images from this combo here:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/foru...light=summaron

[Shade]

Inthink both lenses are great, but wasnt there an article discussing about how sharp the sumaron is wide open? Im not sure if I rember correctly but I think one does exist somewhere. But disregarding the fact I believe the summaron has a certain character and so does the biogon. It would be best to try both out and see which one you like better for your style of shooting.

[BobYIL]

For B&W film, Summaron tones I like more, as if more gradations from black to white. C-Biogon's contrast is striking, similar to Summicron 35 Asph. Both have almost no distortion, bokeh by the Biogon is buttery smooth. Center sharpness of Summaron and the C-Biogon is almost the same, f2.8 and f5.6 tested; a tiny tad to Summaron's favor. The C-Biogon is superior in the edges/corners. For color and digital the C-Biogon is an outstanding lens.

Not to undermine; Summaron's center sharpness was better than any 35mm lens I have tested including the Summicron Asph and Summicron v1.