Pentax Monochrome

The only difference is the mount - I no longer have any Canon EF mount bodies, but the lens is available in Nikon F and Pentax K mounts. The lens is one of those Zeiss lenses that, when you get it right, has real pop and punchy sublime colour. The out of focus is smooth and not distracting - just gets out of the way leaving focus on the subject.
Apologies, I meant the spectral response differences between the Zeiss and Pentax.
 
Apologies, I meant the spectral response differences between the Zeiss and Pentax.
Sorry, I can’t comment on the Pentax, but I always think the Zeiss response is pretty consistent across the z series slr and rf ranges. It tends to rich but clean - very slightly warm but with high contrast. I was always struck by how well my daughters skin was drawn by the 2/35.

I found this spectral response graph for the 2.8/25 in zf (slr) and IR versions. The ZF has a very small drop off at the blue end and a small lift in the reds that’s consistent with my experience.

25mm-comp.jpg

It’s interesting, in colour so much happens between the projected image and print that spectral response can get lost, but in mono it becomes a key element defining how the picture looks.
 
Sorry, I can’t comment on the Pentax, but I always think the Zeiss response is pretty consistent across the z series slr and rf ranges. It tends to rich but clean - very slightly warm but with high contrast. I was always struck by how well my daughters skin was drawn by the 2/35.

I found this spectral response graph for the 2.8/25 in zf (slr) and IR versions. The ZF has a very small drop off at the blue end and a small lift in the reds that’s consistent with my experience.

25mm-comp.jpg

It’s interesting, in colour so much happens between the projected image and print that spectral response can get lost, but in mono it becomes a key element defining how the picture looks.
The only difference between the ZF and ZF-IR lenses is the coating, which is optimised in the IR versions to maximise IR transmission and avoid hotspots in IR photos. These graphs really show how much difference coatings make.
 
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Sorry, I can’t comment on the Pentax, but I always think the Zeiss response is pretty consistent across the z series slr and rf ranges. It tends to rich but clean - very slightly warm but with high contrast. I was always struck by how well my daughters skin was drawn by the 2/35.

I found this spectral response graph for the 2.8/25 in zf (slr) and IR versions. The ZF has a very small drop off at the blue end and a small lift in the reds that’s consistent with my experience.

25mm-comp.jpg

It’s interesting, in colour so much happens between the projected image and print that spectral response can get lost, but in mono it becomes a key element defining how the picture looks.
Thank you
 
The only difference between the ZF and ZF-IR lenses is the coating, which is optimised in the IR versions to maximise IR transmission and avoid hotspots in IR photos. These graphs really show how much difference coatings make.
Back when I was at Uni studying maths I did a course in electromagnetic theory. I’ve never forgotten the wonder when we derived the result showing a coating can reduce reflection to zero - I saw the answer coming a few lines out and was surprised than none of my peers seemed to grasp the significance of the final result. Coating are pretty impressive
 
Back when I was at Uni studying maths I did a course in electromagnetic theory. I’ve never forgotten the wonder when we derived the result showing a coating can reduce reflection to zero - I saw the answer coming a few lines out and was surprised than none of my peers seemed to grasp the significance of the final result. Coating are pretty impressive
In practice the results are incredibly impressive too.
 
Thanks to you all, a Monochrome just arrived with a 16-50 and a, thrown in, 55-300. I will definitely have to read the manual… otherwise I’ll get grumpy with its complexity. Still, astrotracing:)
Yes, some of the complexity is acceptable, given, well, astrotracing as an example.

1730780831278.jpeg
 
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I would be more interested in the Pentax Monochrome if i still had any Pentax lenses. But that was long ago and far away... aside from the SMC-Pentax-L 43mm Special (LTM). 😉


Roots - Santa Clara 2022
Leica M10-M + Pentax 43mm f/1.9
ISO 1250 @ f/4 @ 1/125

Lovely work in this thread!

G
 
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