James Symington , Jun 11, 2006; 08:54 a.m.
In answer to all the speculation about the 5D having some kind of vignetting
problem I did a shootout between my 5D and 1Ds II and an EOS 3.
I shot tripod mounted out of my study window yesterday which was very sunny
and hot here in London. The lenses used for the test were the 24mm f1.4 L, the
35mm f1.4 L and the 24-105mm f4 L IS. The slide film used was Kodak EBX. Both
digital cameras were set to ISO 50 because of the brigfht light and for the
EOS 3 I used the ultra thin B+W polarisers rotated to a position where no
polarisation was occurring - they acted simply as ND filters. I shot each lens
camera combination at f1.4, f2, f2.8 and f4 for the two primes and f4, f5.6,
f8 and f11 for the zoom. I will only post some of these today as it is too
pleasant a Sunday to spend any more time in front of the computer.
The conclusion is one that I pretty much expected - all three lenses produce
very similar results on all three cameras.
There are differences of exposure which I have corrected (chiefly the EOS 3
under-exposed making the vignetting on that camera look much worse than the
two DSLRs). I adjusted the histograms to look as similar as possible. The
digital shots were taken in RAW and converted using Raw Shooter. The slides
were scanned on a Coolscan 9000. No processing was carried out on any of them
other than the aforementioned levels adjustment.
The objective of the test was to determine if the 5D has a particular problem
with vignetting. It is abundantly clear that at least mine does not and
responds substantially the same as my 1Ds II. Slide film seems to fare no
better than digital sensors either.
In the shots attached below you will find below the order is always 5D at
left, EOS 3 in the middle and 1Ds II at right.
Hope this helps settle this rather strange debate - vignetting, with these
cameras at any rate, is a product of the lens and not the camera!
James Symington , Jun 11, 2006; 08:55 a.m.
James Symington , Jun 11, 2006; 08:57 a.m.
James Symington , Jun 11, 2006; 08:58 a.m.
James Symington , Jun 11, 2006; 08:59 a.m.
Now for the controversial one - the 24-105mm f4 L....
James Symington , Jun 11, 2006; 09:00 a.m.
Henrik Ploug , Jun 11, 2006; 10:53 a.m.
Thanks a lot for the test, James! It is always better to base a discussion on facts instead of opinions.
This makes it clear that all full frame cameras - digital or film - vignettes with a wide angle lens set at maximum aperture.
I think much of the confusion about full frame cameras and vignetting comes from the fact that most people shot with 1,6 crop cameras - me included. And we are not used to see pictures with this much vignetting. So we think, that there must be something wrong - either with the lens or with the camera.
But since we use the same lenses on our cropped cameras without any severe vignetting, we think that it must be the cameras fault.
Anyway these pictures makes me glad, that I recently bought a 30D instead of a 5D. Much less postprocessing to do in Photoshop.
Puppy Face , Jun 11, 2006; 01:41 p.m.
"I think much of the confusion about full frame cameras and vignetting comes from the
fact that most people shot with 1,6 crop cameras - me included."
True. However, it was only 5 years ago most of us were shooting with full frame film. I find
it amazingly so many were so inobservant. Light fall-off was always there and more so
with wide zooms.
I have only a few slides with light fall-off from the last couple decades. I quickly learned
not to shoot skies with fast apertures when using wide angle lenses. I find it odd so many
5D owners will blast off hundreds of shots at 24mm wide open and then cry foul.
Puppy Face , Jun 11, 2006; 01:43 p.m.
John Bellenis , Jun 11, 2006; 01:48 p.m.
I find it odd so many 5D owners will blast off hundreds of shots at 24mm wide
open and then cry foul.
With all due respect, it's not the 5D owners that are "crying foul." It's trolls like
Steven Moseley who don't even own Canon equipment, but just like to be
controversial and - as he admits - likes to "ruffle EOS owners".
I guess some people just need to get a life!
