Today I’m going to speak about two Japanese lenses, let me introduce — Kobalux 28mm f: 3.5 — and — Canon 28mm f: 2.8. I’m going to compare these lenses, so let’s begin! Their appearance. They are not much different — both are like bicycle’s bell (especially Canon).
Kobalux ($ 435) — made from a nice brushed metal, without roughness. The aperture ring (f: 3.5 — f: 16) clearly switches with a certain click. In general, for some reason it seems like it could be easely broken in your hands … But it is not true, the lens is made solidly. In addition this lens is equipped with a hood and there also outside viefinder — nice bonus! The lens is rare, the total amount released is not so great. A curious fact, Kobalux is the smallest (in height) 28mm lens for the rangefinder in the world!
Canon ($ 207) — chrome bicyle ring. The first thing you notice — this is his weight. It is heavy, it’s not a correspondence between its compact appearance and weight! The lens gives the impression of a tough guy … Frankly speaking, it id the way it is. Build quality is on top! The aperture ring (f: 2.8 — f: 22) switches with a certain click as in the previous lens.
All in all, I want to say that both lenses look like a peephole. It is a tablet, which is not particularly sticks out from the body. Both have a lensmounted M-39 bayonet, plus an adapter ring on the M-mount.
I’ve selected winter Sunday to test this lenses, when my wife and I went to her grandmother who lives in the village. It was a very cold winter in our city, and in the village it is even worse! Too cold … That’s why much of the test took place in the house. Tripod, cable release, Leica CL (by the way,expect soon an article about her), and Samsung Prime Color iso 100 (the film overdue, so I’m not feel sorry for these experiments). Here are the test shots with both lenses:
This pictures shows possibilities of an open and closed aperture:
The stocked ace in the «Canon» hole is f.22 aperture.
Even in this cold (-26с) I found courage to go out side and take come shots!
- Canon f.16
- Kobalux f.16
- Canon f.22
- Canon f.16
- Kobalux f.16
- Canon f.16
- Kobalux f.16
- Canon f.22
On the whole, I found «Kobalux» more pleasant from the use, «Canon» playsthrough bu its incredibly long focusing course. This is extremely inconvenient and certainly prevents an emergency shot. The result of shooting? Interesting question. There is no clear leader. Both lenses sharp. «Kobalux» showed higher contrastat on medium aperture, but «Canon» showed better results on a closed hole. «K» is more convenient to focus, but «C» has f.2, 8, f.22 apertures… both coped with the geometry well. So if the cost of lens is in the first place for you — then «Canon» must be your choice, but if you want something more authoritative — it’s Kobalux.
To be honest, I wanted to finish this article, but my brother said that there is no self-respecting test optics without a crop test taken. So, here it is!
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