[123ben]

Hey,

after looking at all those great pictures in the "The 15mm Limited controls my mind - club"-thread, I've decided to get a copy of this lens

It arrived this morning and I did a few test shots to see if its a good copy or not. As I'm not very familiar with proper lens testing, I just shot some "regular" condition pics. Tonight (in Beijing it's already night ) I did some test shots at a bridge around the corner. I found some flare from the street lights and would like to know whether its typically for this lens or not. If not how can I avoid it? Especially in the shot from the bridge I don't like the flare of the upper left street light. Btw I like it except that flare

Thanks!
Ben

Attached Images

   

[paperbag846]

Looks pretty good to me.

[123ben]

Thanks for your answers! How to get it flare proof? No, do you have a tip how to shoot this situation better and decrease flare?
I also uploaded some of the pictures taken today. As expected it is not that sharp in the corners at f4.0 What do you think?

Pic at f4
Pic at f5.6
Pic at f11

Thanks!
Ben

[DogLover]

Yeah, this lens is often touted as flare-resistant, not flare-proof. Hard to say from this one example, but I don't see anything to be worried about. You need to get some (apparently) boring and done-to-death sunbursts that most people still get a kick out of.

[enoeske]

Are you refering to the double starburst on the street lights? That isn't flare. But does look unusual. Are you using a filter on the front?

[123ben]

No filters, just the plain lens. I'm referring to the pink spots on the street lights. Hmm double starbursts... Maybe two light sources? I also did a test shot into a flood light, no doubling, no pink spots.

[Adam]

The star effect is quite normal- a smaller aperture will likely reduce it, however.

Here's another example with the 12-24, by Ash: http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/artist/galleryimages/gallery_image_7196641.jpg

Adam
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[Adam]

The pink spots are indeed flare, and it's because you're shooting directly into strong light. Can't do much about it because of how wide the lens is.

[philbaum]

Hey,

after looking at all those great pictures in the "The 15mm Limited controls my mind - club"-thread, I've decided to get a copy of this lens

It arrived this morning and I did a few test shots to see if its a good copy or not. As I'm not very familiar with proper lens testing, I just shot some "regular" condition pics. Tonight (in Beijing it's already night ) I did some test shots at a bridge around the corner. I found some flare from the street lights and would like to know whether its typically for this lens or not. If not how can I avoid it? Especially in the shot from the bridge I don't like the flare of the upper left street light. Btw I like it except that flare

Thanks!
Ben

To me, that isn't flare from the street lamp, but a hot spot resulting from a long exposure on a bright light. Its very well controlled from a flare perspective, IMO. If you want to reduce the size of the "hotspot", you could use HDR methods, but the lamps look normal to me for a picture of this sort. I wouldn't be at all concerned about it, and i've done a lot of street lamps.

[MPrince]

How to get it flare proof?

To get it flare proof simply refrain from shooting directly into a strong light source.

[Doanh]

It appears that the first 2 photos were taken from a pedestrian walkway. I believe the double star busts were caused by vibration from traffic below. The last photo taken from top of a building seems to confirm this as the star bust is only a single one. My guess anyway.

Regards,

Peter

[paperbag846]

The DA 15 stands out because it handles a situation like that *better* than many wide angles (most of them are zooms). I believe this is because a wide angle prime has about 1/2 (or less) the number of lens elements when compared with a beast like the 12-24, so it handles flare better.

I would imagine that flare performance is about as good as you are going to get. Nothing to worry about - commonly seen in photography.

If you want to see wide angle flare... put a 28mm f2.8 on film, with no hood. Good luck .

[Lowell Goudge]

you really need to distinguish between the pattern you see around bright lights, and flare.

lens flare is generally a pattern seen elsewhere in the image, in the apprtoximate shape of the aperture, due to reflections internally to the lens off the surfaces of the elements.

the starburst pattern you see is actually a collection of difraction spikes due to the corners in the aperture when stopped down. the difraction around the two relitively straight edges form an interference pattern that causes each spike. You get one spike per aperture blade (but since they radiate in both directions, if you have an even number of blades (and the opening remains symetrical) you get an even number of spokes radiating outward because they overlap in pairs, but if you have an odd number of blades you get 2 times the number of spokes as blades because none overlap

[Ben_Edict]

you really need to distinguish between the pattern you see around bright lights, and flare.

lens flare is generally a pattern seen elsewhere in the image, in the apprtoximate shape of the aperture, due to reflections internally to the lens off the surfaces of the elements.

the starburst pattern you see is actually a collection of difraction spikes due to the corners in the aperture when stopped down. the difraction around the two relitively straight edges form an interference pattern that causes each spike. You get one spike per aperture blade (but since they radiate in both directions, if you have an even number of blades (and the opening remains symetrical) you get an even number of spokes radiating outward because they overlap in pairs, but if you have an odd number of blades you get 2 times the number of spokes as blades because none overlap

Lowell's explanation is ofcourse completely correct.

Nevertheless the is visible lens flare. The two street light in the upper left corner each produce a slight ghosting or flareing. The left one pinkish and the lamp to its immediate right a round blob, which is nearly lost in the diffraction spikes.

To me, this image is a testimonial just how good the flare controle is with that lens! Many lenses would produce much severer flareing, including my old K 15/3.5.

Ben

[Lowell Goudge]

Lowell's explanation is ofcourse completely correct.

thanks, I'll remember that, I have been very wrong also at times

Nevertheless the is visible lens flare. The two street light in the upper left corner each produce a slight ghosting or flareing. The left one pinkish and the lamp to its immediate right a round blob, which is nearly lost in the diffraction spikes.

how the hell did you pick that up, I had to look long and hard to find it

To me, this image is a testimonial just how good the flare controle is with that lens! Many lenses would produce much severer flareing, including my old K 15/3.5.

Ben

How true. I would love to compare your K15/3.5 to my newly aquired Samyang 14/2.8 I got the samyang because it was easy to get at a price well belwo what the pentax 15mm goes for, and have been questioning the difference in performance between the two. If I had to bet, I would think the pentax is much better on distortion, worse on CA and probably worse on internal reflections as well. but I seem to have hijacked the thread a little. OOPS!