[swanlefitte]

I hear how different lens are warm and cool and give good skin color. I just got a color chart. I would like a "control" lens to compare the others against.
Or is there an alternative control. Direct sensor to reality is impossible. A clinically true lens seems my closest bet or a good known correction of a lens.

[photoptimist]

The most "clinical" true color lens would be a pinhole. With no glass elements or color-reflecting AR coatings at all, a pinhole transmits 100% of every wavelength equally.

[Kozlok]

Your best bet is to correct in post.

[swanlefitte]

A pinhole seems a good idea.

---------- Post added 12-14-17 at 08:54 PM ----------

Kozlok, i want to know my lenses color characteristics to use them, not erase them.

[SpecialK]

A dental (clinic) macro?

[IgorZ]

A pinhole seems a good idea.

---------- Post added 12-14-17 at 08:54 PM ----------

Kozlok, i want to know my lenses color characteristics to use them, not erase them.

The problem with pinhole is that you need to use film and every film looks different...

Out of all my lenses I think irix 15mm is the most neutral. Older Soviet lenses tend to have low contrast and saturation wide open. Which actually raises another question : lens performance changes as you change aperture, so most clinical at which aperture?

[Bob 256]

Don't forget that to compare lenses (to a pinhole or neutral diffuser) you need exactly the same light source each time and camera settings (particularly white balance which cannot be set to AUTO) need to be the same for all comparisons. That basically confines lens comparisons to a lab. Of course once you know how each lens compares to the standard, you're basically done.

[swanlefitte]

I plan on shooting the color chart with flash. I can figure out the lenses, just easier with a control.
I figured there would be a few lenses ppl would form a consensus around like sharpest lenses.

[stevebrot]

Or is there an alternative control.

The chart is standards-based and serves as its own control.. If you wish to use it to compare various lenses on the same camera, use a controlled light source with a known color temperature and set the color temperature for JPEG or RAW processing accordingly.


Steve

[clackers]

Yep, manually set the colour balance to be close to the flash's temperature, then snap away on your colour chart with different lenses.

[RAART]

I think that most color neutral lens I encountered was Canon FDn 50mm F1.4

[Digitalis]

if you can find one a Leica Summicron-R 50mm f/2 is widely held to be a neutral rendering lens.

[swanlefitte]

Just looked at photos from the Leica Summicron-R 50mm f/2. The sky and grass feel healthier and cleaner than other pictures. I think it is more yellow and less violet to my untrained eye. Had an art teacher who get match any paint by looking at it tell what to mix and how much

[angerdan]

If you change the thread title to a objective title, this would be more specific.
You mean a lens with equal transmittance about the whole visible spectrum from 395nm to 720nm.

When you know the transmittance testing lab results of common lenses, you know that there's always a compromise between red/blue transmission, green/red neutrality or booth.

For example, look at these spectral power distribution charts from measurements of individual fixed focal lenses from different brands:
Pentax smc DA 17-70 mm f/4.0 AL [IF] SDM review - Ghosting, flares and transmission - LensTip.com
Pentax smc DA 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 AL II review - Ghosting, flares and transmission - LensTip.com
Pentax smc DA 35 mm f/2.4 AL review - Ghosting, flares and transmission - LensTip.com
Pentax smc D FA 100 mm f/2.8 Macro WR review - Ghosting, flares and transmission - LensTip.com
Pentax smc FA 43 mm f/1.9 Limited review - Ghosting, flares and transmission - LensTip.com
Pentax smc FA 50 mm f/1.4 review - Ghosting, flares and transmission - LensTip.com
Samyang 7.5 mm f/3.5 UMC Fish-eye MFT review - Ghosting, flares and transmission - LensTip.com
Sigma 24-70 mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM review - Ghosting, flares and transmission - LensTip.com
Sigma 30 mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM review - Ghosting, flares and transmission - LensTip.com

But the lens is only the center part of the whole process. Light source spectrum and response spectra of human cones are limiting and influencing the overall spectrum at the beginning and end of the way of light.
Spectral power distribution of studio flash light.
lfb.rwth-aachen.de/files/publications/2009/BRA09a.pdf#page=20
File:Spectre absorption des cones.svg - Wikimedia Commons

[Dericali]

Lightroom lens correction might be your best bet here. If you have a colour checker chart like this one,

( https://www.amazon.com/X-Rite-MSCCC-ColorChecker-Classic/dp/B000JLO31C?tag=pentaxforums-20& )

you can create colour profiles in LR for your camera according to the varying light conditions that you can then use to correct your photos. Then you can have a degree of veracity in the final colour (assuming you have neutral lighting).

You can use the automatic lens corrections for individual photos to compare the before and after, or you can manually adjust colours (and other lens artefacts)