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07-01-2020, 01:26 PM - 1 Like   #14581
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Ed, great vantage and love the fantasy and realistic versions equally well! Really excellent long focal length technique as always.

07-01-2020, 03:16 PM   #14582
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Thanks so much, my friend
07-02-2020, 07:30 PM - 4 Likes   #14583
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Comparison between 645 400mm FA, 300mm FA* and 150-300mm FA Zoom

Too much time on my hands siting at home, so I decided to do a simple comparison between the 400mm FA, 300mm FA* and 150-300mm FA.

The first picture is with a 50mm to set the scene, I'm looking at a building abt 170m away (as per Google Maps) in particular at two areas inside the red box. At the bottom of the red box is a Panasonic air conditioning compressor, and at the top is a steel roof. I wanted to compare how well the three lenses resolve the writing "Panasonic" on the aircon, and at the top roof, there are some harsh shadows, which should show CA (as previously experienced).


The 50mm view:



Next are the three pictures with the 300mm, 400mm and 150-300 @ 300mm, in full size uncropped:









Next are 200% crops of the aircon compressor, I wanted to see how well it could resolve the name of the unit "Panasonic":









Next are the 200% crops of the roof top area. I wanted to see if there is any CA in the high contrast areas:









I will let you be the judge, which of these should be in the travel bag....

Notes: The exposure was set to 1/2 stop over expose in the camera, to compensate for the harsh contrasts and bring out the shadows without post editing. In camera RAW the default color profile is Adobe Color, which I changed to a color calibrated profile for the 645z, which I did with a XRite thingy some time ago. On these pictures I noted a slight hue change (magenta perhaps?) on the 400mm lens, this is particularly visible in the green mountain in the background. Perhaps I need a new color profile for the 400mm lens. The settings were 1/350 f8 ISO 140 for all four pictures and all were taken within 20 minutes.
07-02-2020, 08:17 PM   #14584
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I'm obviously not a pixel peeper ... they all look fine to me and I would be happy with any of them.


Dave

07-02-2020, 09:10 PM   #14585
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Yes, please enlighten us, sensei.
07-03-2020, 12:44 AM   #14586
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Lens test

Thank you for taking the time to perform this testing exercise. It is very interesting to me because I happen to have all of these three lenses, and have wondered which is the best performer. My 80-year-old eyes are not reliable enough to make any kind of definitive judgments, but I am quite impressed with all three results. I am particularly impressed that the 150-300 zoom lens is capable of staying on the same playing field, and surprisingly ranked it best on the Panasonic lettering, all the more because many zoom lenses seem to perform poorest at their most distant focal lengths.

NOTE: I see that the 300mm* and the 400mm are both ranked quite high on the Forum lens reviews, while the 150-300mm is ranked much lower. Perhaps you might consider posting a review of the 150-300mm lens to incorporate your test results.

Last edited by ivanvernon; 07-03-2020 at 01:02 AM. Reason: Added the Note
07-03-2020, 02:26 AM - 2 Likes   #14587
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The rating of the 645 FA 150-300 mm f/5.6 zoom is low on the Forum Reviews because some disgruntled user sank its score with a rating of "1". If you remove this "statistical anomaly" and recalculate the average (55 divided by 6), you obtain a really good score of 9,166, closer to what most users will observe. In reality, I bought a copy of that lens expecting it to be of mediocre quality but I found it to be one of the best 645 lenses ever produced by Pentax. Here it holds its own brilliantly against the FA* 300 mm in resolution as well as in chromatic aberration control and it sells for peanuts on eBay compared to the *300 mm.

FA 150-300 mm f/5.6

The performance of the 400 mm was, OTOH, a little disappointing as its resolution potential doesn't shine in this test. I'll have to do my own testing with my copy of the FA 400 mm. I have used it on a K1 with the proper adapter and produced really outstanding images (one example below photographed from 1,2 kilometer away, but it's true that the 24X36 frame exploits only the central portion of the illuminated field).

FA 400 mm f/5.6



Last edited by RICHARD L.; 07-04-2020 at 06:54 PM.
07-03-2020, 03:14 AM   #14588
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QuoteOriginally posted by TDvN57 Quote
I will let you be the judge, which of these should be in the travel bag....
Really impressed with the 150-300 from those shots, I have the A*300 and have been trying to fill the gap between the 80-160 & 300 with various 67 lenses (165, 200 & 90-180) but I'll rethink this. As far as the reviews go, it's worth keeping an eye out for 'unfair' low scores or in the case of the 645, those relating to film (the latter was a problem for me when looking at the FA33-55).
07-03-2020, 04:48 AM   #14589
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QuoteOriginally posted by RICHARD L. Quote
The rating of the 645 FA 150-300 mm f/5.6 zoom is low on the Forum Reviews because some disgruntled user sank its score with a rating of "1". If you remove this "statistical anomaly" and recalculate the average (55 divided by 6), you obtain a really good score of 9,16, closer to what most users will observe. In reality, I bought a copy of that lens expecting it to be of mediocre quality but I found one of the best 645 lenses ever produced by Pentax. It holds its own brilliantly against the FA* 300 mm in resolution as well as in chromatic aberration control and it sells for peanuts on eBay compared to the 300 mm. The performance of the 400 mm was a little disappointing as its resolution potential doesn't shine in this test. I'll have to do my own testing with my copy of the FA 400 mm. I have used it on a K1 with the proper adapter and produced really outstanding images (one example below photographed from 1,2 kilometer away, but it's true that the 24X36 frame exploits only the central portion of the illuminated field).
When you do the 400 test, it would be helpful if you also did a "close up" test of something 500ft away or less. This would reduce atmospheric affects in the comparison.

Looking forward to your test,
barondla
07-03-2020, 05:00 AM - 1 Like   #14590
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A man's work is never done ... lol !

Regards
07-03-2020, 07:17 AM   #14591
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QuoteOriginally posted by TDvN57 Quote
Too much time on my hands siting at home, so I decided to do a simple comparison between the 400mm FA, 300mm FA* and 150-300mm FA.

The first picture is with a 50mm to set the scene, I'm looking at a building abt 170m away (as per Google Maps) in particular at two areas inside the red box. At the bottom of the red box is a Panasonic air conditioning compressor, and at the top is a steel roof. I wanted to compare how well the three lenses resolve the writing "Panasonic" on the aircon, and at the top roof, there are some harsh shadows, which should show CA (as previously experienced).


The 50mm view:



Next are the three pictures with the 300mm, 400mm and 150-300 @ 300mm, in full size uncropped:









Next are 200% crops of the aircon compressor, I wanted to see how well it could resolve the name of the unit "Panasonic":









Next are the 200% crops of the roof top area. I wanted to see if there is any CA in the high contrast areas:









I will let you be the judge, which of these should be in the travel bag....

Notes: The exposure was set to 1/2 stop over expose in the camera, to compensate for the harsh contrasts and bring out the shadows without post editing. In camera RAW the default color profile is Adobe Color, which I changed to a color calibrated profile for the 645z, which I did with a XRite thingy some time ago. On these pictures I noted a slight hue change (magenta perhaps?) on the 400mm lens, this is particularly visible in the green mountain in the background. Perhaps I need a new color profile for the 400mm lens. The settings were 1/350 f8 ISO 140 for all four pictures and all were taken within 20 minutes.
I thank you especially for these shots, as I'm about to purchase the 150-300.
07-03-2020, 12:21 PM - 4 Likes   #14592
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A single rose

A single rose from our garden.
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07-03-2020, 02:14 PM   #14593
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Nice exposure control result combined with minimal depth of field.
07-03-2020, 04:21 PM - 2 Likes   #14594
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Detail gathering ability of 645 FA 400 mm f/5.6 telephoto lens.

Whole image, FA 400 mm @ f/16



Lower portion of the above image : full of details to peruse over.
07-03-2020, 07:51 PM   #14595
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QuoteOriginally posted by dbs Quote
I'm obviously not a pixel peeper ... they all look fine to me and I would be happy with any of them.


Dave
Dave, I'm a self confessed pixel peeper, but not obsessive about it, I'm sure.

By circumstance I was asked to supply guestroom artwork for a hotel we were renovating, the theme was to landscapes of the area where the hotel is located. Over a couple of months I accumulated a series of landscape scenes, then got involved in the printing side, and stretch framing.

Now back to the pixel peeping, I found that it does pay off to get a crisp clear picture when you start to print 40x30in or larger prints. Once I started to print I had to discard so many pictures, because they blurred beyond a certain point of enlargement. It really put my pixel peeping into another level, still not obsessive about it, well that's my story and I'm sticking to it. :-) Sadly I feel that my artistic skill is still lagging way behind.

The easy check I found was to enlarge the picture in Photoshop to the same size as the print you intend to make, then view it at 50% on the screen. It is as close to dammit what you will see on the print.

Regarding the 400mm, I was disappointed to see it so much less sharp than the two 300's. I'll do the test again in cooler weather, just to double check. But as others also noted, the 150-300 is remarkably sharp, and I found an old picture of two young elephants in a scuffle, that I printed on 60x40in and it is super sharp. So yes, my tendency will be to leave the other two lenses at home next time.

Pardon the finger typos....


Edit: just wanted to add that I think the 400mm is an exceptional lens, and my critique does not intend to say this is in any way a substandard lens. The simple test I did was potentially flawed, as well as overly critical of a situation in which I would probably never use it in real life. So pse filter my comments as an extreme comparison, a means of deciding which of my prized possessions cannot join on the trip, because the backpack is only so big, and my ability to carry gear is diminishing every year....

Last edited by TDvN57; 07-04-2020 at 03:21 AM. Reason: Added clarification
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