The 100mm 3.5 CFi or the 120mm 4 CFE?

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pkr1979

Hi!

If you'd have to choose one of these, which would it be? Either as the only lens, or with the 80mm CF.

Cheers
Peter

Bashir Lunat

Quote from: pkr1979 on November 20, 2017, 08:50:13 AM
Hi!

If you'd have to choose one of these, which would it be? Either as the only lens, or with the 80mm CF.

Cheers
Peter
As the only lens choose 100mm, or 120mm with 80mm. I added CF 120mm just recently and no regrets whatsoever.

Michael H. Cothran

Unless you're independently wealthy, and simply want to "own it all," you have to space out your lenses accordingly to cover the areas you want or need to cover. Think "past" one particular lens, and envision your entire "realistic" CF arsenal based around a lens somewhere in the middle (perhaps either the 80 or 100). Examples -
Using the 80 as your starting point, the 50 and 120 lenses would compliment the 80 on either side. Using the 100 as your base point, the 60 and 150 lenses would compliment.

          As a "stand-alone lens," we would all be hard-pressed to choose one. However, for me, it would come down to be the CF 60mm/f3.5 Distagon lens. It is simply the most versatile lens for covering everyday events. And it is an extremely sharp & contrasty lens, worthy of the Zeiss name.

pkr1979

Thanks to both of you - I'm gonna need to space things out... which Im probably gonna do. Its indeed difficult to choose just one ;-)

Michael H. Cothran

My point, which I probably did not clarify too well, is that I would NOT own both the 80 & 100 lens. And choosing between these two is a no-brainer for me. It would always be the 100/3.5 Planar. Even Hasselblad corroborates that the 100 lens is superior to the 80, in just about all circumstances.

Tangomaniac

What are your photographic subjects?
The 120 macro is definitely not good at long distances. (See the MTF-charts.)
Likewise the 100 is not good at short distances or macro.
So - for what do you want to use the lens?


sog1927

As Tangomaniac says, it depends on your subject matter. Nearly all the V-series lenses were designed to give optimum performance at infinity - with the exception of the two Macro-Planars. If you primarily shoot closeup, I'd go with the 120. If  you shoot more distant subjects (or subjects at a wide variety of distances), I'd pick the 100. The 100 is superior to the 80 across the board.

I would disagree with the statement that the 100 is "not good" closeup. See http://static.hasselblad.com/2015/02/the_evolution_of_lenses.pdf.
I would say the 100 is "good to very good/excellent" closeup (1.2m), particularly if you stop it down a bit. At 1.2m and f/8, it clearly outperforms the H series 100 in the center and is not much worse at the edges (page 13). Even at f/3.5 it's slightly better in the center.

It is simply superb at infinity, equal to or better than the H-series lens across the board (page 14).

The 120 is specifically designed to be used in the macro range and certainly has some issues at infinity. If you're shooting at 1:2 or 1:1 (with a tube), the 120 is definitely the lens for you. If you're shooting further away, the 100 is what you want (particularly if you don't have the 80). As Tangomaniac advises, get the 100 instead of the 80, not in addition to it (unless you're particularly attached to that 1/2 stop).

If you want something a bit longer, I'd pick the 180 over the 150. It's a more recent design and is probably one of the best lenses in the lineup (next to the legendary Superachromats). It is comparable to the 100 in the center and better in the corners (particularly on a less than 645 digital sensor where you're not pushing the coverage to its limits). It doesn't show much falloff in performance until you get to 30mm away from the center (even wide-open). It was advertised as being excellent for portraiture (it focuses close enough to do a tight head shot without tubes, unlike the 150), so it is supposedly excellent closeup as well. I can't find an MTF chart at anything other than infinity so I can't give you hard data to prove that.


Having said that, my lens lineup is 40/50/80/120/250/500 Apo. If I were starting over, I would probably do that a bit differently ;)

Lens data sheets for all the V-series lenses can be found at http://www.hasselbladhistorical.eu/HW/HWLds.aspx. The MTF charts in the data sheets are only done at infinity, unfortunately (except for the Makro-Planars). If you look at the MTF charts for the 120 at infinity and at 1:5, you'll see what Tangomaniac and I mean about its performance. It's fantastic at 1:5. Not so good at infinity. Pick the tool to suit the job.