I think the 35/2.8 has a sweet spot which is really hard to test for. From
my experience, I think it is best served when working events where you are
shooting in close to moderate distances. Although, it is a fine landscape
lens stopped down, I don't think wide-open and landscape are usually done
too much together.
Wide-open, there is vignetting, but it's not a bad type of vignetting. The
fall-off is very smooth and doesn't have the central hot-spot which the
35/2.0 seems to have. (It is really bad with some digital sensors)
One day, I decided to test the resolving power of my lenses on the DMC-L1.
In the controlled testing, I did infinity, as well as about 2 meter distance
testing. Wide-open the lens lacks contrast, but the resolution is pretty
decent. At F4, contrast and resolution are balanced out very well, by F5.6
both are at the peak. F8, contrast is greater, but resolution is starting to
drop off from diffraction. F11 is fine if you are good with a deconvolution
sharpener. Regardless, between F4 and F8, the lens outresolves the sensor
which is the equivalent of somewhere around 28MP full-frame.
I've also tested the lens using Ilford Delta 100, which is a very decently
resolving film and tops out beyond even what the DMC-L1 is able to do.
Center and corner sharpness remain high and from wide-open to F5.6 will pick
up about two steps on the line-pair charts--I think. I'm running on my
memory here.
Regardless, after doing extensive testing (in an effort to determine what
lenses stay and go), I was sufficiently impressed enough to say that mine
ain't going nowhere. If it stunk, I'd have sold it.
Alas, there is something very very wrong with 35mm focal length with modern
focus screens, like the 2-series and what is in the E-system cameras. The
screens are now a microprism mesh and the angles of the microprisms don't
seem to jive with the 35mm focal length and it's nigh impossible to put them
into and out of focus. The microprism mesh doesn't allow the "bokeh" to
expand far at all. I experimented a bit last night and determined that it's
pretty much a lost cause without focusing aids.
AG
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