The tiniest child of Fujian family: 25 mm F1.4
It's a wonderful tiny lens with swirly bokeh and vintage vignetting on M4/3 sensor. A great thin focal plane (well... we'll explain how "plane" works in this case) and "standard" angle. Great for portraits and as it turns out, a good choice for wedding outdoors!
TV lens 25/1.4 aka Fujian
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| Fujian happy family: TV lens 25/1.4 aka Fujian Fujian TV lens GDS-35 35/1.7 TV lens 50/1.4 aka Fujian |
Wedding lens
The first copy of the lens I used was my friend's. He bought one on eBay and borrowed me for testing. I managed to take a successful wedding outdoors for befriended couple. It was at the end of session and we were goofing around. No tension and "romantic" look ended in photos they loved.
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| CCTV lens 25/1.4 aka Fujian - wedding outdoors |
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| CCTV lens 25/1.4 aka Fujian - wedding outdoors |
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| CCTV lens 25/1.4 aka Fujian - wedding outdoors; a bit motion-blurred, but flare is impressive. |
All advantages of the lens are easily noticeable:
- swirly bokeh emphasizing the couple,
- veiling flare and sun flare giving photos more dreamy look,
- shallow depth of field,
- even vintage corner vignetting is an enriching advantage.
Two housings of the same lens
Unfortunately I wasn't lucky about my Fujian 25/1.4 CCTV lens... The two differences between lenses were: aperture and focusing ring.
"Wedding" lens had an unusually shaped aperture with ability to close it completely and a rubber band on focusing ring. It was a very solid metal construction with nice resistance on rings. It worked perfectly, I absolutely adored it.
My current copy is the one on the photos above - no rubber ring and nearly circular iris of many leaves. The mount is a bit loose, which might lead you to miss focusing point.
However - optically, both of them behave in the exactly same way.
CCTV Fujian 25/1.4
Let's start with samples!
Camera: Lumix G2
Mount: C-mount > Micro Four Thirds
Edit: PS CS6 50% scaling
As you see Fujian 25/1.4 vignettes heavily in the cornes of Micro Four Thirds sensor. However I got used to photographing in 2:3 ratio, so the proper vignetting on full MFT (M4/3) sensor scheme looks like this:
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| CCTV lens 25/1.4 aka Fujian - @1.4 - vignetting on full Micro Four Thirds sensor |
Yes, that's heavy and yes, I really like it. I guess I'm one of those kinky lenses lovers, who are into unusual effects.
The construction is, despite having a small built-in hood, prone to flares. Again - for me it works perfectly with dark corners and naughty focus.
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| CCTV lens 25/1.4 aka Fujian - heavy flaring, when directed into the sun @1.4 |
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| CCTV lens 25/1.4 aka Fujian - romantic veiling flare, when shooting against the light @1.4 |
As you might have realised with this lens there's nothing like "focus plane". "Focus sphere" is the more appropriate name. At F1.4 it's a quality that lets photographer to bring out object from its background - the centre of the image is sharp, while the closer to edge, the blurrier the image becomes.
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| CCTV lens 25/1.4 aka Fujian - @2.0 |
Although the line of trees in the photo below are about the same distance from the camera, only the central group is in focus.
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| CCTV lens 25/1.4 aka Fujian - @1.4 |
It's also a very nice close-up lens. What's more - usually, when you buy it, it's delivered with tiny C-mount 5 mm extension ring, which gives the opportunity for some sweet macro shots. I didn't tried that one, but bare-lens close-ups work really fine too.
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| CCTV lens 25/1.4 aka Fujian - @1.4 - close-up |
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| CCTV lens 25/1.4 aka Fujian - @1.4 - close-up - as close as possible |
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| CCTV lens 25/1.4 aka Fujian - @1.4 |
Aperture
There's no mark on the lens suggesting what aperture we're using at the moment, so mentioned values were based on shutter time difference according to base aperture of 1.4.
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| CCTV lens 25/1.4 aka Fujian - @1.4 |
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| CCTV lens 25/1.4 aka Fujian - @2.0 |
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| CCTV lens 25/1.4 aka Fujian - @2.8 |
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| CCTV lens 25/1.4 aka Fujian - @4.0 |
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| CCTV lens 25/1.4 aka Fujian - @5.6 |
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| CCTV lens 25/1.4 aka Fujian - @16 |
Summary
CCTV lens Fujian 25/1.4 isn't lens for every man and every camera. It works fine on Micro Four Thrids camera and will work on similar or smaller sensors, but using it on APS sensors will end in worse vignetting.
For me this lens is perfect for moody, romantic or nostalgic captures. Definitely not the sharpest tool in the box, but very useful and graceful, when used properly. What's more - it costs only about $20, so not too much to check if it's the right gear for your ideas.
I definitely recommend to check it out and decide!
Witaj Pawel, gratuluję świetnego bloga!
ReplyDeletePrzy okazji tego obiektywu mam pytanie - czy da sie go uzywac z adaptorem ktory opisujesz w kolejnych postach, skracajacym ogniskową o index 0,72 (i rozjasniajacym swiatlo o 1 ev)?
Pozdrawiam serdecznie.
Dzięki za miłe słowo!
DeleteTen Fujian 25/1.4 nie zadziała z Focal Reducerem. Zasda działania FR jest taka, jak soczewki skupiającej. Mówiąc dość obrazowo: po prostu "ściska" pole obrazu dając więcej światła, ale ograniczając rozmiar krycia. Ze wszystkimi obiektywami do pełnej klatki (i większymi), a także z dużą częścią tych dla matryc APS.
Niestety - pole krycia Fujiana jest ledwie wystarczające dla matrycy M4/3 i po "ściśnięciu" wystąpiłaby czarna winieta, jak tutaj:
http://lenscraze.blogspot.com/2014/02/meopta-openar-20-mm-118-c-mount.html
Nie ma też FR dostosowanych dla obiektywów C-mount. Wiem, że niektórzy próbowali kombinując takie konstrukcje DIY. Wiem, że nawet się udawało. Jednak tylko dla niektórych szkieł i z ogniskową zazwyczaj powyżej 50-75 mm (te mają większe pole krycia).
Z drugiej strony - może na mniejszych matrycach (BMPCC, Nikon 1 - 1", czy Pentax Q) taka modyfikacja byłaby możliwa...
Gdyby ta kombinacja zadziałała - mielibyśmy bardzo szerokie i bardzo jasne szkło za małe pieniądze.
Na szczęście powstaje coraz więcej jasnych szkieł dla matryc APS i przy odrobinie szczęścia będzie można ten wynik powtórzyć :)
Dzieki bardzo za odpowiedź! "Kłopot" w tym że te nowe szkła nie rysują tak jak te "niedoskonałe" :)
ReplyDeleteTak to już jest - czasami potrzebujemy perfekcyjnego szkła, a czasami te niedoskonałości budują charakter. Jest sporo obiektywów, które zapewnią ciekawy efekt, nie będąc technicznymi ideałami. Przymierzam się do testu Cyklopa 85/1.5. To bardzo jasne, radzieckie szkło było częścią zestawu z noktowizorem NZT-1. Pomimo braku przysłony sprawdza się świetnie w fotografii - zwłaszcza portretowej i kreatywnej.
DeleteSą jeszcze różne odsłony obiektywów Petzvala (pomijając ten od Lomography). Różne egzemplarze oparte na tej konstrukcji zapewniają nietypowe rezulaty. Aczkolwiek większość z nich wymaga dość skomplikowanych adaptacji.
Polecam się na przyszłość :)
Thanks for the article. I just bought this lens to use with my new Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera. Your example photos are gorgeous and I found some nice demo footage of it being used with the BMPCC on Youtube. I have a crazy black and white film in the works, and this is the perfect lens for it.
ReplyDeleteGlad I could help and thanks for kind words.
DeleteThis lens won't disappoint you - in fact it can't for so little money. It's a great tool for "moody" snaps and video :)
Thank you for producing such an informative and useful blog for those of us who are new to micro four thirds.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much! :)
DeleteRecently I got some new stuff, that I hope to publish soon. Your feedback made me more enthusiastic about that!
Thank you for this blog and for documenting all those rare lenses! I really enjoyed looking through all them!
ReplyDelete