Gear Talk > Lens Talk

55/2.8 AIS

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Airy:
A good general-purpose lens it is, provided one does not shoot against the light. I did not use it a lot, except on OM-D with an adapter.

Here, it is shot wide open (second shot at a more conventional f/8, for the sake of comparison). Outlining of parts behind the focus plane is somewhat apparent (upper right corner), while OOF parts in front of the focus plane look cleaner.

Roland Vink:
The AI-S 55/2.8 micro was central to my lightweight travel/hiking kit many years ago. In combination with a 20/3.5 or 28/2.8 and a 135/2.8 I had the flexibility of a wide-angle, standard, telephoto and macro, all with a reasonably fast aperture.

The 55/2.8 micro is not perfect as Airy points out. It's a little over-corrected for spherical aberrations which is why the background rendition is nervous (it improves at close range) and the foregrounds are smoother. And it does not like shooting into the light, even late copies with SIC coatings, but I rarely found this to be a problem as the front lens is well shaded. Working distance is also short for true macro work but it's useful for casual closeups in the range 1:6 - 1:3 that normal 50mm lenses can't achieve. Otherwise it is a very well balanced lens - sharp with good colours and contrast, fast enough for most purposes, well-built, compact and affordable.

Airy:
Some fresh shots, trying to fathom the personality of this old lens. Here, at f/2.8, and slightly cropped : subject isolation looks OK (enough sharpness vs. smooth enough blur). The darker bottom is not so much due to vignetting than the lowering sun.

Airy:
Artemisia absinthium. f/8. A more conventional use case for sure.

Airy:
Elderflower, f/4. Relatively cool shadow light - it is not a cast caused by the lens, nor by PP (I did not alter the Df Auto-WB settings).

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