Kiev / Pentacon 6 / Exakta 66 Lens Tests - Mid-Telephoto

The lenses tested:

This time I thought I'd include the Canon lens as a sort of "control" benchmark element to the test (shot on manual focus with image stabilization switched off), since many people claim that 35mm lenses are usually sharper than medium format lenses -- reasoning that a piece of 35mm film must be enlarged more than medium format film so they need to be sharper, and also because the elements of the smaller lenses are easier to make with higher precision. Well, this Canon lens is a mid-priced zoom lens and it is going head to head with prime medium format lenses. You be the judge. (If anyone would like to donate a Canon L-series lens for me to use in the tests, I'd be happy to accept!)

All images were shot with the camera set to Aperture Priority mode. The RAW files were converted to 8-bit TIFF files with identical settings within each test batch, then cropped in Photoshop before being saved as JPEGs for web viewing.


The Tests:

Infinity Test

Infinity Test #2

30-Meter Test

2-Meter Test

Bokeh Test


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All text and images Copyright © 2004 - Kevin Ing