HET SPUL PHOTOGRAPHY
  • Home
  • About
  • Photos
  • Blog
  • Contact

My experience with the Cosmicar 75mm 1.4 TV lens

2/22/2016

4 Comments

 
Almost a year ago I bought the Cosmicar 75mm 1.4 TV lens. This lens is a manual focus c-mount lens, made out of solid metal and lots of glass. It's a relatively big and heavy lens. You can buy old (classic) versions of this lens and new versions of this lens (it's still being produced). This one is the old version. It was probably once used in the 70's or 80's on 16mm film cameras or on a television camera. The specs make it seem like a good alternative for the excellent Olympus 75mm 1.8 portret lens.  It has the same focal length, a large(r) aperture, but it's more affordable. I bought mine for around a 100 euros, where the Olympus lens costs about 9 times as much. Let's take a look at this Cosmicar TV lens.  
Picture
As I said in my introduction, t's a pretty big and heavy lens. Certainly if you compare it to most micro four third lenses and even more when you compare it with the average c-mount lens. The c-mount lens most photographers are familiar with is the 35mm F1.7 Fujian lens. So I thought that would give a good indication regarding its size (see the pictures below).
Foto
Foto
And although they're both c-mount lenses, the type of images these lenses deliver differ greatly. Where the Fujian is known for it's crazy swirly backgrounds...   
Foto
Shot with the Fujian 35mm lens
...the Cosmicar makes the out of focus areas smooth and blurry, and not swirly. 
Foto
Shot with the Cosmicar 75mm lens
But how does the cheap and cheerful Cosmicar compare to it's much more expensive Olympus "equivalent"? Well, as I do not own the Olympus 75, I have to compare it with what I saw on various websites. The Olympus 75 delivers images that are a lot sharper and the Olympus lens provides overall technically better quality images.  To illustrate the difference, I will compare it with another excellent lens I do have. The Olympus 45mm F1.8. I know, it's not the same focal length. But it's almost as sharp as the 75 Olympus and technically almost as good. So it will give an indication of what differences to expect.

Here under you see a shot I took in a part of the forest I regularly drive through, when I'm on my bike to work. It's a beautiful place I photographed many times under different conditions, but almost always shooting into the sun. I love the effect this gives, which is different depending on the lens I use.
Foto
Shot with the Olympus 45mm lens
Foto
Shot with the Cosmicar 75mm lens
As you can see the incoming light (flare) effects the quality of the image of the Cosmicar more than it does the Olympus lens. It looks a bit unsharp, caused by a lack of contrast. When shooting into the light you'll see this effect happen with most if not all lenses. But the older lenses are affected by it most, as newer lenses have better lens coatings reducing these effects.
Normally you would want to use a lens with this focal length for portret photography. So lets take a look at that aspect of the lens.  For this part of the "review" I summoned the help of my favorite model. Who's very well behaved (at times) and will sit still for a while, if that means she gets a treat.
Foto
Shot with the Olympus 45mm lens
Foto
Shot with the Cosmicar 75mm lens
Both shots are very similar. The Olympus lens is definitely sharper. But the Cosmicar gives also very pleasing results.

Is the Cosmicar suitable for group shots? Well, as I don't have lots of friends willing to pose for me, I had to find an alternative solution. As luck would have it, in the city of Leusden there happen to live lots sheep. So I decided to ask them if they were willing to stand in a line and smile. They did the first part right and this was enough to prove that the lens is also somewhat suitable for group shots, if the persons (or sheep) at both ends of the picture don't mind being a bit blurry.
Foto
All in all. I like this lens. It's not a lens I shoot often with, mainly because of it's size and weight, and because I tend to shoot most while walking the dog (and I like to pack light). But for the occasional portraiture or intimate landscape type of shot, it's a fun lens to take pictures with.

To wrap it all up, a couple more pictures I shot with the Cosmicar 75mm TV lens.

Foto
Foto
Foto
Foto
Foto
Foto
Foto
4 Comments
The Photonerd link
8/1/2016 04:12:52 pm

Lovely report, grate pictures.
I am looking forward to my copy of that lens.

The Photonerd

Reply
Harry Bouman - Het Spul Photography link
8/1/2016 07:55:38 pm

Thanks Photonerd! :)

Reply
AK Simba
7/5/2017 11:14:01 am

Great review there. Would u recommend this lens for video?

Reply
Harry Bouman - Het Spul Photography link
7/14/2017 01:17:20 pm

Hi AK Simba,
First my excuses for the late reply. It has been a very hectic week for me.
About your question. I'm not an experienced videographer. So keep that in mind. This lens has certain optical characteristics you may find pleasing or not in a video, such as distortion at the edges of the image, heavy flaring and a lack of contrast when shooting against the light. At the other hand, it handles well, as it's not a too heavy lens to use on a M43 camera and it has a relatively short focus throw (which is an advantage when using video). I haven't shot any video with this lens. Only with it's smaller "brother" ;-) the Fujian 35mm c-mount lens (see this video for a short sample shot, made with the Fujian 35: https://youtu.be/tB7nNMjU9_M).

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Harry Bouman

    Archives

    November 2022
    September 2021
    November 2019
    June 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    June 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014

    Categories

    All
    C-mount
    M42-mount
    Portraiture
    Publications
    Reviews
    Shooting 35mm Film
    Shooting Events
    Small Projects
    Trips
    Tutorials

 
  • Home
  • About
  • Photos
  • Blog
  • Contact