10 replies to this topic

[ChrisLilley]

What is your experience with this lens? This topic will be indexed on our OTHER LENSES  page. Please keep your comments related to your experiences with this lens so that others may draw value from them. Off topic comments will be removed.

You may post sample images taken with the lens in this thread. If you have a question relating to the lens, please don't ask here, use the "Lenses For Nikons" board instead.

Edited by ChrisLilley, 17 March 2011 - 21:50 .

[ed]

I received one of the earliest samples shipped to the US, purchased from Camera Quest in Los Angeles. Central sharpness, exemplary flare resistance, moderate corner softness, noticeable vignetting and wave-type distortion similar to what was reported on the new Zeiss 21. As an AI-P lens, it overexposed by ~2/3 stop but not consistently so. In strong light, a correction of 1 EV was needed for an even exposure; I returned it for this reason. As a lens on a DX camera it should behave very well as a compact 30mm lens without the issues I encountered on the D700.

[Tosh]

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Some 100% crops from the above images:

#6 focus area:



#3 focus area:


#3 background area of bear shot:


#4 right side of image, not sure where focus was placed:



Night shot:





I'm quite happy with the lens. I think it's contrasty, and sharp throughout the image. It's well-built and a joy to use.
I don't do much wide shooting, so having a physically small lens like the CV 20 to fill that limited need works well for me. 
I have noticed some of the overexposure issues mentioned in Ed's post. 
I find I have fewer exposure issues when I avoid matrix metering.

[ed]

You have a particularly sharp sample. I've seen postings on Flickr where others haven't been so lucky.

[Tosh]

From what I've heard, Cosina is pretty good in handling less than perfect lenses.  I hope it's true for those with less than stellar copies.

I was so favorably impressed by my CV 20 that I just bought the CV 40.

[ed]

Just got mine back from Cameraquest after the 20 was sent back to Japan and Cosina seems to have modifie the chip; it no longer overexposes. 2nd run should incorporate this correction, as was the case with the 58/1.4.

[Tosh]

That's good news, Ed.
I should probably test mine more thoroughly and send it back to Steve Gandy for rechipping if I have doubts.

[ed]

Shot into the sun @ f/11

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[yunfat]

Looks like they fixed your copy ed.  That shot looks tough to meter and very sharp, the lens handled it qute well.  Good news.

[ed]

The USS Maine monument with the Time Warner Center in the background, New York City:

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[aure]

Mine copy had inconsistent overexposure too. Since warranty service was not available, I removed that darned chip and used this lens manually. I must say this is rather f8-f11 lens, wide open its soft all over and 5.6 is not improving much. It would be OK for me, since I'm shooting at 20mm quite rarely, but the price paid for this underperformer and frustratiion caused by second Cosina lens that had a bad chip makes me regret about this purchase. If I knew all that, I'd rather had Nikkor 20/3.5 or f2.8.