How did you find the lens compared to other well regarded point and shoots? This is supposed to be the main selling point of the T4/T5. Is it really a step above models like the big mini or the mju ii or is it more or less in the same ballpark?
It seems to like to shoot wide open as well, though maybe not too the extreme the mju ii does. You can actually find the exposure chart of mju II online and it starts to stop down after 1/125th (it goes to down to 1/1000 @ f11 in bright light so no f16 or smaller!). It’s a great camera but I also have a lot of slightly out of focus shots because of this.
Yeah, that‘s possible. On my mju I, and especially the mju II the lens seems to be almost better at close range though. I have some extremely crisp portraits with the mju ii where you can see every detail in the hair, fabrics, skin etc.
The AF-600 is actually quite well known for the lens and it’s size, and still not too expensive for some reason. The Fuji DL-500 is more overlooked but actually the more enjoyable camera in real use imo. It goes by like 10 different names (no kidding: camera-wiki.org/wiki/Fuji_…)
I’ve always wanted to try the Tiara and I have seen some very nice shots taken with it. But I have never found a good deal on it, and the ebay prices are a bit more than I would like to pay for a compact.
Shame about the softening of the lens at close focus. I have a Nikon AF600, it’s almost as small as both the TC-1 and the Tiara, 28mm and the lens is just incredibly sharp at around infinity. But at closer range it’s a lot softer for some reason. So soft I was wondering if there was some sort of focus calibration error. But no, after checking it’s just a lot softer at those ranges unfortunately. At 5m-infinity it’s probably one of the sharpest point and shoots. The Tiaras older brother the Fuji DL-500 is another overlooked 28mm point and shoot. Lens is very good, but probably not as the Tiara, small size, and best of all it moves the lens into focus at half press like the TC-1 making it very snappy and enjoyable to use. These can be had fairly cheap as well.
Nice review of the LT-1 though. I’ve been wanting one for quite some time. The mju i is probably my all around favorite compact despite it‘s flaws, and the LT-1 just looks so good!
Yes, you might be right. The softness might be due to the subjects. I do a lot of environmental portraits at relatively close ranges and here the corners are less noticeable anyway. My impression is that the lens really shines at these ranges. I have some very sharp portraits in the 1m-0.35m range. Renders beautifully too. At low apertures I’ve noticed some corner softness, but not enough to bother me. Stopped down the lens seems sharp corner to corner. I scan with a Pakon that is not that affected by film curling so that might be another factor..
Another thing that seems to go wonky on these cameras is the auto focus. I have one copy that seems to want to focus on infinity about 80% of the time, and it seems others have similar problems..
On the parallax correction marks. This is one of the things I really like about the Mju i and ii: There is very little parallax error due to the close proximity of the lens and the viewfinder window. If you read the manual, the marks in the viewfinder shows the parallax corrected frame at 0.35m. So you can assume that at 2m and probably 1m there is practically no parallax error to speak of. Most other compacts have far more parallax error.
