Portrait with FED 50mm/2

Last time I tested this lens I was quite pleased by result. But it was only test shots. Today, I decided to give it an opportunity to do portraits photos (as it's a tiny lens, it's not a big deal to add it to the bag). Well, I like its rendering a lot! Naturely, it has to be corrected in post-treatment, especialy contrast and colors (since it was made for B&W photo, we cannot blame it). So here is a portrait I made with it on Sony A7.

Very nice photo.
What was the aperture here ?

Nice photo! The Fed 2.0 is capable of taking good color pictures, but usually you have to clean the optics inside. A very thin layer of grease builts up over the years. Just like a window, you only see the difference after wiping.

The contrast of this lens is commonly a little lower, because it has many reflecting surfaces and no coatings. Which brings down the contrast. When the lens ages a natural coating builts up which improves the lucidity but it is only a little.

You can make excellent color shots with non-coated lenses. Most black and white film is panchromatic (even back then) and requires the lens to be color corrected.

What did the photo look like originally?

Hi everybody,
Here is my contribution to the FED 5cm/F2 gallery, made with an APS-C Fuji XE2 (I know, that's cheating, it's not full frame...), and a lens I recently received with cristal-clear optics (might have been cleaned). I do also usually add up some contrast to compensate for the inherent lack of it of this lens, although the softness of the lens can be quite nice on some pictures. I never add sharpness, so once the contrast is back, the lens basic sharpness can be judged.
First an indoor shot at F2 :


http://www.ussrphoto.com/UserContent/1162018_F2 contrast added.jpg

Originally (pre photoshop) it looked like this :


http://www.ussrphoto.com/UserContent/1162018_F2 as is.jpg

Now a garden shot made under cloudy weather (not the best for contrast...) ; First at F2 with contrast added (focusing on the lamp post) :


http://www.ussrphoto.com/UserContent/1162018_F2 contr added.jpg

Now the same at F8 :


http://www.ussrphoto.com/UserContent/1162018_F8 contrast added.jpg

And finally as a reference the raw scan (no contrast added) at F8 :


http://www.ussrphoto.com/UserContent/1162018_F8 as is.jpg

I've seen a lot of reviews of old lenses but most of them seem to be done using digital cameras. I was wondering if anyone knows if old lenses perform differently on digital cameras than on old cameras?