43 ltd - colours

I have been processing some photos from the other weekend (potrait shots from my cousins wedding) and I now think I understand what people mean when they state that the 43 ltd has great colour rendition for portraits.

I'm quite new to the 43 ltd and this was one of the first extensive test runs.

When I process portrait shots I usually change the colour profile in RAW converter to one of the portrait settings. However, with these shots it made no difference. The skin tones were already very natural and pleasing. I hadn't made any changes to the camera settings. In contrast, the few taken with the Sigma 17-70 needed the colour profile changing.

Can the colours from a lens make this much difference or am I imagining it? If it can, I can see why the lens is so popular, especially in the film days where you couldn't select a colour profile after the event.

Yes, they can make a huge difference.

All the FA Limited lenses are superb in this respect.

G

Well I'm not so sure about that, I had all three LTDs and 43 stands out in that respect. Possibly the best limited, but on dSLR i find FA 31 bit more useful focal lenght.

We shall have to agree to differ.

G

The 77 ltd also seemed to be similar in terms of colour rendering but I took far fewer with that lens so it's more difficult for me to say. Hopefully I will get more of a chance to use that one soon.

I think they are all similar in colour tonality.

As for favourites I think the FA43 has the edge on 3D rendering but the FA77 is too wonderful for portraits. The FA31 has lovely bokeh considering its wider focal length. Have never found the money for it, however.

In term of colour I find the FA77 better than the FA31. but the FA77 CA a bit when shooting larger than F2.8. FA31 is sharp from F2+ and no visable CA.

My favourite is certainly the 77, and the most used is the 31. I don't want to start another 40mm argument, but for me, a focal length of 43mm doesn't work very well. The quality, however, is unsurpassed, and equalled only by its stable-mates.

There is a degree of purple fringing, or CA, or whatever, with both the 31 and the 77, but as long as I am not shooting against the light I do not find this a problem in practice.

G

I agree with the FA77 having one Achilles' heel, the purple fringing. This is generally correctable in PP, of course irrelevant in B&W but in the remaining rare cases a possible annoyance.

I find FOV of FA43 to be quite perfect for some of my use cases: portraits where there is no room to use the FA77, dancers on stage, etc.