Chinon 28mm f/2.8 Vintage Lens Review

Chinon 28mm f/2.8 Performance

Centrally, sharpness is very good from open aperture through to f/11. It is still good at f/16, only falling off into softness at f/22.

The edge sharpness is not so good using a test chart, being soft at f/2.8, fair between f/4 and f/5.6, good at f/8 and just fair between f/11 and f/22. This is not as bad as it sounds though, as at more normal shooting distances the results improve and visually the shots look very reasonable.

CA (Chromatic Aberration) is very well controlled centrally, but at the edges things do go a little awry. Quite high levels of CA are noticeable, although to be fair not on all subject matter. Reduction of fringing in software could well be needed in many situations.

Distortion measures -1.72% barrel, a figure that is unlikely to be a problem in many situations, but if it is then software solutions may be the answer.

Bokeh is very satisfactory and gives attractive out of focus areas. There is vignetting of some -2.4 stops at f/2.8, reducing to -1.3 stops at f/4 and never really clearing after that but remaining at the same level. The compact design of the lens will be a contributory factor in this. However, a gentle darkening of the corners can often be a desirable thing. At one time it was routine to darken the corners of an image in the darkroom as it concentrates our eyes on the centre of the frame where the main subject is often placed.

Flare control is quite impressive. Severe backlight will create some artefacts, but the contrast level and colour remain good even under arduous conditions.

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