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In case of the Argus 1.2/28 FF you focus with a help of a very comfortable ring, 37 mm wide, with a distance scale in its lower part expressed in feet and meters. The enlargened part above is covered by fine ribs, quite nice to the touch. The ring moves evenly, smoothly, and is properly damped. Running through the whole focus range needs an angle of about 110 degrees, a typical value for these parameters.

A depth of field scale with focal markings by f/1.2, f/1.4, f/5.6, and f/11 is supposed to make your task even easier. On the one hand we are very pleased that there are markings at the maximum relative aperture, on the other hand the distance between them is really small, not making the settings easier for the photographer at all.

Focus breathing

Focus breathing tests show reframing images as you oversharp them. We conduct the test by manually passing from the minimum focusing distance to infinity with the aperture stopped down; then we check how the field of view of the lens changed as a result.

After conducting a significant number of tests now we think we are also able to determine some reference points. A frame change ranging from 0 to 5% we consider to be low. Between 5 and 10% you can speak about medium levels. Usually such values constitute also the maximum efficiency level of any breathing compensation algorithms, present in some bodies. Between 10 and 15% focus breathing is high, above 15% its level can be called very high.

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The test video of the Laowa lens is presented below:

On the basis of the recording above, comparing freeze-frames before and after oversharpening, we can estimate that the breathing of the tested lens amounts to 8% so we deal here with a medium level. By the way this short video also illustrates well the change of distortion levels of the tested lens as you shift the focal plane.