Anastigmat Victar 50/2.9: Old lenses and contrast

One of the problems with old (really old) lenses is low contrast. This is most often caused by simple anti-reflective lens coatings.

I have the Victar 50/2.9 lens, which has no coating at all. When shooting with this lens, there is often no deep black color in the shadows because of the low contrast:

But contrast correction in digital photography is a simple thing. Much easier than color correction, for example.

By black point compensation, you can make the image have a higher contrast:

But then the character of the old lens is partially lost. So it makes sense to do a little compensation. Something between the original and an image with too much contrast:

Maybe even less compensation.

So when I show examples with old lenses, there is often some (but not too much) black point compensation. This has to be taken into account.

See also related notes:

• Pentax Q 05 18/8 Toy Lens Telephoto (2025-07-05)
• Anastigmat Victar 50/2.9: My experience [1/2] (2023-09-29)

Image albums:

• Victar 50/2.9