I’m going to get straight to the point: this article is about how the best lenses for black and white photography are apochromatic lenses. And I’m going to explain to you after years of shooting with them and even owning them why I think that this is true. It has a lot to do with how these lenses give your images a pop and micro-contrast that otherwise you need a lot of post-production to do.
This article isn’t going to be in-depth at all, but instead I’m going to explain to you exactly why Apochromatic lenses rule here. First off, think of Apochromatic lenses as having something akin to bokeh that’s a stop faster. They’re not really a stop faster and an f2 lens isn’t letting in the same light as an f1.4. But the bokeh will look very similar because of the micro-contrast that an f2 apochromatic lens offers. Whatever is in focus pops out so much more due to micro-contrast in the lens design.
So why does this work so well for black and white? With black and white photography, you’re not really going for the color in the scene. Instead, you’re working with contrast of all sorts. That means that typically, you’re looking instead for the difference between light and dark. And if you increase contrast in a lens, then that difference is often enhanced.
In practice, this means that whatever your subject is that’s in focus will appear so much sharper and be that much more paramount in your photograph.
Here are several examples shot with an Apochromatic lens. Notice how the subjects tend to pop even more due to the lighting and how the focus works? That’s how apochromatic lenses have an advantage. The only want to get them to look even more 3D is with a flash or with swirly bokeh.
