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How about more and more fun with Canon...

wayne_s

New member
Arne,
Nice firework shots with the APO 90, love the Leica colors as always.
I need to try shooting some next year with my 100 APO or 180 APO.
Yeah, the Zeiss 35 is not easy to focus for people shooting especially wide open but I love the colors and contrast from this sharp lens.

Ok, here is a quick snap of a wedding party I took yesterday while passing by.
This is of course non-ideal shooting time for wedding shots as it was in the noon-time bright California sun. Just wanted to show what the Sony-Zeiss ZA 135 1.8 I converted for my 1ds3 can do. My 85L definitely struggles more in this bright lighting as it tends to blow out the highlights alot more than the Zeiss lens.
 
S

Shelby Lewis

Guest
Wayne... I had no idea the zeiss lenses held highlights better... neat finding. If I felt more confident with my manual focussing, I surely would have kept the 135/1.8. Thanks for the insights.

Here are a couple of snaps of my two oldest kids taken in the kitchen about twenty minutes ago... north facing french doors for light:

My girl:


and one of my boys:


god... I love shooting faces :D

cheers!
shelby
 

Arne Hvaring

Well-known member
Nice portraits Shelby, the first one is really lovely.

Wayne, re. converting the 1,8/135 Zeiss to Canon mount. Now that's an idea. I have the Canon 2/135L, but in spite of all the good press, this lens has never thrilled me. How complicated is the conversion, and how good is the manual focus of the Zeiss? Any idea if the lens can be converted to Nikon mount?
 

wayne_s

New member
Wow, Shelby! Love the soft lighting and the sharpness of your daughter's eyes in the first shot. Well done. Canon 85 1.4? And what great faces you have to shoot. :)
John Black at Pebble Place is the one who mentioned this about the 85L wanting to blow out skies when taking portraits outside and is why he preferred zeiss 85 1.4 and 100 f2 planar.And I noticed it too while shooting family portraits outside with my 85L.

Arne,
The ZA 85 1.8 has a nice manual focus ring with only a slight bit of play in it. The problem is that the lens has no aperture ring so right now I have to wedge a piece cardboard into where the aperture level is in the back of the lens. I usually shoot with this lens either wide open or only slightly stopped down to f2-f2.8 range and am not changing aperture much with this lens. I may send this lens to S.K. Grimes to get this lens converted with some sort of aperture level incorporated if they can do it. Right now I am enjoying my conversion done at home by removing the sony lens bayonet mount and replacing it with a redrilled nikon-eos adapter mount which was thin enough to still achieve infinity focus since the difference between Sony A mount Canon mount is 0.5mm. I was also able to put a focus confirm chip on it with the 135 1.8 info preprogrammed which helps with the exposure metering and of course is nice to have in the exif information of the shot.
Also, to answer your earlier question about the TS-E 17, it seems have surprisingly good sharpness across the frame at f4 but I need to take more shots with it to really confirm that. I also want to to do some lens comparison shots with TS-E 17 against my Nikon 14-24 and my old 16-35mk1 which I never liked and never shoot with any more since it was also soft in the corners and my 14-24 is so much better.The other things I have noticed from my very brief time shooting with the 17 is that it seems to have alot less distortion, even near the edges of the frame. The other thing which I said earlier is that this lens tends to flare when shifted up and into the sun or into bright spot lights shining down from the ceiling. There is no lens shade.
 

wayne_s

New member
Bob,
Stunning! I mean your shot. No the girls. Ok,both! ;)
Well done. Incredible piercing eyes on these women.
What lens and camera?
 

Bob

Administrator
Staff member
Thanks, Wayne.
5DII and 24-105 f/4 at 105mm and f/4; 1/20 hand-held ISO 400
-bob
 

Arne Hvaring

Well-known member
Wayne, thank you for the info re. the 17mm TS. I might "need" that lens too...:D
Concerning the 1,8/135 (assuming the "85mm" in your post was a slip of the fingers:)) there is of course the problem of aperture control. With the small difference in mount, it is difficult to envisage a solution like the Mark Welsh (hubsand) adapter that I use on the Nikkor 14-24 zoom. Removing the original mount would give enough space, but given the small demand, it's probably unlikely that anyone could make it commercially viable. Remains Grimes et.al. to custom adapt the lens. If you go that route, I'd be interested to see the result and learn the price.


Bob, wonderful portrait, great light, girls no doubt happy with this shot...:)
 

Arne Hvaring

Well-known member
Don, nice shot with impressive level of detail!
Your image has inspired me to post some recent G-10 shots.
Here are three from Spain.
 
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Bob

Administrator
Staff member
I really wish there was an IS version of that lens so I could stop it down in marginal conditions when I wanted more DOF
-bob
 
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Mike Hatam

Senior Subscriber Member
With Canon's recent announcement of their new IS mechanism, they are hinting that they'll be upgrading/adding IS to new lenses starting soon. I've heard rumors of 24-70 IS, and 400/5.6 IS. Also have been hearing rumors of a redesigned 70-200/2.8 IS, and 100-400 IS.

Maybe we'll get lucky, Bob, and get a new 85L III IS :)
 

Bob

Administrator
Staff member
The 24-70/2.8, 400/5.6 and 100-400(especially) and 70-200/2.8 all are due an update.
The 85 is a lovely lens, and having the flexibility of hand holding it at around f/4 and 1/20 sec would be a real treat.
-bob
 

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
If they bring out a new version of the 70-200L f2.8 even if it's just the 4 stop IS from the f4L, I'll buy it, pretty much whatever the cost. I'd be happier with that than upgrading to a mkII methinks.
 
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