Shooting with 50's on G1--Share Your Pics!

[Jonas]

I am new to FourThirds and G1. I know a 25mm on 35mm is effectively a 50mm on a mFT. Can you expand on the "two stops more DOF" please.

Hi ekso,

Imagine a situation where you and a friend having a FF camera are standing side by side taking images of something. You use a 25mm lens and your friend has a 50mm lens so you are now framing the target (approx) the same way.

Let's say you find you need f/4 to get the DOF you think is the right for this image. If your friend now wants the same DOF he/she has to stop down to f/8. In other words, you get quite some DOF already at f/4 and focusing is less critical than it would be with the FF camera.

OTOH, if your friend figure f/2 would make for the right separation you would have to open up to f/1 to achieve the same result.

I hope that helps. (If you want to discuss it further I think you should start a new thread on the topic.) regards, /Jonas

 

[Diane B]

I second Robert's comment; I find I seldom need to use the two-button focus magnification except for close-up shooting.

Tip: Make sure you set the eye-level finder's diopter control very accurately for your vision. When the finder image is perfectly sharp, it's easier to distinguish between in-focus and not-quite-in-focus images without resorting to magnification.

I also didn't notice anyone mentioning that one must set 'shoot w/o lens' in the menu--perhaps that's a 'given' and didn't need to be mentioned, but in case.....

I also find that I now can usually focus in many cases without using the MF assist. I checked myself on a number of occasions (focusing first without, then checking with MF assist) and found I was pretty spot on. For close up, I use MF assist.

Diane

 

[woodyspedden]

Thanks Monza and Ranger 9 for the tip on using the focus assist. I am sure I will get much better images as a result of this

Woody

 

[ekso]

Hi ekso,

Imagine a situation where you and a friend having a FF camera are standing side by side taking images of something. You use a 25mm lens and your friend has a 50mm lens so you are now framing the target (approx) the same way.

Let's say you find you need f/4 to get the DOF you think is the right for this image. If your friend now wants the same DOF he/she has to stop down to f/8. In other words, you get quite some DOF already at f/4 and focusing is less critical than it would be with the FF camera.

OTOH, if your friend figure f/2 would make for the right separation you would have to open up to f/1 to achieve the same result.

I hope that helps. (If you want to discuss it further I think you should start a new thread on the topic.) regards, /Jonas

Jonas, thanks for the info. Any more and you are correct...it will need a new thread.
Ekso

 

[Diane B]

Some from the FD 50 f/1.8 today

I'm about done with flora for awhile I think.

Diane

 

[Domi31]

Magnificent, Diane !:clap:

The third particularly, we would say a painting!
I also use my FD 50 f 1:8, but I did not arrive at a so beautiful result yet!

Sorry for my bad English....

 

[Jonas]

Some from the FD 50 f/1.8 today
(images)
I'm about done with flora for awhile I think.

Hmm. OK, no more flowers then. The ones you showed here are great and I like the composition and thinking behind the images.
But, the bokeh is outright distracting to my sensitive organism. Do you find it to your liking?

 

[Diane B]

Jonas, its less smooth than I'd like but mostly in the 3rd which I like for other reasons. This would be closer to what I'd prefer (maybe even more blurring than this)---done with selection and lens blur filter in PS (altho' I didn't take the time to use a gradient on the blur so the tulips looked 'pasted in' because the focal plane of the focused tulip--of the violas--became 'blurred' also-)

Perhaps the Hexanon 40 f/1.8 will have bokeh more to my liking in circumstances like this very busy background with very striking color contrasts--or maybe I would have gotten a smoother BG with it wide open--but it was a compromise--I did want a bit more DOF for the tulips and think I shot it about f/2.8--might even have been f/3.2. The others don't bother me much.

Thinking about it, I remembered I had a similar one to the 4th that I knew was wide open at f/1.8. The one above is probably at 2.8 (again, possibly even 3.2--I probably should keep a little notebook to write these down but often shoot same/similar at various apertures and focus points)--about a stop and a half. Maybe this is a better representation of the lens.

The compromise with this lens seems a bit difficult--it can be more or less reconciled with post processing, but for straight shooting one will have to consider a bit more DOF vs. (in some situations) perhaps a distracting bokeh.

I need to go back and find those 50 f/1.4 wide open shots of others--I looked at my 5D/50 f/1.4 but I almost never shoot it wide open but rather around f/2.8 because of its very very shallow DOF with FF.

Diane

 

[Photomorgana]

Nice flowers Diane.

I need to get out too and take some shots with my new toys Cooke Ivotal 50mm f1.4 and Nokton 50mm f1.5. (pics soon)

 

[Jonas]

Jonas, its less smooth than I'd like but mostly in the 3rd which I like for other reasons. (...)
Perhaps the Hexanon 40 f/1.8 will have bokeh more to my liking in circumstances like this very busy background with very striking color contrasts--or maybe I would have gotten a smoother BG with it wide open--but it was a compromise--I did want a bit more DOF for the tulips and think I shot it about f/2.8--might even have been f/3.2. The others don't bother me much.

(...) Maybe this is a better representation of the lens.

The compromise with this lens seems a bit difficult--it can be more or less reconciled with post processing, but for straight shooting one will have to consider a bit more DOF vs. (in some situations) perhaps a distracting bokeh.

Hi Diane, and thank you for the thorough reply.

Since some time I have sort of maintained a thread called "'Admirable' blur" over at FM Forums (Alternative gear forum) and I have slowly learned that there are quite some who really like the edgy and harsh bokeh from some lenses. I'm a lot more in favour for soft and creamy.

If it hadn't been the total opposite of what I think the µ4/3 should be I would by a Sigma 50/1.4 EX for my G1:

and

(Yes, I know, I took them using a Canon camera, sorry.)

The "better representation" image is totally crazy (to me)! I don't dislike it at all. But, to be honest, when I first looked at it I was impressed by the background and thought that was the wild and sketchy target. Then I saw the in focus flowers a bit down.

The Hexanon 40/1.8 is unknown to me but I think I have seen quite nice images taken with it.

I'm also looking forward to photomorgana's images. The CV50/1.5 is a 50mm lens I'm interested in but I would like to see more from it, and how it draws complicated backgrounds. I think your colorful flowers is a tricky situation for most lenses.

Cheers, /Jonas

 

[Photomorgana]

Jonas,
that is very impressive bokeh. I like creamy as well.

 

[m3photo]

Wide Open CV50/1.5

The CV50/1.5 is a 50mm lens I'm interested in but I would like to see more from it, and how it draws complicated backgrounds.

Your wish is my command. Just taken these five in my garden. All at f/1.5 hand held, RAW processed in CS4 at Default parameters then converted to 8 Bit and sized down to jpegs for here.

 

[wblynch]

There is a sort of "Monet-ish" quality in the bokeh of this one. I like it.

Some from the FD 50 f/1.8 today

 

[Diane B]

There is a sort of "Monet-ish" quality in the bokeh of this one. I like it.

Thanks, that's rather as I saw it (live view) when I was shooting at the botanical garden--though I didn't articulate it to myself in just that way LOL. Its a color combination I like a lot also.

Diane

 

[JerryMK]

Just today saw these little beauties is my garden. The light was just right to catch them with my Canon FD 50mm f/1.4

 

[Jonas]

Re: Wide Open CV50/1.5

Your wish is my command. Just taken these five in my garden. All at f/1.5 hand held, RAW processed in CS4 at Default parameters then converted to 8 Bit and sized down to jpegs for here.

Thanks a lot! Just as most other fast lenses it's a mixed bag judging from these images. But, they are the best I have seen from anything in my price range. Most of the images you have posted here have a great balance between details in the focal plane and the rendering of the background. That's how my eyes work.

The bright rings and hard edges seen at some places are in no way a show stopper. Together with the images ranger9 posted earlier I think this does it.

Thanks again, /Jonas

 

[Photomorgana]

Here are a few shots with Cooke Ivotal Anastigmat 50mm f1.4 C-Mount.
I like it, I think I know now why this lens gets converted to Leica M-Mount.
Shot #3 is at f8 the rest at f1.4

 

[Photomorgana]

Here are similar shots with Kern Macro-Switar 50mm f1.4
Disregard the sharpness, the wind was very strong, so focus is off on some of them, but bokeh still can be judged.
Shot #3 at f8 the rest at f1.4

 

[Photomorgana]

Here are some with Voigtlandar Nokton 50mm f1.5
Shot #3 at f8 the rest at f2
I think its not bad of a bokeh.

 

[Photomorgana]

These are samples for Summicron 40mm f2.0 (almost 50
pics 3 and 5 shot at f8 the rest at f2
Im not very happy how bokeh looks in difficult background situations.
But f8 is pretty good I think.