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Fun with Nikon Images 2021

Jack

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Got a 58mm f1.4 lens to play around with. I've been looking for a look lens and this one has had mixed reviews, seems folks either love it or hate it. I demoed one example several years back and was in the "meh" camp. It didn't seem particularly sharp wide open, and by the time you stopped it down to f2.8 where it sharpened up, it didn't have much different character than the 50/1.4 I had at the time, so I never thought more about it. However, I did not both to AF fine-tune back then, and frankly not even sure my camera at that time allowed for it. Anyway, I've recently seen a few images another photog had posted with it and they resurrected my interest. Long story short, I found one and just took delivery yesterday -- and spent a little time tuning the AF -- it did need a small tweak on my Z7ii. Here are two images taken at f1.4 during my first trip out with the lens and I am actually impressed with how sharp it is wide open. Perhaps it's sample variation, or perhaps it's just the time I spent fine-tuning AF, but regardless I like it. The one nit I have with it is it has a decidedly warmer color cast to it than my other Nikon lenses, and it actually cools down to more Nikon normal by about f2.8 -- which I find a strange behavior. Could be something weird with mirrorless WB, IDK...

First image of the old house showing foreground bokeh on the fence:



Second frame showing a woodpecker "pantry post" with house in background:

 
D

Darin Marcus

Well-known member
Have fun with the lens @Jack!

Jack said:
The one nit I have with it is it has a decidedly warmer color cast to it than my other Nikon lenses, and it actually cools down to more Nikon normal by about f2.8 -- which I find a strange behavior. Could be something weird with mirrorless WB, IDK...
Click to expand...
That is certainly interesting…

Be careful with CA at f/1.4 in high contrast situations - as mentioned on the other site there is some purple in front of the FP, but I can also see some green behind the FP (roof on the right in the first photo is the most obvious).
 
Jack

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Darin Marcus said:
Have fun with the lens @Jack!



That is certainly interesting…

Be careful with CA at f/1.4 in high contrast situations - as mentioned on the other site there is some purple in front of the FP, but I can also see some green behind the FP (roof on the right in the first photo is the most obvious).
Click to expand...
Yup, it def fringes in high-contrast OOF areas at open apertures, but fortunately not too bad in in-focus areas. CA is not too bad even wide open.
 
Jorgen Udvang

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
Jack said:
Another one -- I am liking the way this lens renders more than I thought I would. Little bit of a learning curve to it, it likes well-chosen focus points...

Click to expand...
This photo really shows off the lens in a beautiful way. There's such a distinct, but still subtle, separation between in and out of focus areas.
 
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Jack

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Took delivery of the 24-200 Z lens today. To be completely honest, I did not have very high expectations, but was curious about it as an all-around travel lens... After a short walkaround with it this morning, I have to admit I am more impressed than I thought I'd be. It is quite sharp in the middle ranges even wide open, and while what I'd call biting sharpness wanes a bit at both ends wide open, sharpness remains impressively good considering its range. Moreover, I was highly impressed with it's MFD -- around 20 inches or 50cm, which allows for some fairly tight close-ups at the tele end -- and the optical performance remains pretty impressive. Color cast seems essentially identical to my other Z lenses which is a welcome convenience. Finally it's quite compact, of course the one benefit to its rather slow optical speed. But with excellent VR and today's Z cam high ISO capabilities, I don't think that optical slowness is going to be a significant limiting factor for casual imaging. I will point out however, that it falls from f4 to f6.3 rather quickly in the zoom range -- at 35mm it's at f4.8, at 50mm it's already at f5.6, f6 at 70mm and somewhere around 85mm it hits the f6.3 mark. So the one thing this lens wont be doing is isolating backgrounds very much... Anyway, all the aperture limited nits aside I come away for now feeling it's a pretty remarkable and extremely versatile casual/travel/walkaround lens. Verdict is still out, but it may prove to be good enough I will eventually let go of the excellent little Z 24-70/4S lens since I have a few faster primes in that range...

A couple quick snaps, of course all were hand-held:





This rose was taken at pretty close to the MFD of the lens. The bud itself is about 2-½" (10cm) tall from base to tip to give you an idea of the framing capability:

 
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D

Darin Marcus

Well-known member
Jack said:
Finally it's quite compact, of course the one benefit to its rather slow optical speed. But with excellent VR and today's Z cam high ISO capabilities, I don't think that optical slowness is going to be a significant limiting factor for casual imaging.
Click to expand...
Got used to the f/6.3 max on the Z50 kit lens - for casual photography it works well even in low light (optical VR only). But that's 50mm only (75mm equiv.)...

Enjoy the new lens!
 
D

Darin Marcus

Well-known member
Trying (and failing) to manually focus at f/1.4 while handholding the camera :)
Something is in focus, just not what I wanted - nevertheless, I had a lot of fun.


Nikon Df, Voigtländer Nokton 58mm f/1.4 SL II S, 1/320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 (May 2021)
 
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Darin Marcus

Well-known member
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