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Quality of out of focus image for 50mm lenses

ptomsu

Workshop Member
Woody, all,

I see the great results from the Sigma 1.4/50, I meanwhile am so convinced that I will order this lens for my D700.

Question is - what about the Sigma 1.4/85? Would this lens not be an even better portrait lens on a FF DSLR? I owned myself the 1.4/85 Nikkor and it was razor sharp, but I ended up to keep it most of the time in my back pack instead of using it. Was a bit slow (AF) and did not convince me so much as a portrait lens, maybe too sharp? Would the Sigma be better? Any ideas?
 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member
Now I found a victim (one of our four youngsters) for a quick handheld wide open f/1.4 capture with Nikon AF-S 1.4/50 G.
Not a good background example, but still shows something e.g. about sharpness.

click for larger size

Nikon D300 • Nikkor AF-S 1.4/50mm G • 1/250 sec. at f/1.4 ISO 200 • Capture NX
 

panda81

New member
Question is - what about the Sigma 1.4/85? Would this lens not be an even better portrait lens on a FF DSLR? I owned myself the 1.4/85 Nikkor and it was razor sharp, but I ended up to keep it most of the time in my back pack instead of using it. Was a bit slow (AF) and did not convince me so much as a portrait lens, maybe too sharp? Would the Sigma be better? Any ideas?
i don't think the sigma 85/1.4 is even released yet, so there's no way to make comparisons yet. but based on what we've seen on how sigma's 50 performs compared to nikon's 50, the 85 would definitely be something to keep our eyes on...

regarding the focal length (85) itself on FF camera, i actually don't like it very much. for full frame/35mm lengths, i really like wider angles up to 50mm, then jump to 100mm or more. i really don't like the range between 50mm-100mm.
 

panda81

New member
thanks everyone for the nice comments :) yes, i do admit i cheat a little too! ;) :ROTFL:

Panda

Great use of a fast lens. I have some excellent comparisons of similar lighting with my Noctilux .95 . I have much work to do. Plus you are using the old trick of having a pretty girl in the shot to distract us from our careful examination of your image. LOL

Roger
 

Corlan F.

Subscriber Member
Now I found a victim (one of our four youngsters) for a quick handheld wide open f/1.4 capture with Nikon AF-S 1.4/50 G.
Not a good background example, but still shows something e.g. about sharpness.
Steen, this is a fine example (and a nice portrait by itself), more on par with what i'm used to see from the 1.4G. Which is btw, again, altogether a splendid choice for studio work with strobes.



Panda: you're making a good point when making a difference between lens used on FX or DX body. In the current discussion it seemed pretty much assmed that we were talking FF. It's true that some lenses like the 85mmm1.4 but also the 50/1.4D are considered as great portait lenses on cropped sensors and are/were therefore in many pros kits with great results. Not saying they don't work fine on FF sensors, but one has to be careful about that when comparing third-party samples.


Woody: great if you're happy with the Sig move. From the -quite nice- examples above, it looks like it does fit your style and requirements. Hopefully you'll show us some more soon!
 

glenerrolrd

Workshop Member
I posted a link on the thread about the 58 NOCT which includes a gallery of test images. The examples are extensive and I was able to find plenty of situations that resonate with my requirements . He has some direct comparisons with the Sigma which look excellent. For many applications the Sigma would perform as well as the 58 NOCT.

The night street shooting is what I am looking for as I see this as an area where I can expand my work. Bokeh is important to be able to shoot at 1.2 and get an attractive rendering but its different that using the 50 for available light portraits.
 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member
Steen, this is a fine example (and a nice portrait by itself), more on par with what i'm used to see from the 1.4G. Which is btw, again, altogether a splendid choice for studio work with strobes. (...)

Thanks Corlan. The Nikkor 1.4/50 G isn't exactly magic, but I think it's working all right for a $445 lens.
Not sure though what makes you call it "a splendid choice for studio work with strobes" ?
(Probably just because I have no experience with studio work and strobes).

I wish your Carl Zeiss MakroPlanar 2/50 ZF were an autofocus lens.
In that case I could happily live with the max aperture of f/2 and I would buy it in a heartbeat :)

By the way, Andree (deepdiver) is showing some images with the Leica Summilux M 1.4/50mm ASPH, the first five out of the six images wide open at f/1.4, here:
http://forum.getdpi.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17140
 

Corlan F.

Subscriber Member
Steen, looks like i overlooked your post above.

Apparently we can always count on you when it comes to tracking down eloquent examples of gorgeous, exotic, sexy, er... lenses. Btw i like it wide open, too. :LOL: :grin:

I would buy any AF version of the ZF in a heartbeat, too. Seems though that we shouldn't hold our breath on this one. :(

As for the studio/strobes remark, what i meant is that in controlled conditions and setup (background type and distances etc.) you can achieve terrific results with the 1.4G without the few quirks listed here by some owners for street/candid portraits. Plus, the 1.4G has a super fast and precise AF, procures excellent metering, along with pretty slick color and contrast rendering under good, strong ligthing. Handles spec highlights and reflections pretty smoothly, too.

Btw the latter also goes for the older 1.4D, more especially on DX sensors (D200, D300, Fuji S5...).

Many examples on Flickr, Pbase... coming to mind is the work of Dustin Diaz, strobist wizard, who uses the 1.4G a lot on his D700 (some here http://www.flickr.com/photos/polvero/sets/72157622017440954/, more on his site), and perharps on a slightly lesser level, Sebastian Yepes for the 1.4D -who also have a lot of street work on his stream http://www.flickr.com/photos/sebastian_yepes/tags/nikon50mmf14d/.
 
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