I have noticed some really nice images coming out of this lens which is just now starting to find it's way into people's hands. Seems like a dedicated thread may be in order to keep everything in one place. So, even if you have previously posted shots elsewhere, perhaps they could be posted here as well.
wfrank wrote:
Yes, we have a thread! :-) Nice shots Tariq, but what's with the sky in #4?
If your referring to the noise, that's compliments of my Sony a900 shot at ISO 1600 and underexposed almost a stop. The shot was taken under sodium vapor lights with daylight color balance.
The grass in the background which is blurred seems to be brighter and more yellowish green than what I would expect. This is what I was mentioning in the other thread. I have seen this in the sigma 50/1.4 in shots where there are backlit tree leaves blurred in the background which get rendered a more brighter yellow green.
wayne seltzer wrote:
The grass in the background which is blurred seems to be brighter and more yellowish green than what I would expect. This is what I was mentioning in the other thread. I have seen this in the sigma 50/1.4 in shots where there are backlit tree leaves blurred in the background which get rendered a more brighter yellow green.
Hey Wayne, I'm betting the effect your noticing is the same as the Leica glow/ vignetting I was referring to. It's characterized by a central bright hotspot and is most noticeable until the lens is stopped down to F2.8 or so. I'm not sure that the color saturation is actually increased, just that the colors become brighter due to the hot spot.
Why doesn't Samyang spend the extra 50$ of production costs to get auto-aperture and a screw-drive for use with Pentax and Nikon. Would expand the market for this excellent lens a ton.
For me a chip supplying exif (incl. F) for Canons would be most wanted. MF works much better than I was hoping for - with the EG-S focusing screen for 5DMkII. Well, as long as you dont stop down that is - but this lens is really for wideopen use, at least for me.
Two reposts @ F/1.4.
Indeed it's sharp
And great colors too
And Wayne/Tariq. I think I understand what you mean. In my first post (in the "availability" thread) I was talking about a haze. Now I'll call it a glow. That glow superimpost from several sources may very well make things lighter. Only seen it in wideopen and in strong light though.
Here's another flower at F/1.4. I really like how the short DOF manifests itself in the leaves here and there in the bottom part of the image - to me a lot of "pop".
Sp12 wrote:
Why doesn't Samyang spend the extra 50$ of production costs to get auto-aperture and a screw-drive for use with Pentax and Nikon. Would expand the market for this excellent lens a ton.
The Samyang lenses are auto-aperture on Pentax and Nikon. Adding an AF drive would require significant changes to the design of the lens barrel, addition of a lens CPU and would remove the good focusing feel of an MF lens.
The real question is why didn't they spend $50 and add a chip and aperture lever on the Sony mount version, which would make them fully functional A mount lenses aside from AF, it's not like EF or 4/3rds mounts where an electronic aperture system needs to be added and it would enable IS (Pentax and Olympus users can enable IS manually by entering the focal length of the lens if it doesn't have a chip, Sony users can't)
I think there is going to be a high turn-over rate in the early days. It's a price where curiosity feels affordable, but people will figure out pretty quickly if it satisfies their expectations or not. Mine arrives tomorrow and I'm excited to shoot it out with the Nikon AIS 35/1.4.
Just to give an idea as to the sort of detail that can be captured at longer distances, here are two 100% crops from the first image I posted above of the vacant gas station (24MP Sony a900).
Tariq, nice details and sharpness in those crops. But I wonder, what developer do you use considering the quite noticeable noise?
I tried stopping down a bit today back in town. My normal reduce/sharpen actions makes images look excessively sharpened. I even have two versions, and these are the ones with "soft sharpen". Must tweak... but anyway, here are two shots from today. Both around F/5, handheld.
wfrank wrote:
Tariq, nice details and sharpness in those crops. But I wonder, what developer do you use considering the quite noticeable noise?
These were processed with ACR but I increased tonal contrast for print using NIK Color Effex which at 100% will also enhance noise but, of course, the full size print will not show what you see at 100%.
Though listed at .3m (about 12"), the minimum focus distance on my lens appears to be just under 8" and the detail is pretty darn good even wide open at this minimum distance. Here are some examples at closer focus distances.
Very nice - really like the colors this lens produces.
I'll counter with another F/1.4 insect crop. These may look blown-out, but they're not - they're just tiny. DOF is down to around 1cm here. Also, note the spider-line that travels in and out of DOF/visibility down/right of center.
wfrank wrote:
Very nice - really like the colors this lens produces.
I'll counter with another F/1.4 insect crop. These may look blown-out, but they're not - they're just tiny. DOF is down to around 1cm here. Also, note the spider-line that travels in and out of DOF/visibility down/right of center.
What is impressive to me about your crop at 1.4 is that it is way off center towards the bottom left corner of the frame. Is it tack sharp - no, but at 1.4 that far towards the corner, it's still impressive. Unlike some 1.4 wide angles, this lens is very useable wide open and not just in the center of the frame. I have some other night shot tests taken wide open such as this one below which confirm this.
That's a really nice image, again with very pleasing colors. ...and palms, such exotic stuff is way beyond this country's borders unfortunatly :-)
As a side note being quite a novice at MF: Let's face it, 5D2 AF is technically not that impressive and quite below the standard of e.g. the Nikon D700. I'm sure your Sony have an edge over the Canon too. But to me, equipping the 5D2 with a EG-S is really like giving it 200+ AF points with a fast lens. I did not expect focus plane would pop that clearly, particularly not with a low focal length such as 35mm. But it does and that and the lens is really enjoyable to work with.
While at corner sharpness, I posted this in another forum. Yes, it is very good. I have no way of comparing it to e.g. the 35L (or a Zeiss 1.4) - but it is far better than another lens I really like, the 17-40L.
wfrank wrote:
That's a really nice image, again with very pleasing colors. ...and palms, such exotic stuff is way beyond this country's borders unfortunatly :-)
As a side note being quite a novice at MF: Let's face it, 5D2 AF is technically not that impressive and quite below the standard of e.g. the Nikon D700. I'm sure your Sony have an edge over the Canon too. But to me, equipping the 5D2 with a EG-S is really like giving it 200+ AF points with a fast lens. I did not expect focus plane would pop that clearly, particularly not with a low focal length such as 35mm. But it does and that and the lens is really enjoyable to work with.
While at corner sharpness, I posted this in another forum. Yes, it is very good. I have no way of comparing it to e.g. the 35L (or a Zeiss 1.4) - but it is far better than another lens I really like, the 17-40L.
Before the Sony, I had the original 5D and used it with the manual focus screen as well. I don't use AF often but I do find it an improvement over the 5D and I also find the viewfinder much better. The color is another area the a900 is known for - I did nothing to enhance it in that shot. The trade off is more noise at higher ISO's compared to your 5DII.
