35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

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Archive 2008 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

Yakim Peled
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p.2 #1 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

I know, but at f/4 and above I can't fault my 24-105. And its got IS....

Happy shooting,
Yakim.

Jan 19, 2008 at 07:45 PM

mh2000
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p.2 #2 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

well, at least the bokeh looks nice!

Jan 19, 2008 at 08:48 PM

mh2000
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p.2 #3 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

right, but do you real feel like shooting your 35L at f2.8 and then swapping out to the zoom every time you choose to shoot f4 or visa-versa? Fast primes give you aperture flexibility and zooms give FL flexibility... neither is "more flexible."

Yakim Peled wrote:
I know, but at f/4 and above I can't fault my 24-105. And its got IS....

Happy shooting,
Yakim.

Jan 19, 2008 at 08:54 PM

mh2000
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p.2 #4 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

Yeah, for anything moving at all MF is nowhere near as good as even Canon's worse AF bodies. I've been shooting a Leica R4 and Olympus OM-1 lately and it is amazing how much lower my in focus rate goes... sure, macro on a tripod you can do great, but in most real life shooting Canon AF with all its flaws is much better.

>>Focusing manually with a 40D? You must be joking. Yes, I tried that and it's next to impossible even in daylight. The viewfinder is so tiny....

Jan 19, 2008 at 08:59 PM

Yakim Peled
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p.2 #5 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

mh2000 wrote:
well, at least the bokeh looks nice!

Seriously, as the photographer it is up to you to balance all the variables. All the "I only shoot my L's wide open... only bought them for this" comments perplex me. It completely depends on your subject and distance etc... I really want the 50L for f2.8 because I shoot candids similar to yours and other close focus stuff... f1.2 and f1.4 are just not effective for photos like this IMO. Using super wide apertures just because you have them just degrades your finished photos.

All this is very true but I mainly bought it for that purpose. I want to get shallow DoF but that as I wrote in the subject: This is so shallow it's ridiculous. I lost many shots because of that so I must close it down. As I said, I hate the laws of physics...

Happy shooting,
Yakim.

Jan 19, 2008 at 09:13 PM

mh2000
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p.2 #6 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

well, for less close shots you should be able to use f1.4 very effectively

Jan 19, 2008 at 09:34 PM

Tentacle
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p.2 #7 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

Yakim Peled wrote:
Focusing manually with a 40D? You must be joking. Yes, I tried that and it's next to impossible even in daylight. The viewfinder is so tiny....

[...]

I think you might have forgotten Live View. Especially at 10x magnification the 3" screen works great for MF. At least, it did when I was playing around with a 40D and 50 mm Plastic Fantastic.

Jan 19, 2008 at 10:24 PM

nathanlake
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p.2 #8 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

A perfect example of a situation where a noobie would just dump the lens and curse it for the rest of his life. Funny how the more expensive gear is harder to learn to use, but such is life.

Congrats for figuring this out and not just slamming the lens.

Jan 19, 2008 at 10:26 PM

dfindr
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p.2 #9 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

shrink1 wrote:
hey, that's nothing! try the 50mm 1.2, and then, to top it off the 85mm 1.2. DOF is so narrow, you have to focus on a single eyelash...

And if you really want a challenge try and nail the DOF on the 50 f/1.0.

Jan 19, 2008 at 11:52 PM

mbailey
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p.2 #10 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

gandini wrote:
Just a thought: I found my 35f1.4 front-focussed quite a bit in tests with my 1Diii. After microadjusting +17 it focuses perfectly on my target at f1.4. Of all my lenses, this is the one needing the most adjustment.

This is my experiance exactly. I dont have the camera handy, but I believe I also settled on +17 micro AF adjustment. Never really liked the 35L much until I got the 1DsIII and fixed the front focus.

Jan 20, 2008 at 01:41 AM

Yakim Peled
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p.2 #11 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

Tentacle wrote:
Yakim Peled wrote:
Focusing manually with a 40D? You must be joking. Yes, I tried that and it's next to impossible even in daylight. The viewfinder is so tiny....

[...]

I think you might have forgotten Live View. Especially at 10x magnification the 3" screen works great for MF. At least, it did when I was playing around with a 40D and 50 mm Plastic Fantastic.

If I'll write my real opinion on the screen at 10X I'll get banned from here. Politely I'll say that I find it marginally adequate at 5X.

And BTW, yes, I have tried it. I find it to be of limited help in handholding.

Happy shooting,
Yakim.

Jan 20, 2008 at 03:17 PM

Yakim Peled
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p.2 #12 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

nathanlake wrote:
A perfect example of a situation where a noobie would just dump the lens and curse it for the rest of his life. Funny how the more expensive gear is harder to learn to use, but such is life.

Congrats for figuring this out and not just slamming the lens.

I kept saying to myself: "It's just not possible that all these tests and reviews got it wrong".

Happy shooting,
Yakim.

Jan 20, 2008 at 03:19 PM

TEASER
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p.2 #13 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

My 2 Cents:

I have reciently purchased the 35L also. My only mention to OP and anyone else is the fact that more than likely if you really need to have this lens "WIDE OPEN" / 1.4 you will be trading off IQ.

When I first mounted this lens I went right to 2.0 knowing historicly given lens will not be sharpest wide open and most have a sweet spot.

Anyway I l ove the lens but realize only when I really need 1.4 will I use it.

Diferance from 1.4 to 2.0 is noticeable IMO:

1.4:

This image is copyrighted by the owner

2.0:

Jan 20, 2008 at 04:51 PM

Tentacle
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p.2 #14 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

Yakim Peled wrote:

[...]

If I'll write my real opinion on the screen at 10X I'll get banned from here. Politely I'll say that I find it marginally adequate at 5X.

And BTW, yes, I have tried it. I find it to be of limited help in handholding.

Granted, the screen itself isn't tack sharp, but I found it easy to find the point of maximum sharpness. YMMV I guess

Jan 21, 2008 at 09:16 AM

Navyblue
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p.2 #15 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

Yakim Peled wrote:
Focusing manually with a 40D? You must be joking. Yes, I tried that and it's next to impossible even in daylight. The viewfinder is so tiny....

The EF-S focusing screen works for me, I can MF with 50 mm at f/1.4 with decent keeper rate, though the VF appear dark when shooting with slow lenses.

I agree that with the live view zooming to 10x it is impossible to handhold, it's only great with tripod.

Edited on Jan 21, 2008 at 12:29 PM

Jan 21, 2008 at 12:28 PM

RyanFlynn
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p.2 #16 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

Looks about right to me. It's one of my favorite lenses, if not my fav, and I shoot it wide open most of the time. You'll get it, just keep practicing

Jan 21, 2008 at 06:57 PM

rceres
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p.2 #17 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

I don't have much experience with a crop body, but think the viewfinder might well be an issue, but might want to try a differnt focus screen anyway. Also, shooting at 1.8 or 2.0 might give you just enough DoF to get those eye-lashes in focus and still keep the OOF background.

Jan 21, 2008 at 07:28 PM

kevinsullivan
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p.2 #18 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

I couldn't reliably focus my 5D with super-fast lenses (especially 85). I swapped out the Ee-a focusing screen for Ee-s, and, although no miracle occurred, I did find fine focusing easier.

Jan 21, 2008 at 09:32 PM

Russ Isabella
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p.2 #19 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

Yakim: Congratulations on your purchase, and good luck with the learning curve. One thing I don't think anyone has mentioned here is that photography isn't easy, and phtography at f/1.4 is especially difficult (which has been mentioned). While the reasons for this particular difficulty may be different than the reasons for the difficulty of getting a bat-on-ball shot in baseball, or a perfect balance of flash and ambient light in another setting, the fact of the challenge is not. Just keep at it. Storage is cheap. Shoot a lot. Try different things. Don't become discouraged. Every shot won't be perfect, but you should be able to achieve at least a low rate of success at first, and over time, your success rate should improve. Good luck!

Jan 21, 2008 at 09:53 PM

Beni
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p.2 #20 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

I did have focusing problems with my 5D and 85mm wide open till I sent them away for tuning and they came back perfect. Now it only takes 3-4 shots to get one actually in focus (low light), nailing that tight DOF with non pro AF systems is not easy but boy is it great when it works and the eye and lashes are razor sharp and the incredible soft transitions over the rest of the face to the beautiful bokeh behind.

Edited on Jan 22, 2008 at 12:05 AM

Jan 22, 2008 at 12:03 AM

Photon
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p.2 #21 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

Yakim, in this shot I would criticize the skin tone, not the DOF!
A lot of posters have covered the issues already, but I will point out that for any given f/stop and camera format, if you choose distances that give the same subject size, the DOF will be the same. With the 85 (assuming at f/1.4, not 1.2) you would back off and get a different perspective, but the DOF on the face would be identical (if the face was exactly the same size in your viewfinder). Of course the relation to the background would be totally different, which is the whole point of having different focal lengths.

So in other words, any fast lens can be difficult to manage wide open. You're doing fine, and I'm sure you'll continue to improve!

Jan 22, 2008 at 12:20 AM

apdieb
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p.2 #22 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

That 35L is my favorite wedding lens. I use it probably 75% of the time... I shoot it around F2.2-3.2 typically. Very sharp and a tad bit more DOF... I mainly use it on my 5D, but use it on the MKIII on occasion.

Jan 22, 2008 at 05:19 AM

Yakim Peled
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p.2 #23 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

Navyblue wrote:
Yakim Peled wrote:
Focusing manually with a 40D? You must be joking. Yes, I tried that and it's next to impossible even in daylight. The viewfinder is so tiny....

Jan 23, 2008 at 10:41 AM

Yakim Peled
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p.2 #24 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

Russ and Jess, It's not that I am inexperienced in photography in general or with fast lenses in particular. It's just that I feel like I'm back on square one. It reminds me what my Kong-Fu teacher said to me once. After several years I got a brown sash and was telling him that I feel that I am up to my knees in water and see a vast ocean in front of me (i.e. I had a lot more to learn). I asked him how it would be with a black sash. He replied: "It's like only your tiptoes are in the water".

Happy shooting,
Yakim.

Jan 23, 2008 at 10:51 AM

rceres
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p.2 #25 · 35/1.4 – This is ridiculous

Yakim Peled wrote:
Russ and Jess, It's not that I am inexperienced in photography in general or with fast lenses in particular. It's just that I feel like I'm back on square one. It reminds me what my Kong-Fu teacher said to me once. After several years I got a brown sash and was telling him that I feel that I am up to my knees in water and see a vast ocean in front of me (i.e. I had a lot more to learn). I asked him how it would be with a black sash. He replied: "It's like only your tiptoes are in the water".

Happy shooting,
Yakim.

Poe said to Grasshopper "At times the task you face, may seem overwhelming. And you may feel unequal to what is required." Great post! We can all take a lesson.

Jan 23, 2008 at 01:35 PM


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