Registered: Nov 02, 2009
Total Posts: 7005
Country: United States
Brody LeBlanc wrote:
The size different alone is an encouraging factor and I hope it balances well on the X-Pro1.
Your pictures have definitely influenced my decision to go with the pen f 42mm, your flickr has some incredible shots from the 42mm & many other lenses too.
The 42mm seems to be a one of a kind lens, the rendering slightly reminds me of a 50mm f1.5 Sonnar I use to own.
The size of the lens and how character-rich the rendering is at f1.2 are the two main reasons why I'm going with the 42mm. I also think I'll get more use from the focal length.
Though it might not have the technical perfection that a lens like the 58/1.2 might have, I think it'll make for some very unique images.
It's interesting you say that the lens renders a fairly large DOF at f1.2. Why do you think that would be?
From looking through images from the lens on APS-c cameras (including your shots), I got the impression that the lens can create quite a noticeable separation from the focal point to the background.
I mean, clearly a 42mm lens will have more depth than a 50mm/55mm/58mm, but do you think there's even more of a reason for the large DOF?
Thanks for your input! I'd have to say you've very clearly mastered using the 42/1.2.
thanks!
you can definitely get plenty of background separation from this lens, but the transition from in focus to out of focus is much more gentle than say the 50L. i view this as a good thing at portrait distance because a harsh transition taking place on the subjects face looks pretty weird to my eye. at longer distances it can be more of mixed bag and effective dof can be hard to predict especially with the U shaped field curvature that puts more distant corners in focus (as in the swirly picture of my daughter above).
here are a couple of examples surprisingly big dof at larger distances wide open:
and here's a couple of 100% crops from the motorcycle shot.
at the focus point:
and a couple feet behind the focus point:
my suspicion is that my 40mm summicron would actually have narrower dof in the two shots above.
much like the 50mm sonnar the lens has tons of character and can take images that would be nearly impossible with any other lens. the 42mm is much sharper than the sonnar in the corners stopped down though.
