You definitely got yourself a sharp copy and you are demonstrating you know the weakness and strengths of the lens as well. Now get outside or into another environment that doesn't have multiple light source casts everywhere so we can see that beautiful bokeh
getting sharp images and nailing focus with ANY 1.4 lens is a challenge on any camera with the different AF module types. doesnt matter if its D4 all the way down to lowly D90s.
things you are probably doing or should be doing:
- Looking for contrast
- using AF points near the center or close to it
- if focusing and recomposing, making sure your camera and lens doesn't change focal planes especially near MFD
- if in low light, even at high ISO, grabbing focus with 1.4 lenses is always a challenge, get better light
- if in back lit situations where there is sunflare or strong back lighting, you gotta find contrast especially at 1.4
- in mixed lighting scenes eg.. natural light with ambient or fluorescent mixed with incandescent
on top of those mentioned above, with the 58 1.4g you also have to keep in mind that anything near MFD with this lens pretty much renders a soft image and also if your lens needs any type of calibration, then that will compound the softness even further @ 1.4 especially in high contrast areas or where light sources are introduced and you will see green or purple fringing.
I have noticed that typically if you see green fringing an the images look kinda soft, then you need calibration versus say purple fringing which typically comes from high contrast images shot in back light scenes @ 1.4
Practice focus and recompose a lot. every time i focus with my shutter button or back button focus (i change it up sometimes), i never trust the first lock and always press it again to get a relock or move it slightly and bring it back to relock then i trust the focus lock.
depends on how much you value your noct. it's an expensive lens. you could get a used 58mm for $1300 and have plenty of money left over for other goodies...like a backup 58mm 1.4.
nextelbuddy wrote:
getting sharp images and nailing focus with ANY 1.4 lens is a challenge on any camera with the different AF module types. doesnt matter if its D4 all the way down to lowly D90s.
things you are probably doing or should be doing:
- Looking for contrast
- using AF points near the center or close to it
- if focusing and recomposing, making sure your camera and lens doesn't change focal planes especially near MFD
- if in low light, even at high ISO, grabbing focus with 1.4 lenses is always a challenge, get better light
- if in back lit situations where there is sunflare or strong back lighting, you gotta find contrast especially at 1.4
- in mixed lighting scenes eg.. natural light with ambient or fluorescent mixed with incandescent
on top of those mentioned above, with the 58 1.4g you also have to keep in mind that anything near MFD with this lens pretty much renders a soft image and also if your lens needs any type of calibration, then that will compound the softness even further @ 1.4 especially in high contrast areas or where light sources are introduced and you will see green or purple fringing.
I have noticed that typically if you see green fringing an the images look kinda soft, then you need calibration versus say purple fringing which typically comes from high contrast images shot in back light scenes @ 1.4
Practice focus and recompose a lot. every time i focus with my shutter button or back button focus (i change it up sometimes), i never trust the first lock and always press it again to get a relock or move it slightly and bring it back to relock then i trust the focus lock.
I'm aware of most of your points.
Strange thing is that with my 85G I have almost no trouble art all getting sharp images. If I get OOF images with that lens I missed one of your points
Chris Dees wrote:
I'm aware of most of your points.
Strange thing is that with my 85G I have almost no trouble art all getting sharp images. If I get OOF images with that lens I missed one of your points
i too have the 85 1.4G but i dont notice a difference between the 2. to me they are both equally as hard to nail focus wide open int he above scenarios. I just had to learn the distances that the 58 1.4G likes or prefers.'
the closer you get to your subject, the more curvature you get in your BOKEH and edges and looks nice and swirly... in those cases you will be softer @ 1.4 and can get away with stopping down to 1.6 or 1.8 and still get the swirly bokeh... at medium to infinity distances you can stay at 1.4 and just make sure you find a back ground that is far away so you get smooth bokeh for the 3D look but no swirl or not as much.
Very happy with these sunflower session images. There was an old dog on the far, so much character in him and cant wait to send that one to the owner of the field.
Eiffel wrote:
Would you sell a Noct-Nikkor 58mm 1.2 for this new 58mm 1.4?
I am thinking about it, mainly because of the manual focus.
i have both. and f1.2 comes in very handy, surprisingly, YMMV... i would do the other way around and sell a 58mm f1.4G to fund a noct, but no way in hell would i go the other way.
