Minimizing the weight of your backpack is essential when skiing in steep terrain carrying all your equipment for a week. After long considerations I decided to bring four lenses:
The Batis 25 was the lens that was mounted on the camera 80% of the time, with the camera sitting on a Peak Design Camera Clip on the shoulder strap of my backpack. The field of view proved very versatile, though slightly tight at times. Versatility, weight and AF were the reasons that made me choose this lens over the Loxia 21 this time.
The Batis 18 was brought primarily for nighttime landscape shots of the cabins, but proved very useful for interiors also. I probably should have used it more for landscapes on the go as well.
The Contax G90 was used much more than anticipated for compressed landscapes and portraits, with very good results. The low weight is perfect for ski touring. AF with the Techart TA-GA3 was very reliable and precise except once when the camara was set unintentionally to AF-C instead of AF-S. MF was used for landscapes most of the time.
The FE35 was thrown in for its very light weight, but saw little use. I could have left it at home or maybe taken a Loxia 50 or FE55 instead.
I don´t have the FE24-105, but this lens would probably have done a good job most of the time with the flexibility of a zoom as a bonus.
Here's one more from this morning with the Voigtlander 40/1.2
Bob, thank you! and yours, regardless of the lens used are just gorgeous!
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Here is a couple of resting resplendent quetzals that nest nearby. They are building the nest together by digging a hole in a tree trunk. The female did most of the work, BTW while the male is busy doing more inspecting the nest from time to time. These birds are very skittish, their habitat is in the higher cloud forest regions, in this case in CR. They do live in the wild do not go to any feeding stations. I was truly fortunate to be able to capture not one but this quetzal pair and witness their nesting behavior. We ended up staying for about an hour on two different days since we didn't want to disturb these delicate birds in their activities. What an experience! And this alone was worth the entire trip.
The lsns used is Canon EF 400mm f/2.8 Mark II plus Canon 1.4X TC, Metabones V and Sony FE 1.4X TC in combo. And yes, the AF works.
AGeoJO wrote:
Here is a couple of resting resplendent quetzals that nest nearby. They are building the nest together by digging a hole in a tree trunk. The female did most of the work, BTW while the male is busy doing more inspecting the nest from time to time. These birds are very skittish, their habitat is in the higher cloud forest regions, in this case in CR. They do live in the wild do not go to any feeding stations. I was truly fortunate to be able to capture not one but this quetzal pair and witness their nesting behavior. We ended up staying for about an hour on two different days since we didn't want to disturb these delicate birds in their activities. What an experience! And this alone was worth the entire trip.
The lsns used is Canon EF 400mm f/2.8 Mark II plus Canon 1.4X TC, Metabones V and Sony FE 1.4X TC in combo. And yes, the AF works....Show more →
This is a wonderful photo--the pair of quetzals is fantastic, but getting them framed in that setting, with those beautiful epiphytes is just superb. Amazing.
Thanks for the comparisons. I find I consistently prefer the STF. The shallow DoF becomes a bit distracting when the nose and outline of the hair become slightly blurred. And background becomes less distracting even though its better defined but smooth. Better reflects reality to my eye.
Luvwine wrote:
My poor wife was subjected to some pics today......
Mathieu18 wrote:
Thanks for the comparisons. I find I consistently prefer the STF. The shallow DoF becomes a bit distracting when the nose and outline of the hair become slightly blurred. And background becomes less distracting even though its better defined but smooth. Better reflects reality to my eye.
It is a polarizing lens. I too like it most of the time, (and agree I prefer the portrait rendering of the STF on this pair) but occasionally I find its rendering less desirable. I think it is a great tool, but with a larger learning curve than most lenses. It is also a challenge to deploy when the light is low due to T5.6 wide open. Still, I am enjoying the learning process with the lens and find it very sharp, relatively light weight, and with unique bokeh. I would not get rid of my GM 85, but would not want to get rid of this lens either. I also recently got the Batis 135 and am very impressed with that lens. We are really spoiled for choice now at most focal lengths (28 being a notable exception).
85GM is very different lens than my usual Zeiss/Leica lenses. I have been wondering what to do with it (keep/sell). Every time I go shooting I enjoy using it (despite focus by wire) and photos are quite nice as well, thou colors & contrast are not exactly how I like them to be. Despite being "portrait lens" 85GM suits quite well also for nature photography. Boke could be better at larger focus distances (e.g. first photo below), but closer than full body portrait boke is most of the time really good.
Sony FE 1.4/85 GM @ f/1.7, 1/2500s, A7mkII @ ISO 100
Sony FE 1.4/85 GM @ f/2.2, 1/200s, A7mkII @ ISO 100
Should have shoot f/1.7, image came little bland as lens improves a lot from f/1.4 to f/1.7, but f/1.6 is still little lacking - Sony FE 1.4/85 GM @ f/1.6, s, A7mkII @ ISO 100
Sony FE 1.4/85 GM @ f/1.7, 1/320s, A7mkII @ ISO 100
