Samuli Vahonen
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
|
I found one forgotten (I never even viewed these after the shoot  ) directory of photos from 2018 winter/spring. These remind me how nice lens Sony 85GM really is; boke shots with snow turn to magenta/green mess with most of tele lenses due to boke-CA (or whatever you call it), but I did not find it bothering me in any of these shots (there was 182 RAW-files in this directory, not just the ones I processed).
Also boke quality & smoothness with 85GM is most often as good as one could wish for, only in some rare cases DOF -> boke transfer zone has small fuzziness. After initial tests I have never shoot this lens with f/1.4 or f/1.6 (they suck technically, most likely very suitable to portraits like "Leica-glow"), only apertures starting from f/1.7. So I don't have much experience of the two widest apertures, but boke quality has more issues on those settings as well. Also closed down boke quality is exceptional; boke remains smooth and calm, partly because of 11-blade rounded aperture, partly due to optical design.
Sharpness closed to optimal apertures f/2.8-5.6 is excellent as well. Thou that does not make lens great, basically any high quality short tele prime from last 40 years is sharp enough for current sensors.
In my point of view biggest issue with 85GM rendering style is that it has too much contrast in boke. It's still pretty good, nowhere near as bad as FE55 for example, but I compare to lenses I love to shoot with (e.g. Zeiss G, C/Y, ZE/ZF or ZM lenses). To mitigate this issue while shooting I sometimes use reflector to shine more light to subject so I can underexpose background. This can be mitigated also in post processing by adding curves S-curve only to subject (requires manually painting layers = slow & not possible with all subjects). Third mitigation is environment; foggy air makes subject usually stand out from background because there is less fog between subject vs. background boke. Mentioned post processing technique is used on most of my 85GM photos, so that the lens can keep up with my Zeiss lenses.
And second biggest rendering style issue for me is that images without sidelight tend to render subjects very flat compared to Zeiss G, C/Y, ZE/ZF or ZM lenses. This second issue is harder to mitigate, silver reflector adding side light can help with this one too, but when cloud layer is thick reflector can't help, and then photos just remain flat (while my Zeiss lenses render lovely w/ clouds & overcast). I don't find any post processing technique to be able to turn flat 2d image lifelike non-flat image with shape&volume. For this reason I don't particularly like landscape photos from this lens, instead prefer Zeiss Loxia 85 etc. lenses with less flat rendering style.
In nice side light subjects render to non-flat (not "cardboard on top of boke"-style), rendering of shape&volume is not Zeiss level but good - Sony FE 1.4/85 GM @ f/5.6, 1/400s, Sony A7 mkII @ ISO 100
Same subject, but opening up to f/1.7 does not make focus plane rendering any worse, still looks like round tree, not "cardboard on top of boke", but boke is naturally just blur without any recognizable shapes due to f/1.7 - Sony FE 1.4/85 GM @ f/1.7, 1/3200s, Sony A7 mkII @ ISO 100
Focus plane sharpness f/2.8 is excellent, also boke is very controlled without any boke-CA etc. issues - Sony FE 1.4/85 GM @ f/2.8, 1/3200s, Sony A7 mkII @ ISO 100
Without specific sidelight subjects mostly look flat. I tried to find example which is not totally flat looking, I can see some shape & volume but not full roundness of the tree on this photo where subject was in shade, but lit by reflection from snow (notice also boke smoothness and calmness + softness of boke highlights) - Sony FE 1.4/85 GM @ f/4.0, 1/800s, Sony A7 mkII @ ISO 100
Subject is super sharp even on close-ups. And super flat without specific side light... (notice boke is little harsh on top of the image, this kind of fuzziness is about worst you can expect from this lens) - Sony FE 1.4/85 GM @ f/4.0, 1/1250s, Sony A7 mkII @ ISO 100
My favourite aperture is f/1.7, focus plane is very good and boke quality is very high and naturally @ f/1.7 boke quantity makes everything even smoother - Sony FE 1.4/85 GM @ f/1.7, 1/5000s, Sony A7 mkII @ ISO 100
Great times, we are currently having so many super good short modern tele lenses for Sony to choose from: Sony 85GM, Zeiss Loxia 85, Leica APO-Summicron-M 90mm f/2, Canon 85mm f/1.4 L, Sigma Art 85mm f/1.4, Zeiss Milvus 1.4/85 and Zeiss Otus 85. And then top of these all the older glass...
Samuli
|
I seem to recall during a previous shutdown (2013 maybe?) most Nat Parks were forced to close.
