Matthew, I like the highlight handling of the FE55 at shortish distances and how the combine with the DR of the latest Sony sensors - a lovely aesthetic esp for portraits.
A couple from the winter festival: a group of friendly anis and the main gompa building.
Charles: Great pictures of these exotic berries/cherries (?). The 75 Lux's bokeh is beautiful. Did you shoot that one handheld? I found it impossible to focus the Lux (close to) wide open.
Bob: That orange sky lake shot on the previous page is worth ten likes. Really impressive.
Ryan: Since I happen to live in Japan too, do you mind telling me where that light house is? Chiba prefecture? Beautiful shot with excellent timing btw.
Gregg: That last one is indeed exceptional.
Werner: Your shots from the last 1-2 pages are extremely impressive, in particular the lightning. True works of art.
Tim: Great perspective on these ship shots. Initially, I thought they were taken with a wider lens, only at second glance I realized that it was "only" 28mm glass.
Here are a few from today. I used an external color calibration tool for the first time on my LCD today, so I was wondering whether anybody could tell whether those pictures looked OK or whether something was really off?
Chris_88 wrote:
Charles: Great pictures of these exotic berries/cherries (?). The 75 Lux's bokeh is beautiful. Did you shoot that one handheld? I found it impossible to focus the Lux (close to) wide open.
Bob: That orange sky lake shot on the previous page is worth ten likes. Really impressive.
Ryan: Since I happen to live in Japan too, do you mind telling me where that light house is? Chiba prefecture? Beautiful shot with excellent timing btw.
Gregg: That last one is indeed exceptional.
Werner: Your shots from the last 1-2 pages are extremely impressive, in particular the lightning. True works of art.
Tim: Great perspective on these ship shots. Initially, I thought they were taken with a wider lens, only at second glance I realized that it was "only" 28mm glass.
Here are a few from today. I used an external color calibration tool for the first time on my LCD today, so I was wondering whether anybody could tell whether those pictures looked OK or whether something was really off?
Looking back over your last 4 or 5 posts in this thread, most of the pictures seem to have a bit of a cyan cast to them. I think these look better color balanced. The 16-35mm f4 shot was the only earlier one that didn't have the color cast.
Todd: Thanks for the feedback. Much appreciated. I thought that something was off. It's nice to hear that the color configuration seems to have improved things a bit. It did on my screen, but I wasn't sure how visible it's when viewed by others. Thanks again.
Btw, that second overhead snow goose shot is very impressive.
I don't have any experience with fast 28mm lenses, I'm more of a stopped down landscape shooter @ 28mm. One's that come to mind though are
Olympus OM 28mm f/2
Pentax 31mm f/1.8 Limited
Nikon 28mm f/1.8 G
Todd has already mentioned most of these...
-Tim
carlsote1 wrote:
My 2 cents...
Manual lenses are fun, but take some practice as you drop to f1.8 or get to longer focal lengths. You'll struggle with moving kids, if that's your target. The A7 will struggle a bit with lower light and autofocus. The longer lenses work pretty good with focus peaking, but down in the 28-40mm range, I found peaking not very accurate and had to magnify or learn to use the lens distance scale (they generally aren't accurate unless you buy Novoflex adapters or maybe Kipon - higher cost ones that maintain infinity focus at the stop).
I preferred manual lenses for darker times with the A7.
Wide angle, fast, and either old or inexpensive is a bit tough unless you expand to f2.
OM 28mm f2. $350
OM 35mm f2. $400.
OM 40mm f2. $600.
Canon FD 35mm f2 (quite a few people have this lens) $300.
Minolta MD 35mm f1.8 ($350 - really good, Peire has one).
Tim Devine shoots alot with 28mm. Check his shots to see if that's your preferred focal length.
The Nikon and Contax 28mm f2.8's are both really good, but a bit slower than you asked about ($200-300).
Canon FD 24mm f1.4L is good, but might have too much field curvature if you want to shoot landscapes ($700-1000).
The Nikon G 28mm f1.8 is very nice, but you'll have to get a Nikon G adapter (Fotodiox or Metabones - a bit clumsy) ~ $650.
Canon EF 28mm f1.8 is good ($510), but you need a $100 adapter and autofocus will be slow.
Vivitar 28mm f1.9. I think someone on the forum used one...maybe Tjack (xposhore) has one. $190.
The Nikon G 35mm f1.8 is very nice...same issue as the other G ~ $550.
Voigtlander has a M mount 35mm f 1.4 ($650) and 40mm f1.4 classic (Gregg and Jim Schemel have one) ~ $450.
Rokinon/Samyang has a 35mm f1.4 $400 (used maybe $300).
The Minolta Cle 40mm f2 is good (Rich Nelridge/naturephoto1 has one) ~ $450.
Minolta MD 45mm f2 is decent and really cheap (I have one and so does Peire/Shapencolour) ~ $35.
Konica Hexanon 40mm f1.8 is probably a bit better than the Minolta, but probably not 5x better (Peire/shapencolour) ~ $150.
Canon FD and FL 50/55mm f1.2/1.4 are all decent $110-$400.
Minolta 50mm f1.4 is good. $100
Contax 50mm f1.4 or 1.7 are good. $280-350.
Fast 50mm (f1.4) is really the most economical except for maybe the MD 45, Vivitar, or Rokinon/Samyang/Bower. The Rokinon is the only modern lens (the construction isn't as robust as other makes, but the image quality is great).
My A7II focuses much faster and I now value the 55mm f1.8's autofocus. I sold some of my manual lenses and got the 16-35mm f4 OSS, which is really good. I kept the long manual lenses....Show more →
