Andy, I shot with the 58mm f1.4 for a short time at my camera shop. My impression is the AF speed is somewhere between the (very slow) 50mm AF-S f1.4 and (relatively speedy, for a fast lens) 50mm AF-S f1.8. What's your experience on AF speed and accuracy?
lucdeschepper wrote:
Andy, I shot with the 58mm f1.4 for a short time at my camera shop. My impression is the AF speed is somewhere between the (very slow) 50mm AF-S f1.4 and (relatively speedy, for a fast lens) 50mm AF-S f1.8. What's your experience on AF speed and accuracy?
I had no AF accuracy problem with the Df yet. The Df is the first new camera I got from Nikon, where the shutter release is not 1 when I got it. My copy had 251 shutter releases. I asked Nikon support and they confirmed, that their final QA is checking the cameras. (I was not the only one with the phenomenon. Or the other way around, we didn't find any Df with a shutter count of 1. Is there one here?) Another thing: The f-mount on the Df is much tighter than on many of my other cameras. Helps probably the precision as well.
Back to the lens:
Big bonus 1 to the Noct: Price
Big bonus 2 to the Noct: (at least it has) AF
AF performance is more a AF CAM Module issue than lens issue. I don't do high speed sports. The D4 and Df sensors have such a great low light performance that normally, the AF of the camera is the earlier part giving up or loosing focus.
I didn't do any formal tests, but the reason I like the lens is due to the way it "draws". Initially I didn't see any particular WOW factor. But over time I saw myself more and more relying on the AFS 58mm vs. any of the other 50mm lenses. It is a lens with the same characteristics like the AFS 24mm/1.4G or AFS 35mm/1.4G or AFS 85mm/1.4G . For me this is the most remarkable achievement. That the lens performs at that level of the other Nano coated fast lenses. As said, I don't have any formal test to demostrate new factoids - it is just so pleasing to my eye.
Beautiful combi and image, Andy. Old lenses and Df are a match made in heaven, or is it Sendai? A modern lens with gold text (I never liked that choice of color) definitely looks out of place on a Df.
Some pictures from today's walk with the dog. Used the Zeiss 2/135mm at open aperture. Takes more effort to fokus (vs. wide angle lenses), but the outcome wasn't too bad. Not that many pics were out of focus. Expected worse. From a resoultion perspective the DF is not capable to "challenge" the lens at open aperture - this would need a higher res camera.
Ronny _Olsson wrote:
Love the dog shot's Andy
one thing I wonder .. how many lenses do you have ?
Awesome lenses anyway
Thank you. The dog is my most often used "model" - patient, allways around, doesn't care about release contracts, easy to find the proper reward - play and food, or vice versa
to your question:
... a few Nikkor lenses, but not that many Zeiss lenses ...
I had the Zeiss Makro-Planar 2/100mm since a few years and it always delivered stunning images. When I tried the Zeiss 1.4/85mm and 1.4/50mm I wasn't so deeply impressed then. They were super sharp, but they didn't "draw" as nice as the Marko-Planar. Over time I didn't follow the Zeiss lens development too much, but their f-mount lens sortiment grew considerable (13 models + the OTUS). It had been threads in forums like here and other places that images of those lenses were presented - and the desire grew again. It took me years to get back to Zeiss lenses and this Christmas I realized this dream.
james.d53 wrote:
Merry Christmas from my family to yours with the new Df and the 50 1.8 at f/5 and 1600 ISO.
That is a very funny one indeed
Thanks for sharing and Merry Christmas from accross the pond as well.
Thanks' Andy... just love the Zeiss .. have 100MP ,85P 1.4, 50MP, 35 f2 and 21mm myself and a few Nikon MF
and I have a German Shepherd which may act model a lot
how do you experience MF with Zeiss on DF .. is the focus indicator reliable (green dot) ?
