Hey Joseph! Yes, that's me. I don't frequent here often enough. In the past, I used the Buy/Sell forum a lot as I was sorting out my kit. Haven't done much gear shuffle over the past year. As I look around here though, I'm reminded how comprehensive this forum is...I need to spend more time here.
Just received my copy
Damn, this thing is SHARP.... even wide open! I have no idea where the "soft until f/2" came from. Also no AF FT needed.
I've only had it for a couple hours, so I took it out for a little hike. Nothing special here, just casual snaps. It will take me a few days to learn the lens. All wide open:
My experience is there are sharper lenses wide open when shot at "close camera to subject distances". But normally, If I'm in that close, especially for a portrait, I'm at f/2 anyways. But you're right, the 58g gets way too much criticism for it's "lack of sharpness". I'll repeat what I saw you post over at the cafe...I've got plenty of ultra sharp lenses, and enjoy using them as much as the next sharpness junkie. But the 58g is plenty sharp, and renders in a manner that I absolutely love. I'm also getting quite used to the 58mm FOV, and find it to be the lens I grab if I want to grab just one and go.
I see that the sharpness- and the contrast- wide open is rather excellent in your copy DontShoot, and I really like the mood of your shots!
But it doesn't seem like sharpness is the reason to avoid the widest apertures- the magenta and green LoCA on the picnic table top does stand out, and I wonder how well that will be correctable. Still, great character with this lens which seems to provide Nikon shooters a lens with an AF solution very similar to Canon's 50L .
johnctharp wrote:
I see that the sharpness- and the contrast- wide open is rather excellent in your copy DontShoot, and I really like the mood of your shots!
But it doesn't seem like sharpness is the reason to avoid the widest apertures- the magenta and green LoCA on the picnic table top does stand out, and I wonder how well that will be correctable. Still, great character with this lens which seems to provide Nikon shooters a lens with an AF solution very similar to Canon's 50L .
John,
I've been shooting this lens for a few months. I don't shoot it wide open that often, but, when I do, LaCA isn't a big problem. Unlike DontShoot, my copy needed fine tuning to get max sharpness. I've read some Canon shooters mentioning the 50L's LaCA and vignetting to be pretty severe. Is that you finding? If so, would you say it is more pronounced than what you see on 58 images?
To be specific, I'm talking about LoCA- longitudinal chromatic aberration- not 'LaCA', which is lateral chromatic aberration. The lateral stuff can typically be processed away either in camera for JPEGs or in software. The longitudinal stuff, however, stays. At best you can turn it a neutral gray or some other unobtrusive color.
And the longitudinal stuff isn't a big problem if you avoid it in composition; it's the same way you'd treat a cheaper 50 in any system, as they all have it. Even the 50L has it in spades, for example, while what I've seen with the 58G looks pretty good comparatively, which is why I mentioned it in DontShoot's table shot. The 58G seems to be a compromise between the 50L's rendering 'character' and the 50 Art's highly-corrected rendering, which makes it very well suited for it's purpose.
All the color abberations I have encountered wide open with the 58mm can be easily removed or lessened to a degree that you can't notice them in the photos by using the eye dropper on the color you want to remove in the Chromatic Aberration correction tool. It can get rid of green and magenta at the same time and is a very good tool.
johnctharp wrote:
To be specific, I'm talking about LoCA- longitudinal chromatic aberration- not 'LaCA', which is lateral chromatic aberration. The lateral stuff can typically be processed away either in camera for JPEGs or in software. The longitudinal stuff, however, stays. At best you can turn it a neutral gray or some other unobtrusive color.
And the longitudinal stuff isn't a big problem if you avoid it in composition; it's the same way you'd treat a cheaper 50 in any system, as they all have it. Even the 50L has it in spades, for example, while what I've seen with the 58G looks pretty good comparatively, which is why I mentioned it in DontShoot's table shot. The 58G seems to be a compromise between the 50L's rendering 'character' and the 50 Art's highly-corrected rendering, which makes it very well suited for it's purpose....Show more →
Thanks. I'm aware of the difference, but haven't found Lo to be an issue--again, I'm not walking around shooting everything wide open.
DontShoot wrote:
Just received my copy
Damn, this thing is SHARP.... even wide open! I have no idea where the "soft until f/2" came from. Also no AF FT needed.
I've only had it for a couple hours, so I took it out for a little hike. Nothing special here, just casual snaps. It will take me a few days to learn the lens. All wide open:
Prapanpong wrote:
Have anybody compare this lens to Sigma 50mm 1.4 art? I just received the sigma and wonder which one is better.
my guess is that you'll notice the 50A is supersharp and the 58G is not razor like everyone seems to expect these days. two different lenses with characteristics on the opposite ends of the room. i think you can make image comparos in the 50A thread to this one here. pick whatever which one you like.
