GMPhotography wrote:
So you removed one of the brass rings of three. Not a bad idea.
My infinity is right at the start of the symbol.
Yes, that sounds close to symbol position in my case, and that's why I used the highly descriptive term "a tad".
But, I added a 4th spacer ring. I used one of the other 3 as a template for .002" shim brass. Remember, if a lens focused past infinity, as in the case of the center field, it gets too close to the sensor. I found an additional .002" spacer ring pulled focus back in the center and in the corner to basically allow exact infinity in mid-field.
In the early days of my Rokkor 58/1.2 EF conversions, I did just this same type adjustment as the Rokkor had some field curvature also.
I just got tired of arguing with some goons in a youtube thread about the bokeh issues Steve Huff had with his Sony camera (vs. Leica SL), caused by the EFCS (electronic first curtain shutter) and took some samples with my Nokton 40mm. Steve had thought it was because of the lens (Nokton 58mm) not working with Sony. And as I can see this happening in some of your pictures as well, I might as well link it here as well. Hope you don't mind...
For people that don't know it yet, Sony cameras have some issues when having the efcs on and shooting at fast shutter speeds (faster than 1/500s). These issues are especially visible in images taken with lenses like the Nokton. Mainly the image exposure across the frame can be uneven and the bokeh balls gets cut in half.
You can avoid these issues when shooting with large apertures and fast shutter speeds by using:
a) either mechanical shutter (efcs turned off)
b) OR by using electronic silent shutter (like I did - but has it's own problems with panning and fast subjects due to rolling shutter)
That's really interesting, and good to know. Must have to do with the asymmetric nature of the shuttering with EFCS. The physical shutter affects light coming from different angles, but the electronic does not.
Makten wrote:
I've seen bokeh affected by EFCS even at f/2.5 with certain lenses. Perhaps it's not about the f-stop, but the size of the exit pupil?
I think it affects the bokeh & image no matter what aperture is used, as long as shutter times are fast enough. But the smaller the bokeh balls gets this issue will becomes less visible. Now that I know about this this issue, I've been looking through my LR catalog for images that were shot with Sony and faster than 1/1000s shutter times. And I see this happening a LOT in my images. Earlier I had thought that it was just the lens that rendered the bokeh so "funny". Wish I had known earlier... Might have skipped going to all-Fuji altogether and just waited for the Sony A7III which I now have, since it has the silent shutter and the mechanical shutter in it is WAAAY more pleasant than in my earlier A7II's "CLACKETY-CLACK" (now more like really fast "snap-snap").
I find a nice two lens party set is CV 40 and GM 85. Depends what you are shooting, of course. Loxia 21 and CV 40 is a nice landscape pairing tho I usually carry at least a short telephoto as well (Loxia 85 or CV 65).
Heh, Fred wasn't too far from me (I live just next to Helsinki). Tallinn is a nice city, been there several times.
I'm now building my Sony kit again after selling all my Fuji stuff. I think my current CV40/1.2 VM will be replaced by the native FE version at some point and this will continue to be my main lens (already is). Also bought a really nice condition Color-Heliar 75mm f/2.5 which is the one I use when I want to have a little bit more reach. Really sharp and renders very pleasing images and a great pair for the Nokton. And incredibly tiny and lightweight. Will never sell that one, unless they make an FE version some day. Love it so much. I'm so glad I didn't get the bigger f/1.8 version. This f/2.5 is incredibly sharp wide open (at least on 24Mp sensor) and has plenty enough subject separation for my use.
On the wide end I just have the FE28/2 at the moment, but I find it a bit too close to 40mm so it's hard to find excuses to use it that much. Hoping to replace that with the upcoming CV21/3.5 FE version if it's decent enough. If can take "sharp enough" corner-to-corner images at f/8 I'm happy. But what I'm most interested as a main companion for my Nokton is the upcoming 110mm apo-lanthar. I think in many cases those two would be the only two lenses I would carry around. And wouldn't mind having an all-voigtländer kit. The 21/40/75/110 would offer a really nice range with different enough FL's.
Excellent images, Fred! Too bad no photos are allowed in the Amber room .
As a side note, my A7r fell on the concrete floor after the visit at the place where you had to store your access stuff at this place. It worked on and off for a while before it gave up entirely that day. It was my only camera and it happened early on our trip. I had to use my cell and my point and shoot camera of my wife for the rest of the trip. That was early 2014...
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Captured at wide open aperture, vignetting added in PP
JimBuchanan wrote:
Nice. What kind of lighting? There is a key in there somewhere.
Jim, thank you! It is a mixed of flash and available light but instead of fill-in, I made the flash (a strobe inside a 3-foot softbox) as the main lighting source. It is on the right hand side at about 45-degree angle to the two models on a light stand. I noticed that the model on the left has a fair complexion, fairer than the model on the right. Hence the location of the flash on the right, so the model on the left received less flash lighting. The flash output is on manual and about the proper output for that distance but using the necessary high speed sync setting.
The key here, I deliberately underexposed the available light somewhere between 1-2 stop. That suppressed highlights everywhere but mostly in the background since it didn’t get lit by the flash. This lighting technique, dubbed the strobitst approach, renders the image between outdoors and studio.
AGeoJO wrote:
Jim, thank you! It is a mixed of flash and available light but instead of fill-in, I made the flash (a strobe inside a 3-foot softbox) as the main lighting source. It is on the right hand side at about 45-degree angle to the two models on a light stand. I noticed that the model on the left has a fair complexion, fairer than the model on the right. Hence the location of the flash on the right, so the model on the left received less flash lighting. The flash output is on manual and about the proper output for that distance but using the necessary high speed sync setting.
The key here, I deliberately underexposed the available light somewhere between 1-2 stop. That suppressed highlights everywhere but mostly in the background since it didn’t get lit by the flash. This lighting technique, dubbed the strobitst approach, renders the image between outdoors and studio.
I had the same experience with 28, so I'm glad to hear it wasn't just me. Feels way too close to 40. Of course now that I've adjusted to seeing in 25mm, I feel like I need to go even wider. Hurry up with that 21,Voigtlander!!
Tonzah78 wrote:
Heh, Fred wasn't too far from me (I live just next to Helsinki). Tallinn is a nice city, been there several times.
I'm now building my Sony kit again after selling all my Fuji stuff. I think my current CV40/1.2 VM will be replaced by the native FE version at some point and this will continue to be my main lens (already is). Also bought a really nice condition Color-Heliar 75mm f/2.5 which is the one I use when I want to have a little bit more reach. Really sharp and renders very pleasing images and a great pair for the Nokton. And incredibly tiny and lightweight. Will never sell that one, unless they make an FE version some day. Love it so much. I'm so glad I didn't get the bigger f/1.8 version. This f/2.5 is incredibly sharp wide open (at least on 24Mp sensor) and has plenty enough subject separation for my use.
On the wide end I just have the FE28/2 at the moment, but I find it a bit too close to 40mm so it's hard to find excuses to use it that much. Hoping to replace that with the upcoming CV21/3.5 FE version if it's decent enough. If can take "sharp enough" corner-to-corner images at f/8 I'm happy. But what I'm most interested as a main companion for my Nokton is the upcoming 110mm apo-lanthar. I think in many cases those two would be the only two lenses I would carry around. And wouldn't mind having an all-voigtländer kit. The 21/40/75/110 would offer a really nice range with different enough FL's....Show more →
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