GMPhotography wrote:
Please download the Raws and start analyzing these files. Try CA off in your software and on also. Play around with the distortion as well. Find the happy spot
I will be working on this today at some point. Golf is calling me , wifey still in NY.
Are these focused in the centre? Or midframe for (possibly) optimal performance?
PEKA62 wrote:
I don‘t believe focus and recompose is a good idea with an f/1.2 lens wide open.
Indeed. I found out when I tried a few portraits. Focus was waaaaay off.
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I'm keeping the Loxias by the way. The Nokton is just not as good for what I normally shoot, so probably I'll mostly use it for low light or when I just want to carry one lens.
It's very easy to get fooled that you like a lens that doesn't suit your needs. My main reason for this, is that the bokeh gets worse when stopping down. Which means I'll shoot wide open or stopped down for full DOF.
I really don't like the results at ~f/2,8-4 at a few meters distance.
alundeb wrote:
I'm a bit dense. How do you do that? Take two steps to the left?
Or to the right, or up, or down... Exactly. You just have to move around a bit and keep the front of the lens on the same plane. Are you guys just being stubborn?
Makten wrote:
Indeed. I found out when I tried a few portraits. Focus was waaaaay off.
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I'm keeping the Loxias by the way. The Nokton is just not as good for what I normally shoot, so probably I'll mostly use it for low light or when I just want to carry one lens.
It's very easy to get fooled that you like a lens that doesn't suit your needs. My main reason for this, is that the bokeh gets worse when stopping down. Which means I'll shoot wide open or stopped down for full DOF.
I really don't like the results at ~f/2,8-4 at a few meters distance.
The bokeh doesn't get worse stopped down. The background just becomes less blurred and therefore more noticeable. I guess a lot of people have to put a worse or better label on everything though in order for it to compute.
twomblywhite wrote:
The bokeh doesn't get worse stopped down. The background just becomes less blurred and therefore more noticeable. I guess a lot of people have to put a worse or better label on everything though in order for it to compute.
Sorry, but I prefer to use my own eyes and I know exactly what I see and what I'm talking about. The bokeh definitely gets worse stopped down, at the focus distances I like to shoot at. The Loxia 35/2 bokeh gets smoother when you stop down.
The amount of blur has nothing to do with bokeh quality.
Makten wrote:
Indeed. I found out when I tried a few portraits. Focus was waaaaay off.
-------------
I'm keeping the Loxias by the way. The Nokton is just not as good for what I normally shoot, so probably I'll mostly use it for low light or when I just want to carry one lens.
It's very easy to get fooled that you like a lens that doesn't suit your needs. My main reason for this, is that the bokeh gets worse when stopping down. Which means I'll shoot wide open or stopped down for full DOF.
I really don't like the results at ~f/2,8-4 at a few meters distance.
jhinkey wrote:
Not trying to be difficult, but please show us with pictures what you are describing as bokeh is very subjective and open for mis-interpretation.
I'd love to, but I hate taking images just for test purposes. And, since bokeh is subjective, what I find "worse" can be perfectly fine for someone else. So it's kind of pointless.
What I mean is that the circles of confusion get brighter edges stopped down than wide open. For most lenses, it's the other way around and you get smoother bokeh a few stops down. Not so with the Nokton.
Makten wrote:
Sorry, but I prefer to use my own eyes and I know exactly what I see and what I'm talking about. The bokeh definitely gets worse stopped down, at the focus distances I like to shoot at. The Loxia 35/2 bokeh gets smoother when you stop down.
The amount of blur has nothing to do with bokeh quality.
The amount of blur definitely has something to do with the bokeh quality. It's ridiculous - to me - to say that it doesn't. They're intrinsically linked.
Anyway to toss terms like "bad bokeh" around is pointless and purely subjective. It doesn't do anyone any good but that probably doesn't matter to you. Fred and Guy take loads of time to post direct bokeh comparisons between lenses as that is the only way to show differences. And that is tremendously helpful.
twomblywhite wrote:
Or to the right, or up, or down... Exactly. You just have to move around a bit and keep the front of the lens on the same plane. Are you guys just being stubborn?
Isn't it easier and more precise to just move your focus point off center than walking several meters left/right/up/down (if possible at all) when subject distance demands it? I don't get it.
Twomblywhite, you have now been sharply critical of two FM members with many thousands of posts to their credits, and many fine images. Well respected members, and deservedly so, as far as I am concerned. Do you believe that the sharpness of your words absolutely needs to match that of your lenses? Just sayin'...
Could be on to something, Martin. At that focal distance Guy used, f4 is the important transition zone, not handled particularly well. You'd shoot a lot at around a metre further off. It's pretty strident but not such wonderful light.
Bokeh quality is important across all key variables - focus distance, aperture, amount and size of highlights.
twomblywhite wrote:
The amount of blur definitely has something to do with the bokeh quality. It's ridiculous - to me - to say that it doesn't. They're intrinsically linked.
Well, you are wrong and I'm not gonna spend time arguing about it.
Anyway to toss terms like "bad bokeh" around is pointless and purely subjective.
That's why I explained exactly what about the bokeh I don't like. Sigh.
PEKA62 wrote:
Isn't it easier and more precise to just move your focus point off center than walking several meters left/right/up/down (if possible at all) when subject distance demands it? I don't get it.
Moving your focus point around is great also. I do both. Moving the focus point takes longer though and in certain situations you can miss a moment. Whatever people use and become comfortable with and gives them useable results is what is important isn't it? It's great to be able to discuss and explore techniques that may not be so familiar to one but be taken for granted by another.
My main reason for this, is that the bokeh gets worse when stopping down. Which means I'll shoot wide open or stopped down for full DOF. 
And, since bokeh is subjective, what I find "worse" can be perfectly fine for someone else. So it's kind of pointless.
