I have the trio .. 24/45/90 - great small, light, high IQ kit.. Went on a hike with just the 24 & 45 and surprised myself on how versatile the 45 is for capturing images in the mtns. great focal length. plus the trio all uses 55mm filters
QuietOC wrote:
This shows a weakness--the foreground out-of-focus is pretty poor. A lens with more corrected spherical aberration could be a better choice.
I am full aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the Sigma 45/2.8. If I wanted perfect, then I could have shot with the Leica 35mm Summicron-L APO. I intentionally took the shot wide open at f/2.8, warts and all.
Mar 10, 2022 at 02:43 AM
Steve Spencer Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
QuietOC wrote:
This shows a weakness--the foreground out-of-focus is pretty poor. A lens with more corrected spherical aberration could be a better choice.
I think the more controlled spherical aberration lens would just have a different weakness--a busy transition zone. Removing all or almost all spherical aberrations comes with it own costs. I have yet to see a lens with low spherical aberrations that doesn't have a busy transition zone. IMO, no lens is without weakness in bokeh in one way or another. The trick is to know the weaknesses of the lens you are using and by the way AlphaGeist, I am not bothered by the foreground in this shot (I rather like the shot) and I suppose if one were bothered by it they could crop out whatever portion bothered them.
Steve Spencer wrote:
I think the more controlled spherical aberration lens would just have a different weakness--a busy transition zone. Removing all or almost all spherical aberrations comes with it own costs. I have yet to see a lens with low spherical aberrations that doesn't have a busy transition zone. IMO, no lens is without weakness in bokeh in one way or another. The trick is to know the weaknesses of the lens you are using and by the way AlphaGeist, I am not bothered by the foreground in this shot (I rather like the shot) and I suppose if one were bothered by it they could crop out whatever portion bothered them....Show more →
That sounds pretty accurate. The Sigma 45 is my favorite despite this limitation.
The lowly Sony 50 F1.8 gives pretty smooth foregrounds and backgrounds. I would recommend it over the Sigma for an image like this.
A lot of old planars have issues with both foregrounds and backgrounds at least wide-open like the Minolta 50mm F1.7 primes. The backgrounds at least clear up stopped down a bit.
Sony's latest "budget" offerings seem fairly horrible in transition and have about perfect SA correction. They get a lot of praise for sharpness and even quite a bit for "rendering." I was just perusing 50G reviews because Brian Smith was hawking the lens on DPReview forum.
Mar 10, 2022 at 09:41 AM
Steve Spencer Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
QuietOC wrote:
That sounds pretty accurate. The Sigma 45 is my favorite despite this limitation.
The lowly Sony 50 F1.8 gives pretty smooth foregrounds and backgrounds. I would recommend it over the Sigma for an image like this.
A lot of old planars have issues with both foregrounds and backgrounds at least wide-open like the Minolta 50mm F1.7 primes. The backgrounds at least clear up stopped down a bit.
Sony's latest "budget" offerings seem fairly horrible in transition and have about perfect SA correction. They get a lot of praise for sharpness and even quite a bit for "rendering." I was just perusing 50G reviews because Brian Smith was hawking the lens on DPReview forum....Show more →
I think we are in agreement. All I would add is that I think the foreground in that shot if it seems bothersome would likely also be quite a bit smoother if the lens was stopped down a little. Like I said the foreground doesn't bother me in this shot, but perhaps stopping down a stop or so and maybe cropping just a bit from the bottom it could be a complete non-issue. I personally, almost always hate a 3 X 2 aspect ratio in portrait orientation, so I would be cropping from the bottom for sure to give me at least a 4 X 3 aspect ratio, but that is just me and my preferences.
