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p.11 #4 · p.11 #4 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open! | |
robert614 wrote:
Beautiful photos! Glad you’re still putting the current version to good use
I think the mark II may surprise a lot of people.
In focus to out of focus transition zones look to be very smooth in the examples I’ve seen. Perhaps better than the original. And mid distance out of focus areas look to be very smooth as well.
Bokeh balls may have a little more cats eye towards the edge. But lack of any soap bubbles and chromatic aberration in the balls themselves is a good trade off IMO
I’m actually pretty optimistic about the Mark II
With regard to transition from in focus to out of focus, what we can count on is that transition will occur over a shorter distance than with the original (i.e., the transition will be more abrupt). That is because the new version has almost no spherical aberrations, whereas wide open version 1 still had some spherical aberrations and those aberrations extends the transition zone. Now whether you like that transition zone to be short and abrupt or longer is a matter of preference. Some like the shorter more abrupt transition zone (Peter Karbe, Leica's chief optical designer for one likes the abrupt transition zone) but some people like the longer transition zone (and as Peter Karbe notes one lens that has that is the Leica 75 lux that some people adore). Personally, I like the longer transition zone, so for my tastes I prefer the transition of the Version 1 lens, but there will be plenty of people that prefer the Version II lens, but I wouldn't call the transition smooth. In fact, I would call it abrupt which can add punch to the image.
With regard to resolution, there is no question the Version II has higher resolution than Version I and that will be useful for some applications, but a higher resolution camera makes every lens higher resolution. The higher resolution camera will see more gain with a higher resolution lens, but every lens will gain resolution with a higher resolution camera. It simply is not that case that any lens doesn't have enough resolution for a high resolution camera, but it is true you will take more advantage of the high resolution sensor with Version II of this lens than you would with Version I.
Finally there is the matter of AF. It appears that the Version II of this lens has fantastically fast AF that will totally keep up with the 120 fps of the A9 III. The first version of the lens was not a complete slouch with AF. In my experience it was at least as good as the Sigma 85 f/1.4 DG DN. It was accurate and could do 15 fps and it could track well at those slower fps. Still if you have cameras with amazing AF like the A1 and the A9 series and especially the new A9 III, then your top lenses should be able to keep up with those cameras and the Version I simply could not. So for AF alone a new version of this lens was needed.
All this means that for some people like me who shoot an A7r V, that does not have the fps of the A1 or A9 series and who prefers the bokeh of the Version I lens, and who is happy with the resolution of that lens the Version 1 will be a great lens. That said it is clear to me why a lot of folks are going to prefer Version II and Sony needed an update of this lens. Version II looks like a really nice upgrade that a lot of people will like and this revision created a lens that is much in the same style and look of the other GM lenses.
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