p.1 #1 · Apodization/STF/DS/APD filter lenses, love or hate?
I'm not sure if this is the place to post this question but given the nature of the lurkers here I suspect plenty have used them and have a rational opinion.
I'm curious about lenses with apodization filters, like the Sony 100 STF, Canon RF 85/1.2 DS, LAOWA 105mm f/2 Smooth Trans Focus Lens etc.
Body agnostic, it's the STF/apodization lenses and their pro's and con's I'm interested in. They seem to have no equal in terms of the quality (ie softness but not size) of their bokeh, but are they worth the disadvantages and really limited to portrait use?
p.1 #2 · Apodization/STF/DS/APD filter lenses, love or hate?
There’s a really cool article somewhere about someone replicating the effect by rotating a declicked aperture during a long exposure. Turn any lens into an apodizing lens?
I had the 100STf, and even had the Laowa before that, but I haven’t held on to them- not because of the image quality, but because the things I shot with them were better shot by more versatile, practical lenses like the 70-200 gm ii (a lens which got me to sell several others after I realized how much it could do).
But in the right circumstances, there’s nothing like them. However, it’s up to you to know if you’ll be in that right circumstance enough to justify owning them
p.1 #3 · Apodization/STF/DS/APD filter lenses, love or hate?
StoneCrop wrote:
There’s a really cool article somewhere about someone replicating the effect by rotating a declicked aperture during a long exposure. Turn any lens into an apodizing lens?...
Yeah, I think I saw that long ago, it rings a bell. I've experimented with a pseudo-apodizing filters inside a lens long ago (it's easy to do in an enlarging lens) but tbh I didn't really get anywhere with that. I replaced the aperture with a multi pointed star cut out of black card but all that did was create shitty multi pointed highlights. It might have softened bokeh but I guess I got bored and didn't really follow it up.
StoneCrop wrote:
...
I had the 100STf, and even had the Laowa before that, but I haven’t held on to them- not because of the image quality, but because the things I shot with them were better shot by more versatile, practical lenses like the 70-200 gm ii (a lens which got me to sell several others after I realized how much it could do).
...
I have the 70-200 gm ii but don't 'love' it. It's great in that it is versatile, sharp and light but I don't really like the bokeh, mainly at the wide end.
StoneCrop wrote:
...
But in the right circumstances, there’s nothing like them. However, it’s up to you to know if you’ll be in that right circumstance enough to justify owning them
100%, that's why I'm curious about other's experiences with them. I'm not really sure I can justify the cost. The various images I see online are superb.
p.1 #5 · Apodization/STF/DS/APD filter lenses, love or hate?
StoneCrop wrote:
There’s a really cool article somewhere about someone replicating the effect by rotating a declicked aperture during a long exposure. Turn any lens into an apodizing lens?
The film Minolta Alpha/Maxxum 7 camera body has an STF mode that takes multiple exposures while adjusting the aperture. I briefly had one of those, but the aperture mechanism was broken, so I didn't get to try the STF mode. Leaf shutter lenses naturally give a similar effect in normal operaiton. That one of the nice benefits of my Pentax Q system--several of the lenses have leaf shutters--the lenses that don't have leaf shutters rely on an electronic shutter.
I have had the A-mount 135mm STF and currently have the 100mm GM. I much prefer the later.
p.1 #6 · Apodization/STF/DS/APD filter lenses, love or hate?
I think it really depends on the particular lens in question.
For me, GM 100/2.8STF just doesn't have enough blur to replace a 85/1.4 or 135/1.8 in a typical walkabout usage.
Maybe if it was f/2...
Having said that, if you put the effort in finding/creating the right scene, it absolutely shines .
p.1 #7 · Apodization/STF/DS/APD filter lenses, love or hate?
This. I have and love the 100STF, but have written before about its limitations. A person needs to know what they're getting into - T/5.6 and I'd guess about an f/4 perceptual DOF.
Since I bought an 85/1.4 and a 70-200/2.8, I am much more at peace with how a deploy my 100STF. A phenomenal but limited tool to have in the toolkit.
j4nu wrote:
I think it really depends on the particular lens in question.
For me, GM 100/2.8STF just doesn't have enough blur to replace a 85/1.4 or 135/1.8 in a typical walkabout usage.
Maybe if it was f/2...
Having said that, if you put the effort in finding/creating the right scene, it absolutely shines .
p.1 #8 · Apodization/STF/DS/APD filter lenses, love or hate?
JohnJ wrote:
Body agnostic, it's the STF/apodization lenses and their pro's and con's I'm interested in. They seem to have no equal in terms of the quality (ie softness but not size) of their bokeh, but are they worth the disadvantages and really limited to portrait use?
Since you're body agnostic, here's the STF on the Nikon Z6:
Not a portrait, either.
Only Sony adequately implements the apodization filter where a loss of two T-stops seems the minimum to avoid artifacts from strong highlights. The STF is unique in the photographic world, and the reason I adopted the Alpha 7 early on. It's the first and only Sony-branded lens in my collection. Note that the STF has many other excellent attributes beyond the Gaussian blur: GM build quality, ridiculous sharpness from wide open, no vignetting from wide open (eat your heart out, Plena ), 1:4 closeup capable, OSS. I don't find a maximum effective DOF of f/4 to be any limitation at all:
p.1 #9 · Apodization/STF/DS/APD filter lenses, love or hate?
The best option for me is the a-mount Minolta 135/2.8 STF. It is manual focus but also has an adjustable apodization filter independent of the aperture. It really helped redefine beautiful bokeh for me.
p.1 #10 · Apodization/STF/DS/APD filter lenses, love or hate?
I respected Minolta for producing the first STF, although the color fringing was too much for me. The Laowa has no detectable STF effect at all. The current 100 STF GM has a very obvious Gaussian blur, and will image the aperture stop only when the light sources are overwhelmingly bright. Versus the old STF, the current GM has excellent color correction and, of course, AF.
When stopped down and the STF effect is gone, the GM is an ordinary 100mm with killer performance:
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