Jonas B wrote:
sebboh; the FL55/1.2, after 7 months - are you happy with it or are you looking for a lens with another character?
/Jonas
i have become very happy with it for every use except the one i bought it for: wide open indoor portraits. i liked the rokkor 50mm f/1.2 much better for that (unfortunately i sold that lens after i determined the FL was sharper at f/1.2). wide open at portrait distances the bokeh of the FL just seems too flat as well as doing annoying things with defocussed lines. here's an example of what i'm talking about that i think i've shown before: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2736/4182666645_3af0c3f82b_b.jpg
stopping down to f/2 eliminates this as does moving the background back (not really feasible indoors). in any event it's a rather large lens for shooting people indoors and i'm very happy with it for most other uses. i'll be trying out the pen f 42mm f/1.2 and some 50mm f/1.5 sonnar on the nex 3 soon. hopefully one of those will be better suited for this purpose.
sebboh wrote:
(...) i'll be trying out the pen f 42mm f/1.2 and some 50mm f/1.5 sonnar on the nex 3 soon. hopefully one of those will be better suited for this purpose.
I understand and I see what you mean (but I like the background in your cat portrait better than anything I saw in the series above).
I didn't have any luck with the Pen FT 42/1.2 on my G1. I think that is partly due to the thick stack of glass the µ4/3 cameras has on top of the sensor. It was also partly due to the lens. Low contrast, high resolution, some bright ring around OOF background highlights.
But, I sometimes regret selling it. It is small, good close focusing abilities and from f/2 and up both normal contrast and high resolution. it will be interesting to see what it can do with the Sony sensor.
Jonas B wrote:
I understand and I see what you mean (but I like the background in your cat portrait better than anything I saw in the series above).
that is an important thing to remember about bokeh - it's subjective. what some people consider outstanding bokeh others think is atrocious. it's always important to look at actual images rather than going by reputation.
I didn't have any luck with the Pen FT 42/1.2 on my G1. I think that is partly due to the thick stack of glass the µ4/3 cameras has on top of the sensor. It was also partly due to the lens. Low contrast, high resolution, some bright ring around OOF background highlights.
as near as i can tell every normalish f/1.2 lens has these bright rings around OOF highlights when wide open. the effect seems to be magnified by sensor cropping - for some lenses they are barely visible on FF cameras but become quite distracting on crop cameras.
But, I sometimes regret selling it. It is small, good close focusing abilities and from f/2 and up both normal contrast and high resolution. it will be interesting to see what it can do with the Sony sensor.
i do feel i'm gambling somewhat with oly 42mm. i'm hopeful because the nex sensor is very close to the size the lens was intended to be used on. you never saw any corner issues with it on µ4/3 did you? so far i have only been able to use it as a macro where it shows the usual 50+ year old f/1.2 ghosting but better color than the canon FL (skin tones are my other complaint about the FL when wide open). the 42mm's size and close focus abilities are what sold me on it. hopefully i will be able to adapt to its very "distictive bokeh."
sebboh wrote:
(...)
i do feel i'm gambling somewhat with oly 42mm. i'm hopeful because the nex sensor is very close to the size the lens was intended to be used on. you never saw any corner issues with it on µ4/3 did you? so far i have only been able to use it as a macro where it shows the usual 50+ year old f/1.2 ghosting but better color than the canon FL (skin tones are my other complaint about the FL when wide open). the 42mm's size and close focus abilities are what sold me on it. hopefully i will be able to adapt to its very "distictive bokeh." ...Show more →
We are going a bit off topic but OK.
There was little of smearing but the corners were weak unless stopped down to f/2.8, or better, f/4. That's also, probably, partly due to the glass sandwich on top of the µ4/3 sensors.
Images at f/1.4 and f/1.4 needed a real boost of contrast, clarity (LCE) and sharpening. From f/2 and on the lens is very very sharp in the center (high resolution and good contrast). In fact, the resolution in the center is as good as any modern lens made for the 4/3 or µ4/3 system, among the best of them. That was with a G1 so probably corresponding to an 19MP APS-C sensor.
I'm not sure about how useful the lens is indoor portraits in low light. Some aberrations made focusing a little tricky sometimes. The Canon 50/1.2 LTM is for example easier to focus critically. Maybe the NEX has a better viewfinder than the G1?
I checked the archive for some images and found a couple from a first walk with the lens, here the PP is done very quickly and it shouldn't be hard to make the images look a bit better.
I hope the images show some of the strong and weak points with this lens. In real life I don't think one needs to be too bothered with the borders. If they are important you should stop down, the coma is what it is and so is the flare, the fringe and the LoCA.
It is nice to work with, performs well in most situations and it is quite versatile.
thanks Jonas, these samples were very helpful and promising. coma, flare, and lack of center sharpness at wide apertures i tend to expect from this type of lens. character of the bokeh at portraitish distances (candle and statue) seems a bit more to my liking than that of the canon i have. wide open distant focus points make the bokeh look terrible but i don't really shoot that way so it will hopefully not be an issue.
Very nice bokeh from the Meyer!
Not sure why the two shots of the humming bird or the squirrel shot at the end are included in this post though as they dont seem to be examples of admirable blur?
sebboh wrote:
after 7 months i think i've finally come to terms with the FL 55mm f/1.2's bokeh and know what i'm getting with a shot. a few recent ones (apologies for the excessive number of bird pictures):
finally got my NEX 3 today so i ran out with it for a quick test of the olympus pen f 42mm f/1.2 late this afternoon. when i hear people describe a lenses rendering as painterly i think of oil paintings. the bokeh from this lens makes me think of water color paintings.
great tones, colors, lines!