After seeing the thread ( thanks Steen ) ... I have to admit that the only lens I really like is the sigma. THis lens really has not only what I consider to be far and away the best, and I mean the BEST bokeh - for my style ... but it is also the only one which paints in a completely different from the pack style. THat makes it valuable, very valuable!
Perhaps Phillip had a point - all this time. I don't mind having to admit that I was wrong.
Pavel wrote:
After seeing the thread ( thanks Steen ) ... I have to admit that the only lens I really like is the sigma. THis lens really has not only what I consider to be far and away the best, and I mean the BEST bokeh - for my style ... but it is also the only one which paints in a completely different from the pack style. THat makes it valuable, very valuable!
Perhaps Phillip had a point - all this time. I don't mind having to admit that I was wrong.
Too bad the 50G isn't in the same comparison. From what I gather the Sigma and the Nikkor are closer to each other in terms of their bokeh. Unsurprising since they're both using 9 curved aperture blades. There's certainly more that goes into good bokeh than just the blades, but that's a big part of it.
I've got a Sigma 50/1.4 on order with my local shop, so hopefully I'll be able to do some back-to-back comparisons soon.
AZRich wrote:
Do you think we worry too much about spectacular highlights sometimes? I mean, how often is that an issue?
Apart from sometimes being a distraction it's also a good indicator of whether then lens will have poor bokeh. Double-lining "nisen" bokeh, which gives a vibrating effect, is due to the same reason as bright ring oof highlights. And that all contributes to busy bokeh, which for me is the issue. As a portraitist I hunt bokeh lenses so that the background looks natural and does not distract from my subjects. I agree that sometimes busy bokeh is nice, but for people portraits nothing, absolutely nothing must distract from the expression on that person's face and the atmosphere I am attempting to conjure.
Sam Bennett wrote:
Sam, thanks for sharing. One of the key things to note about this lens is how good the bokeh is stopped down. It's not unusual for even average lenses to have good bokeh wide open, since you're typically dealing with a circular opening.
It's the other way around: wide open you get bright ring and double-line bokeh, but stopped down a bit the outer part of the lens that does that is shaded and the bokeh becomes smoother. Close down further and the edges of the aperture become more distinct in the specular highlights and that's when you need your rounded aparture blades in order to avoid obvious geometric shapes. This is true of almost all lenses. So rounded aperture blades is usually only useful from 2 to 3 stops down from maximum aperture.
Lenses like the 50G and the Sigma 50/1.4 have particularly good bokeh in part because they're using 9 rounded aperture blades, versus something like the 50D which uses 7 straight aperture blades. Both the 50G and Sigma should be able to produce good bokeh even when stopped down a bit.
The 50G has busy bokeh wide-open. Some people call that good bokeh, some bad. The Sigma however is remarkably smooth: quite unusual.
It does rather seem like your eyes are inside out.
lorriman wrote:
The 50G has busy bokeh wide-open. Some people call that good bokeh, some bad. The Sigma however is remarkably smooth: quite unusual.
I've yet to notice "busy bokeh" with my lens. If you have some examples, I'd love to see it. I've posted dozens of full-rez shots to my Flickr stream if you want to find examples and create 100% crops if you like. You can find them here (be aware that some of the 50mm shots on there are with the Nikkor-S Auto 50mm f/1.4):
I've had the 50G for a few days now (ironically enough it arrived 3 days after my 2008 wedding season ended) and I see none of the nervous bokeh the old 50/1.4 gave me. Allied with more accurate AF, warmer colours (a la 14-24 and 24-70), silent AF and a nice build and I'm a happy man.
Radiohead wrote:
I've had the 50G for a few days now (ironically enough it arrived 3 days after my 2008 wedding season ended) and I see none of the nervous bokeh the old 50/1.4 gave me. Allied with more accurate AF, warmer colours (a la 14-24 and 24-70), silent AF and a nice build and I'm a happy man.
Jammy Straub wrote:
Thanks for sharing the link to your flickr stream. When you get some free time could you throw some "50G" tags on your images taken with it?
Jammy - I added "50G" to the tags. I've also been fairly consistent tagging with "Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G", which Flickr also sees as "nikkor50mmf14g".
Unfortunately I didn't shoot much with it this weekend. My Birthday Party coincided with the annual open house we do here, so I was spending too much time entertaining. Have also been thoroughly distracted with the new Lensbaby Composer.
Your shots don't appear to include backgrounds in which busyness would manifest. Try a background with plenty of distinct objects and lines (not diffuse objects like stones and flowers) and a few point souces of light (specular highlights, or whatever).
Personal insults aren't going to help you prove your point.
It wasn't an insult. Sorry if it came over that way.
lorriman wrote:
Your shots don't appear to include backgrounds in which busyness would manifest. Try a background with plenty of distinct objects and lines (not diffuse objects like stones and flowers) and a few point souces of light (specular highlights, or whatever).
Err... not even this one?
You seem pretty convinced that you're correct on this one, so I'd have to expect that you've got some images you could share to illustrate the point.
lorriman wrote:
It wasn't an insult. Sorry if it came over that way.
You seem pretty convinced that you're correct on this one, so I'd have to expect that you've got some images you could share to illustrate the point.
Not me, guv, but there are plenty of pics around that have the right kind of backgrounds on dpreview. The above pic is hopeless as a busy bokeh test: what little is in the background is either not well defined or rendered invisible by brightness. At least there do appear to be 3 specular highlights, but that isn't what I meant by busyness.
What had me perplexed was the statement that the bokeh is like the Sigma. They couldn't be more different (when put to the test). Granted you might not be seeing this with your images. I hadn't had a good look at your stuff on flikr, and had presumed your backgrounds would be of the right kind. My mistake.
