joakim....good shots....but.....get a new display or computer Those shots could use some PP work. The last one in particular would have excellent 3D to it with a minor corrections
Luka - love your shots! good eye for lines and light!
Joakim - congrats! Waiting for mine...
BTW guys: any experience with Brightscreen focusing screens? I was looking at No.5 (http://brightscreen.com/styles2.html)... Does they affect metering?
adamdewilde wrote:
WOW, pretty in-depth review Ron, thanks a bunch. So far Munich airport and surroundings seems like it'll be a decent area to blow a few hours. All those sites you sent me are fantastic, are some of your photos on the flickr stream taken with a Zeiss lens
As it turns out, it's cheaper then Paris stop-over but slightly more then Istanbul. Since Philber chimed in on Paris airport not being ideal, I think Munich so far is the winner. Nobody for Istanbul?
No problem Adam. Sorry, no Zeiss for me yet... I have my eye on the ZE21 and is probably the first I'll get, though the likelihood of a 25mm f/2 redesign also sounds interesting. I'm also toying with the idea of adding a Leica M9 with a few ZM lenses to my Canon kit. In the meantime I've been watching this thread from the beginning, enjoying the photos posted here.
I think, based on your probable time limitations, a visit to Oberschleißheim and the palace parklands might be the safer option. At the least it will be very peaceful and a chance to unwind after being stuck on a plane for so long. I've been there once and it's a nice place. Lots of paths for walks. There is some signage at the Oberschleißheim train station to get you going in the right direction, but I would suggest brining a Google Maps printout with you for the quick walk through the village.
Also make sure you stop somewhere, even in the airport, for a brewed in Munich beer, assuming you like beer.
Excellent portrait Martynas Great stuff with the 30D
Brightscreen, I have not had the success with them. Originally I tried 2 options for the 5DII. One they did fit quite right, and more importantly they did not focus correctly. I could have sent them away to have them calibrated, but ended getting the Canon Eg-S, which worked perfectly.
Really nice shots rsolti. Great examples with M8 with ZM 25/35. I looking forward to trying out the ZM 25 which is meant to an excellent lens.
joakim, congratulations on the ZE 21/2.8
Nice portrait Peter
Interesting work with PP examples, Luka. I think it is very opportune to understand some of PP details, so we can bring out the most of the Z* lenses. With each new example, I find myself looking at my shots, and noticing what else may be able to be improved. Another perspective on sharpening in LAB mode with only the light channel, Photoshop CS
Just heard on the grape vine, the 35/1.4 may be announced in Oct.
I hope this fits within the parameters of this thread...
My question is this: If you were going to purchase a single Zeiss ZF or ZF.2 lens (I have a Nikon D2x camera, so it is a crop sensor) for portraiture, what lens would you choose and why?
That question could fit in this forum if you responded with examples as well as advice.
ucphotog wrote:
I hope this fits within the parameters of this thread...
My question is this: If you were going to purchase a single Zeiss ZF or ZF.2 lens (I have a Nikon D2x camera, so it is a crop sensor) for portraiture, what lens would you choose and why?
That question could fit in this forum if you responded with examples as well as advice.
Thanks.
With crop of 1.5,my first choice would the ZF 35/2 or ZF 50MP, depending your style of portraits.
Not to disagree with you, but rather to learn. I am rather curious. The "classic" portraiture length is a bit longer (say 85-100mm). Or even, "longer is better".
Though as I said, I am not disagreeing with you. I took some "candids" that one might consider portraits with my 50mm (Nikon, not Zeiss) recently that i rather liked.
I would expect that a longer focal length is going to make for a less intimate portrait. Perhaps longer focal lengths make for more "formal" portraits?
I am guessing that I am likely to tend toward the more informal end of portraits.
I would then suggest the ZF 50MP is an excellent lens. The 100MP is an exceptional lens, but with an effective FL of 150mm, you will restricting yourself. The ZF 85/1.4 is a very good lens, but it does take some effort to get the most out of it.
Informal portraits, I would keep to the 50mm - 75mm effective FL, that is the ZF 35 or 50MP. You will get excellent results with either.
There are two Zeiss lenses that shine for portrait in particular: 50 f:1.4 and 85 f:1.4. They are not necessarily easy to use, and especailly not wide open, but results are mind-blowing. If you like to count hair and dimples on your model's face, 50MP and 100MP are the way to go, depending on your preferred focal length. If you like wider, full-body or groupe portraits, 35 f:2.0 will give you great results.
A classic portrait length is 90mm on full frame.
Has something to do with our natural viewing distance.
A 50mm is a good place to start, when you wanna learn about exposure light and dark. Thats usually why photography schools start with a 50mm and black and white film.
The 90mm is the second lens (or 85 can do) it teaches you about subject composition, and subject focus.
Later a wider lens like a 35 is recommended, it helps you learn about perspective, and how your eye follows an image.
After all that, you should be ready to take over the world.
This BTW, is full frame, and the crop sensor doesn't really apply to the natural viewing bit, but still the framing bit holds true.
Philber - Thanks for the heads up on Vienna, unfortunately there isn't a direct flight. The only direct flights were Munich, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, London, Istanbul, Paris. So either way I'm flying past Serbia, unless I take the Istanbul flight, but now it seems that I can't get a connection to Serbia unless I spend a night in Istanbul, and as much as I'd love to, the Serbia flight is a 5 day turn around, so I really can't afford to lose a day in travel time.
Thanks though for the suggestion.
Ron - Thanks again, some great photos you have there. I dread the cold, so I'm glad I'm going in Sept. before it gets to cold. Thanks again BTW for the tips.
rsolti13 wrote:
Joakim...hope you don't mind. If you do I will remove
No, I don't mind and now that I am at work I can really see the difference. Getting a new lens at the same time as you're without a decent computer is really frustrating, I probably have a couple of hundred photographs by now with the 21 that I haven't got a chance to view properly yet. At least this will change at the end of the weak.
Still, the 21 feels like a terrific lens and I really enjoyed using it so far.
adamdewilde wrote:
Philber - Thanks for the heads up on Vienna, unfortunately there isn't a direct flight. The only direct flights were Munich, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, London, Istanbul, Paris. So either way I'm flying past Serbia, unless I take the Istanbul flight, but now it seems that I can't get a connection to Serbia unless I spend a night in Istanbul, and as much as I'd love to, the Serbia flight is a 5 day turn around, so I really can't afford to lose a day in travel time.
Thanks though for the suggestion.
Adam, based on your new list of choices, Amsterdam is my recommendation. It is the best rated airport in Europe, not very far from the old Amsterdam. And that city is just fabulous. The best way to see it with limited time on your hands is to take a boat trip, and that provides super photo opportunities. Otherwise, you can also visit the Rijksmuseum, possibly the world's finest collection of Dutch and Flemish masters. Or just walk around the old town and canals...
ucphotog wrote:
I hope this fits within the parameters of this thread...
My question is this: If you were going to purchase a single Zeiss ZF or ZF.2 lens (I have a Nikon D2x camera, so it is a crop sensor) for portraiture, what lens would you choose and why?
That question could fit in this forum if you responded with examples as well as advice.
Thanks.
On a crop camera, 50mm is quite good focal length at least indoors for portraits. And since you have to take the photo couple of steps back compared to ff, 1.4 is good for extracting the subject more from background.
philber and karelg - Thanks guys for the info, my brother's meeting me in Serbia, and he's transiting through Amsterdam he'll be on a 7 hour layover as well, and it seems now Amsterdam and Munich are around the same price for me. He just booked his ticket today, so I wasn't sure where they'd have him transit. So it's a good reason to transit through as we'd get to hang out, though he's not much of a photo guy.
I'm gonna have to give it some thought, as I've been to amsterdam airport in the past for about 4 hours (not really enough time to explore the old city, but enough time to sample airport danishes as well as check out the underground mall thats built into the airport).
Anyway, since I'm hearing good things about Amsterdam and Munich, I'll leave it to fate as to which place I transit through. I'm booking the tickets tomorrow with the online agent as I had problems trying to book online today.
Sami Ruusunen wrote:
On a crop camera, 50mm is quite good focal length at least indoors for portraits. And since you have to take the photo couple of steps back compared to ff, 1.4 is good for extracting the subject more from background.
Sorry I don't have a crop camera, so I couldn't give you advice, but I remember thinking that a 50 was a pretty decent FL on a 1.6 crop camera. And I have tried my friends 1.5 crop nikon recently with an old nikkor lens, and I though it was a really decent FL for portraits, and I thought the nikkor lens had pretty awesome sketchy bokeh. Anyway, If you're shooting portraits mainly, I'd think the 50 MP ZF.2 is probably a better bet then the 35ZF.2
Those shots could use some PP work. The last one in particular would have excellent 3D to it with a minor corrections
Great stuff with the 30D