Got a second FE yesterday. This one in particular is super clean and it feels like a brand new camera. Everything is all clicky and snappy, and the self timer doesn't sound like it's going to forget to fire. But I just can't say enough good things about these cameras. The shooting experience when you've got a compact manual body, a great split-prism, and aperture priority mode with a meter that you can trust is just out of this world.
Shot with this lens today, mounted on a F3 with H2-focusing screen (microprisms all over).
And I was a bit puzzled by the prominent curvature of field. My copy might be faulty and my eyes are not well for sure, but the effect was easily visible.
Is this a typical issue with this superfast Nikkor? I recall shooting digital images with it and the effect was an issue too.
Pretty sure Lightroom has an "enable lens correction" panel. I've loaded profiles manually in ACR, but not LR
Ken Rockwell has barrel distortion corrections for DX and FX cameras using CS2 lens distortion filter - the
closer the more is needed for the "very slight barrel distortion".
georgms wrote:
A question for the Ais 50/1.2-experts:
Shot with this lens today, mounted on a F3 with H2-focusing screen (microprisms all over).
And I was a bit puzzled by the prominent curvature of field. My copy might be faulty and my eyes are not well for sure, but the effect was easily visible.
Is this a typical issue with this superfast Nikkor? I recall shooting digital images with it and the effect was an issue too.
OffTrail wrote:
Got a second FE yesterday. This one in particular is super clean and it feels like a brand new camera. Everything is all clicky and snappy, and the self timer doesn't sound like it's going to forget to fire. But I just can't say enough good things about these cameras. The shooting experience when you've got a compact manual body, a great split-prism, and aperture priority mode with a meter that you can trust is just out of this world.
georgms wrote:
A question for the Ais 50/1.2-experts:
Shot with this lens today, mounted on a F3 with H2-focusing screen (microprisms all over).
And I was a bit puzzled by the prominent curvature of field. My copy might be faulty and my eyes are not well for sure, but the effect was easily visible.
Is this a typical issue with this superfast Nikkor? I recall shooting digital images with it and the effect was an issue too.
Georg, I don't have mine anymore, but I looked at some images I took with it when I did have it. It's kind of hard to tell when shooting below f2.8. But at higher apertures, I did not notice any curvature of field, sharp across the image.
Check out the MTF graph. You want the aperture all the way down to f/4 or less to get a flat(ter) field. It works well for portraits at the higher apertures.
Good news Georg, Lightroom CC (v2015.1) does have the 50mm f1.2 ais profile - it is the very last lens choice so you have to scroll a bit, and it has to be a raw file.
Samy,
Those MTF numbers are beyond what most test sites use to even measure 20+ some years ago. 3000 use to be the max, but apparently the 50mm f1.2 at f4, in the center exceeds 3600 or any other Nikkor lens that they have tested - according to that site.
Check out the MTF graph. You want the aperture all the way down to f/4 or less to get a flat(ter) field. It works well for portraits at the higher apertures.
I know some are not a fan of the 50mm f1.2, but I am and I think it is an amazing lens. I love it for portraits to landscapes, or even for product photography. This is an 8 vertical frame stitch from the 50mm f1.2 ais that I have a 60" x 24" print hanging in the office. I did use a lens profile on the 8 frames, but I substituted the 50mm f1.4 afd then (2012) because i couldn't find a profile for the 50mm f1.2. All the frames were taken at f5.6 - which IMO is almost always the sharpest aperture for any lens.
James Markus wrote:
I know some are not a fan of the 50mm f1.2, but I am and I think it is an amazing lens. I love it for portraits to landscapes, or even for product photography. This is an 8 vertical frame stitch from the 50mm f1.2 ais that I have a 60" x 24" print hanging in the office. I did use a lens profile on the 8 frames, but I substituted the 50mm f1.4 afd then (2012) because i couldn't find a profile for the 50mm f1.2. All the frames were taken at f5.6 - which IMO is almost always the sharpest aperture for any lens.
