jimmuller wrote:
What would the comparison look like if you shot the f/1.4 at f/2.0? With different apertures I'm not totally sure what what to make of it. Which is to say, just because the f/1.4 can go to f/1.4, you aren't required to use f/1.4, at least not by any Photography Rules And Regulations Handbook that the regulating bodies ever sent me when I applied for my camera license.
I intend one day (today perhaps) to do a similar useless comparison and at different distances between my original 50mm f/1.4 SC Auto and the 55mm f/3.5 AI Micro you folks talked me into getting (which I like, BTW). Roughly 5 years apart in development I think, very different design targets, the 50mm being a bit heavier too. With such fast ISO's in the Z compared to film, the larger aperture isn't as useful as it once was. So the question is how would they render when used in identical situations?...Show more →
I think it is required else, why own the faster lens if you don't use it?
I have the "O" variant and it is a terrific piece of glass. I use it for portraits with the Fuji S5 and the soft skin tones it produces are super.
There is a review by Pindelski that mentions it is an equal to the Leica 35mm Summicron, not a bad compliment.
Serge
Serge, I agree that the 35mm f2 O.C has the rendering I prefer. I sometimes - even often - get the same rendering out of the f1,4 ais, but not always. The ai version I had was mint, and I got it for $38 off ebay. I think the price colored my respect, and it was only after getting the f1.4 and reviewing f2 shots did I realize my mistake, My plan was to convert this beautiful non ai to ai, but I have decided to use it on the Nikon F4s, and my Canon DSLR bodies. In fact I am not going to convert any of the non-ai lenses. Particularly the Nikkor-S 5.8 cm f1.4 - it just felt wrong. Had the drill press all set with a cross vice and vertical mill bit, and I just can't do it. Got another batch of gear to sell, but found a minty Nikkor-P 105mm f2.5 non-ai and grabbed it yesterday. At the newspaper all the photographers shared an ai'd version as the "studio portrait lens".. It sat on the posing stool - no caps - bent, and malformed on the front rings - even chips in the front element from being dropped or knocked off the stool. However, it was a great lens. I suspect it was one of the few (>4000) 9 blade copies from the 1960s. I could not find one of those for sale, but this one is from the approximate same time.
Your 'travel buddy' has likely taken a bit of a beating given the number of times you visit Europe.
I am sad to see the demise of inked visas & stamps in passports.
Now everything is digital, biometrics, ESTAs, and E-gates.
James Markus wrote:
The magic of the Nikkor-S 5.8cm f1.4 Nippon Kogaku – (non-AI). Apparently they thought it was perfect, because Nikon never made an ai conversion kit for it. All with the Canon 5DS-R using a 6th generation dandelion ai-eos focus confirmation adapter.
I really really like this lens.
I also love the 5.8cm, Have three - a Frankenstain made of delaminated lens parts, an user and a mint one - they all perform the same! I like to sue them to make vintage looking photos.
rafaelcasd wrote:
I also love the 5.8cm, Have three - a Frankenstain made of delaminated lens parts, an user and a mint one - they all perform the same! I like to sue them to make vintage looking photos.
Oh dear. Now I have to re-shoot that pic of all my MFNG using a MFNG lens so I can post it here. But not until I get those other lenses (and two F bodies) from my friend on the Cape.
A good distraction has been the 1962 vette, I won't burden you with the long list of work it needed, although beatiful in appearance, but the mechanical restoration was also cosmetic. Engine was rebuilt but the rear end was bad along with many many other items. Finyally it is done, last step was new tires, it drives excellent and looks new. Only defect is small leaks in the trasmission shifter shafts, will wait a while to fix. By now this car is more expnsive than a new one.
Took it to Rancho Santa Fe this morning, unseasonably warm - 90F, I used to kid people in the east coast about their winter temps, but neither the extreme cold or the heat is a good sign.
There were two ZR1s there 1000hp. $200K + $100K dealer markup, plus $14K for the wing!
Rafael, What beautiful memories. I understand how priorities get shuffled after a loss. After being widowed with four little kids - I couldn't listen to music for years. I learned the "making new memories" from my kids. They pushed me to not just survive, but to live again. Peace to you, and an exciting future.
Jim
James Markus wrote:
I think it is required else, why own the faster lens if you don't use it?
Well, one owns a fast lens like my 50mm f/1.4 because one bought it for film more than half a century ago and it served me well. One might choose to use it if its fastness is needed. One might choose not to use it when something else would do better and that fastness isn't needed.
I am really liking that 55mm f/3.5 AI Micro folks in this thread convinced me to buy. But I've looked through the Rules and Regulations Handbook very carefully and all I can find is an oblique comment about "when needed". Lately it hasn't been needed, especially when everything outside is illuminated by snow-reflected light. Of course one never knows what tomorrow brings.
rafaelcasd wrote:
Thank you for all the kind words. They helped me understand that I have been avoiding photography to avoid memories.
Rafael, I have never met you personally and I can only guess at the backstory of your grief. (And I'm not asking.) But I will offer these thoughts on photography mojo. It has to do with life itself.
I often ask myself why I bother to take pictures at all, and why spend money on a great camera and lenses when a phone would (almost) do well enough. The answer goes back to about 1970 or 1971. My dad had been a photographer, so in my last year of college I had bought an SLR, a Russian camera, cheap at a local camera shop but it turned out to be pretty good. A few years later when it showed signs of age I wanted to upgrade so I asked a friend, a Nikon enthusiast, for a recommendation. He first asked me a significant question:
What do you want to do with it, what kind of pictures do you want to take?
I remember my answer, "To document my life". Years later it sounded pretentious but that's how a guy a few years out of college would have answered. I thought that same way for years, really pretentious, but lately I have re-evaluated my answer - it wasn't pretentious at all. With the Z5-II I've been going through and scanning the thousand or more slides I took over the years and have re-lived some of those wonderful experiences. They let me remember the good times because those are the pictures I took. I've never experienced grief except for the death of my parents, about which I have no pictures. But the sheer joy of seeing the parts of life I did enjoy are worth all the expense and effort and pretentiousness of that answer.
Your past pictures are parts of life you need to remember. And the pictures you take now will be parts of life you will need to remember half a century from now. You may not think so now but you will later.
.
