Kristian, no tripod on the forest walks. My wife and I are making time in the evenings for some deliberate hiking in the nearby park after work, so the shots are often stop-focus-shoot and move on in order to get some mileage in.
The 25-50 is fun to use, Curtis, though my sample seems to be some inconsistency from session to session in terms of field curvature / focus plane. But overall it's nice to have the range and the performance is satisfactory for what I shoot with it.
Back to the art museum, the young lady took a break at a great time in the right location for my shot. With the 50-135.
Ballard wrote:
As the first anniversary of David's death approaches, I was reviewing shots from our road trips. These are some from Death Valley in Feb. 2018 that I hadn't previously processed.
First two with 75-150/3.5 E
Third with 25-50/4 AI-s
Fourth with 16/3.5
Going through my gear last night I opened my MF glass kit bag and recalled that the MF Glass anniversary was in August... Alas, I missed it by six days, but wanted to say hi and congratulations to all still posting on this amazing thread... here's my contribution, a few panoramas captured with one of my favourites... the 55mm f1.2 SC Auto
There was the annual "Jazz Age Lawn Party" at Governors Island this past Sunday which unfortunately, was not on our radar. We arrived late afternoon and was only able to capture some the participants in their 1920s threads heading back towards the ferry.
Suspect she captured some nice photos of the event:
DSC_0684u by Maryland Photos, on Flickr
Half Dome at Yosemite, with the Z6 and NK 10.5cm f2.5 P tick mark. Forgot to update the non-CPU setting, it was still on 28mm from the PC lens.
And in San Francisco, the Flood building with Z6 and 28 3.5 PC. Unfortunately too little time in the city itself, and did not manage to connect with Curtis.
The last couple of pages have done a fine job of continuing, into year ten, the tradition of posting great photos of wide-ranging subjects and wide-ranging styles!
Here are a few more from the Southern Gulf Islands, showing a couple of popular modes of transportation, both civilian and official. The first and third were shot with the 50-135 f/3.5 Ai-s, and the second was taken with the 200 f/4 Q.
Ray, my copy of the 25-50 shows loss of sharpness and vignetting in the corners wide open as expected. I try to shoot at f/8 when possible where mine is quite sharp except for the extreme corners when pixel peeping. It requires an ultra-thin filter to not vignette, but the vignetting behavior is not entirely predictable. In any case, the performance of this lens has so impressed me that it has become an indispensable travel lens for me.
I used to say that I'd never use a zoom lens, but I've done a complete turnaround. I still prefer primes over zooms, but in dusty & windy environments not having to change lenses as often far outweighs the small loss of image quality.
Ballard wrote:
Ray, my copy of the 25-50 shows loss of sharpness and vignetting in the corners wide open as expected. I try to shoot at f/8 when possible where mine is quite sharp except for the extreme corners when pixel peeping. It requires an ultra-thin filter to not vignette, but the vignetting behavior is not entirely predictable. In any case, the performance of this lens has so impressed me that it has become an indispensable travel lens for me.
I used to say that I'd never use a zoom lens, but I've done a complete turnaround. I still prefer primes over zooms, but in dusty & windy environments not having to change lenses as often far outweighs the small loss of image quality....Show more →
Ken
I'm used to the classic Nikkor uneveness and needing to stop down to get the corner/edges sharp. The issue I sometime see is shown below (with the 25-50 at f4.0), note the tree in the right edge of the frame. It should be out of focus, but as you get past the tree trunk going to the right, it almost looks like it's getting back into focus more than the rest of the tree. (You can also see it in the fence and curb) Almost like a severely curved focus plane but the car remains in relatively good focus. I've only seen it 3 or 4 times, and can only find this picture that I have not deleted.
I love this, Peter. B&W is the perfect choice for this scene.
By the way, I went to your Speedcenter website and all I can say is that it's incredible. I envy your abilities and your access to the areas necessary to capture these images.
a few more 180mm f/2.8 ED AIS from the railway museum in Ely. This old beater lens is so insanely sharp at f/4.0, it takes almost no post processing, something I usually only see on my $$$$ 400mm f/2.8. It is pretty easy to focus, although infinity is never in focus on planet earth. Maybe just my copy, but I can't just turn it to the infinity stop when I am looking at a distant mountain range. It won't be in focus unless I turn that focus back a little. .
pburke wrote:
a few more 180mm f/2.8 ED AIS from the railway museum in Ely. This old beater lens is so insanely sharp at f/4.0, it takes almost no post processing, something I usually only see on my $$$$ 400mm f/2.8. It is pretty easy to focus, although infinity is never in focus on planet earth. Maybe just my copy, but I can't just turn it to the infinity stop when I am looking at a distant mountain range. It won't be in focus unless I turn that focus back a little. .
Really enjoying your shots from Ely, NV. Brings back memories of other road trips with David along "the loneliest highway in America," US Hwy 50.
Your lens is not defective in focusing beyond infinity. The ED glass that contributes to its amazing sharpness has a higher thermal coefficient of expansion than the more conventional optical glass. Temperature fluctuations can therefore cause the infinity focus to shift a bit. To ensure that the lens will reach infinity at all temperatures, it is designed with the hard infinity stop to actually be beyond infinity. Much better to have to turn the focus ring back just a bit than to not reach infinity at all.
Ballard wrote:
Really enjoying your shots from Ely, NV. Brings back memories of other road trips with David along "the loneliest highway in America," US Hwy 50.
Your lens is not defective in focusing beyond infinity. The ED glass that contributes to its amazing sharpness has a higher thermal coefficient of expansion than the more conventional optical glass. Temperature fluctuations can therefore cause the infinity focus to shift a bit. To ensure that the lens will reach infinity at all temperatures, it is designed with the hard infinity stop to actually be beyond infinity. Much better to have to turn the focus ring back just a bit than to not reach infinity at all. ...Show more →
All makes sense. Thing is, I don't recall my 300 mm f/4.5 ED having that extra infinity headroom. Perhaps it also has something to do with the internal focusing versus traditional on the 180mm.
US 50 is fantastic - and so is US 6 in that area. My traditional route to my Sierra Nevada hiking grounds takes me from Green River to Salina, Scipio, Delta, Ely, Tonopah into California. I've driven those "next services 165 miles" roads dozens of times since the 1980s.
