There has been a lot of discussion about whether this lens is sharp or not. I\'m writing this post to help people like me, who have maybe read all 196 pages of this thread, gazed at the amazing photography displayed here, lusted over the beautiful swirly, creamy bokeh and amazing rendering of this lens and asked themselves \"but will it also be SHARP?\". When I got my 58G in the mail 2 days ago, I didn\'t expect it to be \"clinically\" sharp at f/1.4, the question I asked myself was \"will it be sharp enough for ME?\".
It has been said before that this lens seems to be worse near MFD and better over a distance, and I can underline that. My intention here is to show what this lens can do and where it\'s weaknesses are regarding sharpness, and how to deal with it.
But let me state my conclusion first:
1. This is not the ideal lens for shooting flat panels of text. If you want to do that, use another tool. (Although stopped down it doesn\'t work too bad with the 58G, either.)
2. For amazing rendering where sharpness is not your main concern, use f/1.4, at all subject distances. If the shot is not sharp enough for your intended use (e.g. printing large posters), sharpen in post. (For example, my landscapes above were all shot at f/1.4!)
3. If sharpness is your main concern, stopping down to f/1.8 already sharpens up the picture a lot, still giving you very beautiful bokeh.
4. Don\'t worry about sharpness so much - get this lens, go out and shoot, be amazed!
5. Never leave the house without your Camera+58G!
6. One last tip - get a 2-stop ND filter for shooting wide open in the sun!
Now for the comparisons (all shots that are not marked as \"sharpened\" are SOOC, from my D600):
1. Front of a local winery, shot from approx. 200m away (!!). See how easy it is to sharpen the f/1.4 shot!
2. A house front, shot from approx 100m away (!). Slightly sharper at f/2, but negligible. The spots are rain!
3. Sign in a parking garage (German for \"Exit\"), approx. 5m away. Note this is at ISO 800, so there\'s a bit of noise.
4. A colleague\'s pretty eyes at f/1.4 from 1.5m away. The crop shown is maybe 1% of the total image size!
OK, one more post then I\'m done mulling over sharpness, I promise!
I hope I don\'t bore some of you with these \"technical\" posts, and that some might find them useful.
There has been a lot of discussion about whether this lens is sharp or not. I\'m writing this post to help people like me, who have maybe read all 196 pages of this thread, gazed at the amazing photography displayed here, lusted over the beautiful swirly, creamy bokeh and amazing rendering of this lens and asked themselves \"but will it also be SHARP?\". When I got my 58G in the mail 2 days ago, I didn\'t expect it to be \"clinically\" sharp at f/1.4, the question I asked myself was \"will it be sharp enough for ME?\".
It has been said before that this lens seems to be worse near MFD and better over a distance, and I can underline that. My intention here is to show what this lens can do and where it\'s weaknesses are regarding sharpness, and how to deal with it.
But let me state my conclusion first:
1. This is not the ideal lens for shooting flat panels of text. If you want to do that, use another tool. (Although stopped down it doesn\'t work too bad with the 58G, either.)
2. For amazing rendering where sharpness is not your main concern, use f/1.4, at all subject distances. If the shot is not sharp enough for your intended use (e.g. printing large posters), sharpen in post. (For example, my landscapes above were all shot at f/1.4!)
3. If sharpness is your main concern, stopping down to f/1.8 already sharpens up the picture a lot, still giving you very beautiful bokeh.
4. Don\'t worry about sharpness so much - get this lens, go out and shoot, be amazed!
5. Never leave the house without your Camera+58G!
6. One last tip - get a 2-stop ND filter for shooting wide open in the sun!
Now for the comparisons (all shots that are not marked as \"sharpened\" are SOOC, from my D600):
1. Front of a local winery, shot from approx. 200m away (!!). See how easy it is to sharpen the f/1.4 shot!
2. A house front, shot from approx 100m away (!). Slightly sharper at f/2, but negligible. The spots are rain!
3. Sign in a parking garage (German for \"Exit\"), approx. 5m away. Note this is at ISO 800, so there\'s a bit of noise.
4. A colleague\'s pretty eyes at f/1.4 from 1.5m away. The crop shown is maybe 1% of the total image size!
OK, one more post then I\'m done mulling over sharpness, I promise!
I hope I don\'t bore some of you with these \"technical\" posts, and that some might find them useful.
There has been a lot of discussion about whether this lens is sharp or not. I\'m writing this post to help people like me, who have maybe read all 196 pages of this thread, gazed at the amazing photography displayed here, lusted over the beautiful swirly, creamy bokeh and amazing rendering of this lens and asked themselves \"but will it also be SHARP?\". When I got my 58G in the mail 2 days ago, I didn\'t expect it to be \"clinically\" sharp at f/1.4, the question I asked myself was \"will it be sharp enough for ME?\".
It has been said before that this lens seems to be worse near MFD and better over a distance, and I can underline that. My intention here is to show what this lens can do and where it\'s weaknesses are regarding sharpness, and how to deal with it.
But let me state my conclusion first:
1. This is not the ideal lens for shooting flat panels of text. If you want to do that, use another tool. (Although stopped down it doesn\'t work too bad with the 58G, either.)
2. For amazing rendering where sharpness is not your main concern, use f/1.4, at all subject distances. If the shot is not sharp enough for your intended use (e.g. printing large posters), sharpen in post. (For example, my landscapes above were all shot at f/1.4!)
3. If sharpness is your main concern, stopping down to f/1.8 already sharpens up the picture a lot, still giving you very beautiful bokeh.
4. Don\'t worry about sharpness so much - get this lens, go out and shoot, be amazed!
5. One last tip - get a 2-stop ND filter for shooting wide open in the sun!
Now for the comparisons (all shots that are not marked as \"sharpened\" are SOOC, from my D600):
1. Front of a local winery, shot from approx. 200m away (!!). See how easy it is to sharpen the f/1.4 shot!
2. A house front, shot from approx 100m away (!). Slightly sharper at f/2, but negligible. The spots are rain!
3. Sign in a parking garage (German for \"Exit\"), approx. 5m away. Note this is at ISO 800, so there\'s a bit of noise.
4. A colleague\'s pretty eyes at f/1.4 from 1.5m away. The crop shown is maybe 1% of the total image size!
OK, one more post then I\'m done mulling over sharpness, I promise!
I hope I don\'t bore some of you with these \"technical\" posts, and that some might find them useful.
There has been a lot of discussion about whether this lens is sharp or not. I\'m writing this post to help people like me, who have maybe read all 196 pages of this thread, gazed at the amazing photography displayed here, lusted over the beautiful swirly, creamy bokeh and amazing rendering of this lens and asked themselves \"but will it also be SHARP?\". When I got my 58G in the mail 2 days ago, I didn\'t expect it to be \"clinically\" sharp at f/1.4, the question I asked myself was \"will it be sharp enough for ME?\".
It has been said before that this lens seems to be worse near MFD and better over a distance, and I can underline that. My intention here is to show what this lens can do and where it\'s weaknesses are regarding sharpness, and how to deal with it.
But let me state my conclusion first:
1. This is not the ideal lens for shooting flat panels of text. If you want to do that, use another tool. (Although stopped down it doesn\'t work too bad with the 58G, either.)
2. For amazing rendering where sharpness is not your main concern, use f/1.4, at all subject distances. If the shot is not sharp enough for your intended use (e.g. printing large posters), sharpen in post. (For example, my landscapes above were all shot at f/1.4!)
3. If sharpness is your main concern, stopping down to f/1.8 already sharpens up the picture a lot, still giving you very beautiful bokeh.
4. Don\'t worry about sharpness so much - get this lens, go out and shoot, be amazed!
Now for the comparisons (all shots that are not marked as \"sharpened\" are SOOC, from my D600):
1. Front of a local winery, shot from approx. 200m away (!!). See how easy it is to sharpen the f/1.4 shot!
2. A house front, shot from approx 100m away (!). Slightly sharper at f/2, but negligible. The spots are rain!
3. Sign in a parking garage (German for \"Exit\"), approx. 5m away. Note this is at ISO 800, so there\'s a bit of noise.
4. A colleague\'s pretty eyes at f/1.4 from 1.5m away. The crop shown is maybe 1% of the total image size!
OK, one more post then I\'m done mulling over sharpness, I promise!
I hope I don\'t bore some of you with these \"technical\" posts, and that some might find them useful.
There has been a lot of discussion about whether this lens is sharp or not. I\'m writing this post to help people like me, who have maybe read all 196 pages of this thread, gazed at the amazing photography displayed here, lusted over the beautiful swirly, creamy bokeh and amazing rendering of this lens and asked themselves \"but will it also be SHARP?\". When I got my 58G in the mail 2 days ago, I didn\'t expect it to be \"clinically\" sharp at f/1.4, the question I asked myself was \"will it be sharp enough for ME?\".
It has been said before that this lens seems to be worse near MFD and better over a distance, and I can underline that. My intention here is to show what this lens can do and where it\'s weaknesses are regarding sharpness, and how to deal with it.
But let me state my conclusion first:
1. This is not the ideal lens for shooting flat panels of text. If you want to do that, use another tool. (Although stopped down it doesn\'t work too bad with the 58G, either.)
2. For amazing rendering where sharpness is not your main concern, use f/1.4, at all subject distances. If the shot is not sharp enough for your intended use (e.g. printing large posters), sharpen in post. (For example, my landscapes above were all shot at f/1.4!)
3. If sharpness is your main concern, stopping down to f/1.8 already sharpens up the picture a lot, still giving you very beautiful bokeh.
4. Don\'t worry about sharpness so much - get this lens, go out and shoot, be amazed!
Now for the comparisons (all shots that are not marked as \"sharpened\" are SOOC, from my D600):
1. Front of a local winery, shot from approx. 200m away (!!). See how easy it is to sharpen the f/1.4 shot!
2. A house front, shot from approx 100m away (!). Slightly sharper at f/2, but negligible. The spots are rain!
3. Sign in a parking garage (German for \"Exit\"), approx. 5m away. Note this is at ISO 800, so there\'s a bit of noise.
4. A colleague\'s pretty eyes at f/1.4 from 1.5m away. The crop shown is maybe 1% of the total image size!
OK, one more post then I\'m done mulling over sharpness, I promise!
I hope I don\'t bore some of you with these \"technical\" posts, and that some might find them useful.
May 13, 2016 at 10:36 AM
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