leighton w wrote: CGrindahl wrote:
So please indulge me as I share a few photos from my ramble today with George's mint condition 35-200 f/3.5-4.5 AI-s with an equally pristine lens hood attached, the HK-15. This was not an appealing day for taking photos... 1:00 p.m. with temperatures a bit over 90 degrees and wearing a surgical mask. I promise to take the lens out earlier in the day, perhaps Sunday morning. Fortunately, temperatures are supposed to drop by then. I hope so since I'm not a hot weather person. I leave that to my friends in Florida...
So I stopped downtown San Rafael where there is a construction project underway. I thought I'd have a chance to shoot both wide and close. This was shot across the street at 35mm and at f/8. This is not a pretty shot but it gave me some good information.
I'm very happy with the sharpness at f/8, but then that probably isn't surprising to anyone. It is a rare lens that is sharp wide open but as the aperture is stopped down it sharpens.
This particular location is where a kitchen operates for homeless folks. It is remarkable in Marin which is one of the wealthier counties in California how many folks there are living on the edge. As I walked away from the construction site I saw this fellow.
This was shot wide open. I don't believe I was fully extended but I may have been. Then a block away I caught this photo. I was standing comfortably in the crosswalk with cars behind me waiting for the light to change... it is a long light... This was shot at f/5.6.
I saw some flowers tucked away as I headed toward my car and thought it was a good opportunity to evaluate close performance wide open at 200mm. I was happy with this shot.
In the following block I saw this out of the corner of my eye and decided to take a shot, this at f/8 somewhere in the 80-100mm range. The push-pull zoom/focus ring is a pleasure to use.
Not sure if you processed these, but, I don't see much character with the output. I'm not saying these are bad, I'm just saying the lens appears to be mediocre at best. Perhaps I'm just biased because of the 50-135mm, but I have always thought that that lens had a special look to it. I'd be really interested if you do a comparison, maybe I will have to eat my words.
My comment in the last paragraph... All in all I enjoyed shooting with this lens and am reasonably happy with the results...
"Reasonably happy..." probably reflects the difference in feeling between processing these images and the images I get from both the 50-135 f/3.5 AI-s and the 80-200 f/4.5 AI. I'm often amazed when I view RAW files from those lenses... and, I have to say the 80-200 moves me more often that the 50-135. It probably is because it simply is longer.
I think I'll mount the 80-200 on the D700 with the 35-200 on the Df so I can do direct comparisons at the long end... then I can do the same with the 50-135. In reality, for the shooting I do, wider is less important than longer. In fact, the 50-135 makes a perfectly suitable lens for rambling around for me. 50mm is wide enough and the 135 wide open does lovely things. Carrying a small prime like the 24 f/2.8 N.C. AI solves problems if I know I'm going to need to go wider.
This was shot at f/5.6.
