First of all, I\'d like to say that these are some lovely photos being posted above, showing the artistic use of selective focus. I think they are great shots, and I can see this lens is vital to producing this sort of effect.
Many people also love the effect of \"natural\" vignetting produced by a cheap lens with poor control of spherical aberrations. Canon for one has made a practice of lenses that actually accentuate this distortion in their soft focus lenses.
Here are some examples -- nothing cute or sentimental to compete against the lovely images above -- to show what I consider an acceptibly sharp lens.
I just received this lens last week, along with an adapter to mount on EOS bodies. The lens is Contax/Zeiss 80-200/4 T* Vario-Sonnar, a manual focus, and on Canon bodies, manual aperture. The lens was pretty sharp at all aperture, but really corner-to-corner sharp at f/11-16.
80mm, 1/50 @ f/16, ISO 200 (-2/3 EV in PP)
100% detail from center
Here\'s a different angle and focal length, showing edge/corner close-up.
200mm, 1/160 @ f/16
100% detail, left edge
100% detail, right corner
I\'m sure you\'ll all agree that I\'m leaving a lot of leeway in my definition of what is sharp -- these aren\'t absolutely sharp. But they are pretty sharp, enough to get the tactile impression of what those raspy boards must feel like.
I suppose the opposite can be argued for the 35/1.4L -- it has enough sharpness, but also provides a comfy soft cocoon around the subjects. Fence = menacing and abrasive. Puppy = soft and snuggly. Toddler = adorable! (Playing the \"Toddler Card\" should be banned.)
I totally agree that puppies, toddlers, and Maria Bello (lovely family, Kevin!) all look cuter than a redwood fence.
My point in describing sharpness is that it should show fine detail throughout the image for a lens to be called \"sharp\". I know I\'m going against the grain, fighting a losing battle of emotionally charged semantics, but just thought I\'d show where I\'m coming from. (Perhaps twilight and architectural photography saps one\'s soul?)
May 22, 2011 at 03:13 PM
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