Well, if f/1.9 is 'super' fast...I frequently use a Canon 35/2 IS which performs quite well wide-open (although I rarely use it like that) and it does have pleasing bokeh. I also use several Canon f/1.8's (EF and FD) which I guess are quite well known and their wide-open bokeh is equally fine. My EF 100/2 has the 'creamy' bokeh you'd expect from a long, fast lens.
There's nearly always a compromise in terms of sharpness shooting such lenses wide open; there's usually a little coma and there is often some color fringing going on, especially on the wider lenses. Is it worth the compromise? Sometimes a fast lens allows you to photograph under conditions that a slower lens simply wouldn't allow. That's not a compromise, I think.
Last year I bought a 28mm f1.9 Vivitar Series 1 lens. It is built like a tank and has produced some nice images. I know it is soft wide open but the ability to shoot at all in poor light is what attracted me. Tonally it is good but the bokeh wide open is sometimes odd. Do you own any superfast lenses and is the compromise worth it for you ?
Untitled_254018GB by E.J. Bragg, on Flickr
I had a 58mm 1.2 Konica,
Just out of curiosity, John, what's the compromise/problem with your first pic It's the face that counts here isn't it , that's where the viewer is meant to focus attention and this does it "in spades" as they say
pentaxuser
I hate flash as a mood killer and the fast lens helped here.
IMG-20240311-WA0003 by E.J. Bragg, on Flickr
Truly fast lenses are f/.95, fast lenses are f/1.4, anything else is an averagely fast lens. But perhaps the problem isn't the lens instead of your ability to focus it accurately, which we can all sometimes have with fast'ish lenses on a manual focus SLR camera. Focus bracket, don't change the focus point on the lens once you think you have it but sway a tiny fraction forward and back while taking a few shots.
Thanks Peter, you are too kind and that is a better example from that lens, shot at 15th second at f2. The lens has a very long focussing throw and focusses incredibly close but it is hard to nail focus. It is a Nikon Ai fit and focus on my Nikkor 28 f2.8 Ais is much more snappy and decisive when achieving critical focus. This was shot on a Nikon FM2n but it works better for an old fart like me on the Nikon F4 or F5 with focus confirmation.
"Will no one rid me of this meddlesome pentaxuser"
No problem, John. It is the kind of pic that I would have been proud of taking. I never managed anything as good with my granddaugther when she was a similar age
By the way, Peter is pentaxpete and not me. Peter shows his pics in the Gallery but participates rarely in the forum. I do not show pics in the Gallery but do ask a lot of questions and some would say "becomes a nuisance "
I have been told that Henry King who was nearly called Norman as opposed to Matt King, definitely called Canadian, has been heard to exclaim when near some big church in Kent a few years ago : "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome pentaxuser"
pentaxuser
I don’t see the compromise either. That looks like a challenging lighting environment, and it’s a winner of a shot all right.
It’s a good point that fast wides are unusual. They would seem to make a lot of sense, because the dof of a wide lens should be helpful wide open, but I suppose there are design challenges (maybe especially with SLR lenses).
-NT
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?