Min DOF Photography

I just got this, according to specs, jewel today. I didn’t to any serious shooting with it yet, I just took some comparison shots, so you can get a feel for the size. I put it side by side with my nifty fifty (Canon 50 1.8) and Canon 85 1.8. Sure, ideally I should use Canon 50 1.4 for comparison, but unfortunately it’s not at my disposal at the moment.

The built is standard EX, with HSM. It has a huge front element with 77 mm filter thread(note that its competitors have a size of 58 mm). This looks really promising, the image quality should be excellent. I can’t wait to try it out on a real session (I planed one for tomorrow, but the weather forecast looks rather bad), to see how it compares to the competition, especially in the f1.4-f2 range. I’ll make a test, which will be published on slo-foto.net and post some samples during the testing on my blog as well.

Here are the comparison shots. As you can see, the nifty fifty looks like a fucking joke compared to Sigma (so much smaller, with tiny glass elements and cheap plastic made along with the plastic mount). Compared to 85 1.8, Sigma is a bit shorter, but noticeably wider, with larger front element and similar rear element. Since I (as I mentioned before) regrettably didn’t have a Canon 50 1.4 to compare it with I can only give you this link to a post where I did a similar comparison with Canon 50 1.8 and Canon 50 1.4 - CLICK.

If you’re one of my frequent readers, then you already know about the Sony alpha 300 kit that I’ve tested last week. The a300 review is already written and is just waiting to be proofreaded, so it’s hopefully going to be posted due tomorrow on slo-foto. In this post I’m going to focus on one of the crown jewels of the Sony lens lineup . I’m not going to draw any concrete conclusions, since that would be very unwise after just five days of mostly bad weather testing, along with two other lenses. I’ll just post some samples and write my thought about various aspects of this lens.

Sharpness is good. Even very good. The lens gets sharp at f1.7 and continues to gain sharpness up to f4. To be honest, I didn’t even try it above f4. It just doesn’t matter to me, wether the lens is sharp at f8. Especially when it comes to a f1.4 lens. And because I’m not a studio photographer. What confused me a bit, is the lack of “microdetails” (skin pores etc) especially when shot at wider apertures. I suspect that might (also) be the result of a rather strong AA filter on a300. I also got the feeling that it’s not as sharp wide open as either of the Canon 85’s. But as I said before, I’m not drawing any conclusion. I’ll let you be the judge of its image quality. So please, leave a comment. CA is also quite noticeable at f2. I know that CA is a common problem with fast lenses. But usually things get a lot better when a lens is stopped down for 1 f stop or more. Bokeh is really smooth and creamy and the colours also seem good, natural, nicely saturated, but not too punchy. I can’t comment on the AF speed, since a300’s AF is pretty slow, but it is accurate, I got the vast majority of wideopen and almost wideopen shots in focus. Built quality is excellent, the housing is made of metal. It gives you a really robust feeling while holding it in your hand. I just don’t understand why it doesn’t have internal focusing, since the lense stretches quite a bit during focusing. The difference in length of the lens between extreme focus distance (min focus distance to infinity) is approximately 2 cm.

Below you can see the samples, so you can judge the lenses image quality for yourself. All shot in RAW and converted to jpg. Downsized samples are slightly sharpened (the first is obviously also desaturated and I’ve added quite a lot of contrast), while 100% crops, of course, aren’t postprocessed. View LARGER, or else you’re just judging the quality of Wordpresses downsizing algorithms.

f2, 1/320, ISO 200

f2, 1/250, ISO 200

f1.7, 1/160 ISO 100

I’m not posting the complete shot, because I don’t want him to get his ass whooped by his momma . The framing is almost identical to the first sample. This one looks best to me, perhaps ISO 200 is already “eating up” microdetails…Both are taken at ISO 100 (both crops are from the same image).

f1.4, 1/160, ISO 100

And below you can see a series of boring sharpness comparisons between different aperture settings. All shot at ISO 200.

f1.4

f1.6

f1.7

f2

f2.8

f4

Unfortunately there seems to be impossible to get 1Ds mkIII long enough to make a complete review. So there won’t be any review on slo-foto, as I promised. So I’m posting a few high ISO samples, that JD asked for. All the photos were taken in sRAW mode (approximately 5.2 mpix), since I think that it’s insane to shoot snapshots at 21 mpix. You can see a few downsized samples, all taken at ISO 1600 or pushed 1 stop from ISO 800 (exif is included, so I’m not going to write it down below the photos). Taken at a local Texas Hold ‘em tournament. It was for the first time that I was glad I didn’t make it to the finals. I had the time to shoot . Photos are postprocessed (only contrast and slight sharpness added after downsizing).

EDIT: I forgot to mention that all photos were taken with the nifty fifty (50 1.8). And it performed pretty well, I’d say better than on any of the croppers (sharpness seems pretty good at f2.2). Even bokeh wasn’t bad and the colours were ok too. But what fascinated me the most, is the field of view. It’ s awesome, its’ perfect, you can shoot virtually everything with it. And no, it’s not the same as mounting 30 1.4 on 30D. You get the same FOV, but the feeling is just different. It’s the difference that you really can’t put your finger on.

worried

If you can’t maintain your poker face, then put ya glasses on

Checkin’

Bettin’ (I wish I shoot it with the chip in mid air, but it was a one time opportunity, since players usually don’t throw chips around)

100% crop, totally unprocessed of course. I looks amazing to me (not in the D3 class of course, but with almost the double resolution, that’s impossible)

And for the end, a snapshot from slo-foto’s last workshop. He really wants to be a model . f2, 85mm. Looks pretty nice, right (DOF!!!, bokeh…)?

I got a very nice alpha 300 kit today. I was given the choice to handpick the lenses that interested me. Carl Zeiss Planar T* 85 1.4 was, of course, my first choice. From the rest of the lenses, flasguns etc I decided to take DT 11-18, since UWA lenses are always fun to use. I also got the battery grip, which is amazing. I’ve never seen such awesome ergonomics, my hand becomes one with it.

When I came home with the kit I opened up the 85 1.4 box. Damn, the lens already feels crazy. Such a solid built and you can just feel the cold though metal housing. I feels even tougher than Canon 85 1.2L aka Canonball. I guess it just because Canon is bigger and heavier, so you expect the toughness and massiveness. Besides that I think Canon was a plastic finish…I’m not sure and it doesn’t really matter. What I’m sure about is that it’s top class merchandise. But there is one thing I noticed and find a bit weird. It (CZ 85) changes length during focusing and quite a lot, around 2 cm when you move it from min focus distance to infinity. I wonder how’s this affecting durability, does it get loose in the long run etc. Even my cheap Canon 85 1.8 has internal focusing. But it’s plastic on the other hand.

Here are a couple of the kit’s pics:

The beast is mine. Yeah! Ok, it’s mine for an unknown period of time. Besides being a FF 21 mpix monster it has a few very cool new bells and whistles. The one that became useful almost the same instant that I got it, was the AF microadjustment function. I used it to compensate for the (just a few days ago discovered) backfocus of my 85 1.8. User can adjust it in 40 steps (from -20 to +20). The others are…Well ask google . Below you can see the before/after difference:

I just have to get me a RAW converter (I’ll probably try Lightroom 2 Beta), so I can finally shoot in RAW. I’ll use it with prime lenses exclusively. I was making arrangements to rent a 70-200 2.8 tomorrow, but I’ll probably just take 50 1.4 instead, which is also available. Along with my 85 1.8, it’ll be a pretty nice combo. It’s just a shame there’s no way to get a 135L. Now that would be a killer combo.

And here’s the pure gold diptych :

I got it today, along with the new 18-55 IS lens (kit). I haven’t done any testing yet since it’s cloudy and windy outside and it could start raining any minute as well. The first things that I noticed were the larger display, slightly bigger grip (it does feel a bit better in your hand) and a bit larger viewfinder. But basically it still looks like 400D. Most of the improvements are however beyond what your eyes can see. The new 12.2 Mpix sensor, DIGIC III with 14 bit processing, highlight priority, higher capacity battery and you can now continuously shoot at 3.5 fps. There’s also live view and it takes SD memory cards. I’m not sure about the latter, it sure is fine for those who are swapping their compact cameras for 450D, because they most likely already have SD memory cards. And SD cards can also be used for other purposes, as a storage device in MP3 players etc. On the other hand it’s yet another expense for those who have used CF based cameras. I have to test it with a 256 MB SD card . I have to get me a larger capacity memory card. If someone can spare one for a week, it would be great . Menu system has been redesigned as well and it enables features such as direct control of Speedlite flash units from the camera LCD.

The things that I can see as a con are; buffer that can store only 6 RAW images and the reduced number of buttons on the camera. Canon could have also incorporated sRAW. After all, 3 mpix would be more than enough for web publishing and 13×18 cm prints. That would be enough for media coverages and it would save users a lot of space on their memory cards and hard drives. While the user would still enjoy all the benefits that RAW can offer: better DR, more postprocessing options etc.

Here are a couple of Canon press release photos:

I’ll write a review on slo-foto.net and probably post some samples on this blog as well (surely if I’ll get a nicer lens to use along with 450D). Stay tuned .

I just got my hands on Sigma DP1. I have to get me a SD memory card, that I forgot to ask for. And fill the battery. Then I’m all set to get busy. It seems like it’s going to be a busy tech testing week, I’ll probably get Canon 1Ds mkIII tomorrow, Canon 450D 18-55 IS kit on thursday and hopefully another nice lens to complement both bodies. This is what the kit with a couple of optional accessories looks like (I got a viewfinder and hood adapter as well):

Stay tuned, I’ll get more stuff to test next week.

EDIT 22h: Photos can be enlarged when clicked and the compression is not optimal, because my photo upload interface messed up, when WP was upgraded and I had to use the lousy original WP interface. The error will be corrected when Lucifix will find the time to fix it .

EDIT2: Problem has been resolved. You can now click on the thumbs to check it in LARGER version. Luc ur tha man!

I went for another walk last week and this is what came out. My intention was to show you the field of view, I didn’t get into standard sharpness, aberrations etc testing. I didn’t have enough time to do it, besides that, I really don’t think those things matter the most. It’s really the FOV and the way you’re able to capture the world around you. Although I didn’t test the sharpness it seemed surprisingly sharp at f2.8-3.5 - but I won’t draw any concrete conclusions on that. Built quality is solid and AF worked really good on my 30D in all light conditions.

Oh yeah! I’ve checked with google and it finds nothing. The lens is not even listed on Sigma’s site. Now let’s get to the description:

- it’s designed specifically for APS-C digital SLR cameras

-it produces a diagonal angle of view of 180° when mounted on Nikon and a bit less on Canon (I’d say around 170°)

-min focusing distance is 13.5 cm, so you can do nice close ups

-HSM AF motor. Silent and fast as usually.

- EX built (you should know what that means)

- its dimensions are relatively small, but it’s pretty heavy (just a personal opinion of course)

I snaped a few shots of the lens and went for a walk. So I’m posting a few shots, more are following at the end of this week.

Field of view is really crazy

I’m dissapointed to see that the megapixel madness is starting to “infect” the DSLR class. And we’ve seen where that leads. Image quality of today’s compact cameras is in most cases worse then it was 3 years ago. Although Nikon has managed not only to get away with 12 mpix on their APS-C (D300), but to make a big step forward regarding image quality, especially regarding low noise levels at high ISO settings. I don’t believe Samsung is able to raise the bar that higher, but lets sit back and wait for first reviews of the production model. Note that putting 14.6 mpix on APS-C sized sensor is like cramming over 34 mpix on FF. I wonder which lens can resolve such resolution? Here are the specs (source Dpreview) that were posted on the Norwegian’s distributor for Samsung:

Specs:
14.6 MP (CMOS)
Good old SR
Resistant to rain,sand and dust
Double dust removal on image sensor(whatever that means)
2.7″ LCD
Live view
One-press raw(as in K10D I guess)
ISO 3200
Price 10% more than K10D when it was introduced here in Norway