2 New Canon Lenses

Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 2:36 pm

keithwms wrote:

KurtSchneid wrote:

But at F/1.2 you would need relatively no light...and imagine the shallow DOF you could achieve...

That would be a sweet piece of glass to have just to play with. I have seen an old nikon 50mm they called the Nocturne or something like that which was f/1.2...

I have an f/1.2 nikkor lens, it is the 50mm manual focus one. Beautifully made. It's better than the noct. I got it not so much for shallow DOF as for ease of focusing, which is of course done TTL with aperture wide open. The viewfinder is very bright with that thing, it really makes the other lenses seem dark, even the f/2.8 ones.

:) keithwms

Another addict... I also love my Pentax 1.2/50 - I rarely use the standard lenses with smaller apertures, though the 1.2 is much heavier. One of the most fascinating lenses I had the opportunity to use over some time was the Leica 1.0/50 for the M series. A superb lens and quite usable fully open (within the obvious limitations).

regards
René

Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 10:48 pm

wow Rene, I am becoming more and more jealous of your lens collection every day! How does the 1.2 compare to the other 50s? I have heared some people say it isn't quite as sharp as the 1.4 and 1.7 versions

Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 8:36 am

Mongoose wrote:

wow Rene, I am becoming more and more jealous of your lens collection every day! How does the 1.2 compare to the other 50s? I have heared some people say it isn't quite as sharp as the 1.4 and 1.7 versions

You are right - any 1.2 lens isn't as sharp as the 1.7 version fully opened. That's what a very in-depth test of those lenses in the Swiss-German magazine Photographie already proofed 20 years ago (most standard lenses' computing is at least that old). Nevertheless I prefer a photograph with a bit softness and may be less sharp corners to a photograph not being taken.

Nevertheless these fast lenses are rarley used wide open, it is just a last ressort for available light photography without tripod. But it is simply a joy to use it for the very bright viewfinder and it is very easy to get the focus spot on. By the way, I bought that lens locally as a second-hand item for just 250 Euros a couple of years ago. The previous owner obviously had never used it, so it was really as new, just the boxes were missing. I probably would have thought over buying it at the regular price more than once...

The conclusion is, that the 1.7 lens is best all around lens, which can also be used fully open with good results. The 1.4 is a little bit better if you stop down to f/4 or f/5.6 (but I bet you won't see any difference to the 1.7 in normal photographs, the difference is more something that shows up in test target shots) and only half a stop slower than th 1.2. So the last one is more or less a luxury item for most occasions.

regards
René

Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 12:17 pm

Intermedio wrote:

O.K. I think I understand for example the Tokina 12-24mm if I have it set on 12mm I'm getting 12mm but only gettimg 60% field of view because of the 1.6 crop factor. And if I were to put it on a 35mm camera I would be getting 18-36mm or do I have that backwards. Gosh I feel dumb sometimes.

ok here's a more easy explanation of crop factor

to get a 100° field of view on Film Camera all you need is 18mm in focal lenght to achive this

while with the DSLR with a crop factor to get a 100° field of view on your Camera, you need to get a 12mm in focal lenght to achive this

Premium Member Joined: 29 Oct 2004 Posts: 5758

For people who aren't used to using 35mm or full frame, or if you're not thinking about going there any time soon, I really wouldn't spend any time thinking about the conversion factor. It is what it is, but if your only point of reference is an APS-C DSLR, then why spend any time thinking about conversions?

But if you want to think qualitatively, then don't think about effective focal length. Think about wide and narrow angle. The same lens on a full frame behaves 1.6x narrower on APS-C, and vice versa. This isn't an optical effect. It's just a crop.

Premium Member Joined: 29 Oct 2004 Posts: 5758

Intermedio wrote:

O.K. I think I understand for example the Tokina 12-24mm if I have it set on 12mm I'm getting 12mm but only gettimg 60% field of view because of the 1.6 crop factor. And if I were to put it on a 35mm camera I would be getting 18-36mm or do I have that backwards.

You have it sort of backwards. A 12-24mm lens on an APS-C behaves like an 18-36 would on a film camera. But if you stuck the 12-24 onto a film camera it would be so wide that you couldn't use it below 16 or 17mm or so.

Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 1:25 pm

Mongoose wrote:

wow Rene, I am becoming more and more jealous of your lens collection every day! How does the 1.2 compare to the other 50s? I have heared some people say it isn't quite as sharp as the 1.4 and 1.7 versions

Rene is right, the 1.2 is not going to give the very best performance wide open, though at f/8 or so they are quite comparable to the f/1.4 or f/1.8 models. But look, sharpness isn't really an issue at f/1.2, in my view. The DOF is so shallow that focusing error becomes a dominant factor. If you have good technique and know how to focus strategically, the 50 f/1.2 can be a true weapon, a shot saver.

I can report that I used the 50 f/1.2 wide open over the weekend inside a rather dark barn, and even for a few handheld 1/15 sec exposures without MLU, it really saved several shots. It was a blazingly sunny day and I had no idea I would find myself in a dark barn; I had no tripod, no flash, and only ISO 100 film. And it was a rare moment when I didn't have a rangefinder in my pocket! Nevertheless, the shots that I got were totally usable, and actually, I much prefer working with available light anyway, it looks far more natural and the whoe composition simply looks more "found" rather than constructed. I can say without question that there is absolutely no way I would have gotten those shots with an f/2 or even an f/1.4 lens. So it made me feel quite good about my $400 investment in the 50 f/1.2. The lens is also built like a rock, by the way, it is a gem. And what a pleasure to focus.

:) keithwms