Alright, so I posted a lengthy entry about my excessive camera geeking out. Thanks y’all for all the comments!
Guess what? I’ve still got a buffer of camera geeking posts to clear! So here’s a shitload of text that most of you won’t understand. But heck.
I recently acquired a Minolta 35-105mm F3.5-4.5 lens for my Sony A100. It has a tiny neglible amount of fungus. However, I’ve tried a heavily fungused Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan lens and a Minolta 50mm F1.7 lens and the glass itself was already so contrasty. I set contrast to -2 by default, shot with my beercan, and found that +1 contrast gave an equivalent result on the fungused beercan. I prefer less contrast, which is easier to work with in Photoshop.
My Minoltas!
From left: Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan lens, Minolta 35-105mm F3.5-4.5 (N) lens, Minolta 50mm F1.4 (pre-RS) lens.
The 35-105mm is a newer version; the older version looked like a short beercan (whose looks I so love). The 50mm F1.4 is the older version with built-in retractable lens hood, without circular aperture blades (which I like, really.)
The 35-105mm focus is very zippy. It is great fun. It actually thumps at you when focusing! Zip zap zip zap. About 60 degrees to turn from close focus to infinity. The Sony 18-70mm kit lens has about 30 degrees but doesn’t feel quite as nice. wkcheang reckons that this is because the 35-105mm’s closest focus range is 85cm and thus it doesn’t have to bother with macro.
I like how the beercan looks like a slender cannon. Internal zoom is awesome.
I also like how the 50mm F1.4 has a stumpy look.
I went down to Sony Wings, KLCC to try some lenses. They’re real friendly and will let you try everything!
Super Steady Shot (SSS)
I used a different method of testing stabilization; how many shots does it take to get a crisp, sharp, motion-blur-less one?
I first shoot at 1/10th of the inverse of the focal length (200mm would be 1/20s). Add in the crop factor of 1.5x and this is 15x slower than the rule of thumb, or about 4 stops. I hold the camera with both hands and shoot casually. If it is blur, I shoot again, watching to see the SSS meter go down to 1-2 bars.
If it is blur again, then I know I probably cannot shoot at that speed with that lens and focal length consistently.
Most lenses at longer focal lengths are safe and easy up to 4 stops. I don’t have to think of holding still. Wider focal lengths are a bit harder, as I rarely get super crisp 1 second exposures.
Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA
I could shoot at 1/8 seconds, for 4.66 stops of SSS.
Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 at F1.8.
Carl Zeiss lenses, as we’ve all heard, are excellent. Crispy wide open? Most definitely. No fuzzing up of hair or lack of detail. No softness, no dreamy spherical aberration.
Another crop.
Even at decent distances, you can get nifty bokeh. (Of course, the Sony 135mm F2.8 (T4.5) Smooth Transition Focus has even better adjustable bokeh levels but that’s manual focus only.)
Sony 70-200mm F2.8G
Easy and safe to get crisp 1/13s shots at 200mm (4.66 stops of SSS). Soft at 1/10s but still apparently clear especially when downsized. At 1/10s you need to hold still and keep the SSS meter down.
I can also brace this lens with the tripod mount on my left hand comfortably.
Pardon the lousy quick snap of this. I was in awe. Okay, my hands were just tired after shooting with it.
The lens hood is cool! It has a sliding door which lets you rotate polarizer filters without removing the hood.
Sony 70-200mm F2.8G, at 200mm F2.8 1/60s.
The Sony price of RM10