{"id":1366,"date":"2010-01-01T05:37:37","date_gmt":"2010-01-01T05:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/?p=1366"},"modified":"2010-01-01T05:37:37","modified_gmt":"2010-01-01T05:37:37","slug":"optic-ah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/?p=1366","title":{"rendered":"Optic-Ah!"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nAnd now, for more from the Opteka 85mm F1.4<\/a>! Felicia<\/a> shot at F1.4 at 807 Studio<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\nI also took the opportunity to compare it to the Sony Carl Zeiss Planar T* 85mm F1.4 ZA – something I may not want to do in fear of finding my lens inferior. Fortunately, it wasn’t the case… strongly. Here’s the Opteka 85mm F1.4 focused to 1 meter, its minimum focusing distance.<\/p>\n


\nThe Zeiss 85mm F1.4, however, magnifies a lot more because:<\/p>\n

1) it can focus to 85cm close
\n2) it has external focus<\/p>\n

Internal focus lenses tend to widen the angle of view, thus causing lesser magnification.<\/p>\n

For example, the Sony 135mm F2.8\/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus lens focuses to 87cm close, giving a 1:4x maximum magnification. It is an external focus lens.<\/p>\n

The Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA can focus to 72cm close… so logically, it should be able to get closer and get a better magnification, right? However, as it is internal focus, its angle of view widens at close range, and so it gets the same 1:4x maximum magnification as the STF!<\/p>\n

So, there are benefits to external focus lenses.<\/p>\n


\nSize-wise they are quite similiar. Both use 72mm filter threads.<\/p>\n


\nThe Zeiss hood can literally eat the Opteka hood!<\/p>\n


\nAnd how about a portrait comparison? Opteka 85mm F1.4 at F1.4 1\/100s ISO800.<\/p>\n


\nHere’s the same thing from the Zeiss at the same settings.<\/p>\n

Honestly, at a glance, the overall contrast looks very similiar! Also, the Opteka is very capable of picking up ambient colors the way the Zeiss does. Please pardon that the Opteka has a slightly different focus plane.<\/p>\n


\nIt is only when you start pixel-peeping that you see why the Zeiss costs 4 times the price… this is a 100% crop from the Opteka. It is pretty sharp wide open!<\/p>\n


\nHowever, this is a 100% crop from the Zeiss! The keyword here is microcontrast – it has far more contrasty details.<\/p>\n

I would say that after this exercise, I understood what the Zeiss microcontrast thing was all about. The Opteka is really 80% of the Zeiss, for 25% the price!<\/p>\n


\nI also tried the Opteka on the Sony Alpha 550 – this used MF Check Live View. Works great even at 7x zoom (14x zoom is a bit too shaky for a 85mm lens.)<\/p>\n


\nAccuracy even at no zoom using MF Check LV was pretty good!<\/p>\n


\nHowever, when I tried to use the Quick AF Live View mode, manual-focusing using the LCD, it just seemed to be off all the time. However I could notice a slight sharpening happening in Quick AF Live View mode.<\/p>\n


\nFinally, don’t fear the 1 meter minimum focusing distance – you can dismount the lens and turn it the other way around. You can even control the aperture using the aperture ring!<\/p>\n


\nIt gives about 70mm for a 36mm-wide sensor, or 1:1.94x maximum magnification.<\/p>\n

In other news, there might be a Samyang 35mm F1.4:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.lenstip.com\/index.php?art=122<\/a><\/p>\n

I would buy that no questions asked! Knowing the obscene quality of the Samyang 85mm F1.4 you can bet the 35mm is going to be a winner. Since it is a full-frame wide-angle it should have a better MFD than the Sigma 30mm F1.4’s mediocre 40cm. (The Sigma looks nice on FF despite the vignetting!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And now, for more from the Opteka 85mm F1.4! Felicia shot at F1.4 at 807 Studio. I also took the opportunity to compare it to the Sony Carl Zeiss Planar T* 85mm F1.4 ZA – something I may not want to do in fear of finding my lens inferior. Fortunately, it wasn’t the case… strongly. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geek","category-pictures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}