{"id":1569,"date":"2011-12-18T04:41:36","date_gmt":"2011-12-18T04:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/?p=1569"},"modified":"2011-12-18T04:41:36","modified_gmt":"2011-12-18T04:41:36","slug":"35mm-normally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/?p=1569","title":{"rendered":"35mm Normally"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nI got myself the Samyang 35mm F1.4 ED AS UMC<\/b> for Sony Alpha A-mount!<\/p>\n


\nIt is, of course, a full-frame lens, for its full glory on my Sony Alpha 900. It is manual focus though – which is why it costs a lot less than the Sony 35mm F1.4G. It’s got a bit of weight at 700 grams for the A-mount version, and a 77mm filter thread.<\/p>\n

My Opteka 85mm F1.4 (rebadged from Samyang) is very, very easy to manual focus. This lens, being wider, is a bit harder – I’d say with the 85mm I could get exact focus 95% of the time, with 5% being slightly off (not noticeable when not zoomed in.)<\/p>\n

With the 35mm my perfection rate is probably a 75% – but after a few days, I got used to it and got better, about 85%. That said I’ve had the 85mm for 2 years already…<\/p>\n

Interestingly, this is the only lens I’ve bought for all of 2011.<\/p>\n

I knew that Samyang made awesome lenses – cheap because they are manual focus, but contrasty and sharp wide open! (Though when compared to a Zeiss it would lose in micro-contrast – the details are just crispier on the Sony Carl Zeiss Planar T* 85mm F1.4 ZA, for example.)<\/p>\n

Just like the Samyang\/Opteka 85mm F1.4, the aperture ring jumps from F1.4 to F2.0 then clicks in half-stops until F16, where it jumps to F22. Its minimum focus distance is a very useful 30cm close (compared to the rather weak close focusing of the Samyang 85mm F1.4 and Samyang 8mm F3.5 diagonal fisheye…)<\/p>\n


\nOn the Sony Alpha 77 – with focus peaking and Live View with magnification, it is a lot easier to quickly manual focus.<\/p>\n


\nOn the Sony Alpha NEX-5 with the Sony LA-EA1 A-mount to E-mount lens adapter.<\/p>\n


\nSo here are my primes!
\nLeft to right<\/b>: Peleng 8mm F3.5 M42 circular fisheye<\/a>, Vivitar 24mm F2.0 OM-mount<\/a>, Sony Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 24mm F2.0 ZA SSM<\/a>, Samyang 35mm F1.4 ED AS UMC, Minolta 50mm F1.4 Original<\/a>, Opteka 85mm F1.4<\/a>, Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\nClockwise from left<\/b>: Samyang 35mm F1.4 ED AS UMC, Sony Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 24mm F2.0 ZA SSM, Minolta 50mm F1.4 Original, Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA, Opteka 85mm F1.4, Vivitar 24mm F2.0 OM-mount, and the Peleng 8mm F3.5 M42 circular fisheye in the middle.<\/p>\n


\nBe warned! The rear element sticks out when the lens is focused to infinity, so you may not want to put the lens on a table facing up…<\/p>\n


\nOnto the pictures! 35mm F1.4 on full-frame. As a buddy of mine said, it looks kinda toy-camera-ish.<\/p>\n


\nClick the image<\/a> for the full 24-megapixel image from the A900! Wide open, it provides decent detail, with a minor amount of chromatic aberration. <\/p>\n


\nClick the image<\/a> for the full 24-megapixel image from the A900! As they say, F8 and be there!<\/p>\n


\nBokeh is generally good…<\/p>\n


\n…though the out-of-focus highlights may sometimes exhibit concentric patterns like this. I have no idea why this happens.<\/p>\n


\nThere is a very slight tinge of brightline bokeh especially in the middle. Also notice that there is physical vignetting – not only do the out-of-focus highlights become cats-eyed in shape, they also get cropped.<\/p>\n


\nThere is a bit of barrel distortion.<\/p>\n


\nThis is my best effort to fix it without going into complex moustache distortion correction.<\/p>\n


\nAnyway, F1.4! It will rule the night!<\/p>\n


\nIt picks up ambient color alright. Note the blue light on the trousers.<\/p>\n


\n1\/4th of a second, ISO1600, F1.4. There was a lunar eclipse that night, and the moon ended up looking red.<\/p>\n


\nJason<\/a> through the NEX-5, LA-EA1 and of course Samyang 35mm F1.4. The angle of view is perfect for street photography and general multipurpose photography, whether on APS-C or full-frame.<\/p>\n

35mm on full-frame is the same angle of view as your phone’s camera.<\/p>\n


\nI took it to Rock The World 11! Here’s Maddame<\/a>, a most awesome grunge band. I have to say though, that when he first got on stage and started shredding, I thought he looked like a Malaysian Marty Friedman, and even played like one! It wasn’t until he said his band represented the Malaysian grunge scene that I realized he was just playing some pretty riff-ful grunge!<\/p>\n


\nA 100% crop of the above picture, taken with the 24-megapixel A77.<\/p>\n


\nEwin<\/a> took this picture. Thanks Ewin!<\/p>\n

Notice that the bokeh may sometimes be slightly wiry. That said it is generally good.<\/p>\n


\nLainey!<\/p>\n


\nInto the night.<\/p>\n


\nWaiting.<\/p>\n


\nDepending on the light, you could turn it into day.<\/p>\n


\nMSC Malaysia Cybercentre, in downtown KL – ironically, the most un-Malaysian part of KL.<\/p>\n


\nShot with the NEX-5. All I had to do was stand in their path to get a street shot like this!<\/p>\n


\nShot with the NEX-5 at F1.4. Thanks to Waifon<\/b> for this picture!<\/p>\n

All pictures were taken with the A900, with the Samyang 35mm F1.4 set at F1.4<\/b>, unless otherwise stated (or if the lens is in the picture).<\/p>\n

I bought the lens from Chia Hau<\/a> – give him a holler if you’re interested! He deals with cameras and lenses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I got myself the Samyang 35mm F1.4 ED AS UMC for Sony Alpha A-mount! It is, of course, a full-frame lens, for its full glory on my Sony Alpha 900. It is manual focus though – which is why it costs a lot less than the Sony 35mm F1.4G. It’s got a bit of weight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,18,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geek","category-music","category-pictures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1569","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=1569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}