{"id":1584,"date":"2012-03-25T07:26:02","date_gmt":"2012-03-25T07:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/?p=1584"},"modified":"2012-03-25T07:26:02","modified_gmt":"2012-03-25T07:26:02","slug":"smootf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/?p=1584","title":{"rendered":"SmooTF!"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nI finally got the grand master of bokeh – the Sony 135mm F2.8\/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus! This is the undisputed king of rendering a smooth, clean and undistracting out-of-focus area.<\/p>\n


\nIt brings my number of primes to 8! Left 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<\/a>, Minolta 50mm F1.4 Original<\/a>, Opteka 85mm F1.4<\/a>, Sony 135mm F2.8\/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus, Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\nAnd, from above, left to right, row by row<\/b>: Peleng 8mm F3.5 M42 circular fisheye, Opteka 85mm F1.4, Minolta 50mm F1.4 Original, Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA, Samyang 35mm F1.4 ED AS UMC, Vivitar 24mm F2.0 OM-mount, Sony 135mm F2.8\/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus, Sony Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 24mm F2.0 ZA SSM.<\/p>\n


\nThe STF is physically a 135mm F2.8 lens, but because of the apodization filter inside that darkens the periphery of the lens, it effectively lets in as much light as a F4.5 lens. Hence the T4.5 suffix (T for effective light Transmission).<\/p>\n

Also, the lens is manual focus only – which makes it the only Minolta\/Sony A-mount lens that is manual focus. The reason why is because the apodization filter causes a graduation coming from opposite ends, making it impossible for phase-detect AF to work. I’ve explained this in another blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can tell immediately that the lens is the STF from the back, from the cross-shaped AF screw drive screw (it stops the AF screw drive from turning) and only 5 pins.<\/p>\n

The only Sony lenses with 5 pins are:
\n1) Sony 16mm F2.8 Diagonal Fisheye
\n2) Sony 20mm F2.8
\n3) Sony 28mm F2.8
\n4) Sony 135mm F2.8\/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus
\n5) Sony 500mm F8 Reflex<\/p>\n

There shouldn’t be any reason why any of these lenses don’t get a Distance Integration chip, other than Sony not having the resources or time to migrate them from their Minolta versions.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, SSM lenses have a flat screw with a small circle inside, although its purpose is the same – to stop the AF screw drive from turning.<\/p>\n

This lens is on the end of every A-mount user’s wishlist – meaning you’d get every other lens you wanted, before this one. It is such a luxury (not that it is expensive) but it is such an optional want-to-have instead of a must-have. It doesn’t help that it’s manual-focus only and doesn’t transmit much. I wonder if they could’ve made a 85mm F1.4 with the same apodization filter, which would bring it down to 85mm F1.4\/T2.2!<\/p>\n


\nNormal lenses will draw out-of-focus areas with a hard, solid brush (quite like the Photoshop screenshot on the left.) The STF, however, paints out-of-focus areas with a soft, shaded brush (on the right.)<\/p>\n


\nSo here’s one from the Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8, set to F2.8, on the A900…<\/p>\n


\n…and one from the Sony 135mm F2.8\/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus, set to F2.8\/T4.5, on the A900. The difference in rendition should be obvious!<\/p>\n

You might also notice that the STF gives a tighter angle-of-view – this is because it extends when focusing, while the Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 has an internal focus mechanism. Internal focus mechanisms tend to make the angle-of-view wider as it focuses closer – thus the only time the Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 is truly 135mm is when it is focused at infinity.<\/p>\n

It focuses to 87cm close with a maximum magnification of 1:4x – interestingly, the Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 also does a maximum magnification of 1:4x, but when focused to 72cm close (obviously, due to the wider angle-of-view.)<\/p>\n

The STF also uniquely has 2 sets of aperture blades – it uses the set of 10 blades in manual aperture control mode, from T4.5 to T6.7 (stepless, but with clicks), or the set of 9 blades when set to A (auto). However, I have not tested this extensively as I have had no reason to stop down the lens!<\/p>\n


\nMeanwhile, this is from the Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 at F1.8. I think you should be able to tell the difference between the STF and any other lens by now.<\/p>\n


\nThe background just melts into creamy goodness here.<\/p>\n


\nYou can try to put a distracting background, and it smoothens out nevertheless!<\/p>\n


\nHow about some harsh sunlight?<\/p>\n


\nMagic hour. Here, the shading of the out-of-focus highlights is obvious. Also, the lens is remarkably free of cats-eye bokeh – where out-of-focus areas on the side become cats-eye shaped instead of perfectly round circles. This might be because the lens is much bigger in diameter compared to a regular 135mm F2.8.<\/p>\n


\nAnother street shot. Many would say that T4.5 is unliveable but I would not fear high ISO and a competent RAW processor!<\/p>\n


\nI have to admit, I haven’t been shooting much street photography with a telephoto.<\/p>\n


\nIn the right kind of light, it can still get by!<\/p>\n


\nAnother indoor shot.<\/p>\n


\nI have always had a shot like this in my mind – I just need to find more appropriate locations.<\/p>\n


\nAnd then, I took it out in bright daylight…<\/p>\n


\nCongratulations Syazwan and Nadiah!<\/p>\n


\nUnfortunately, as the bush on the right was at the same distance to me as they were, it was in sharp focus. Photoshop CS5.5’s Content-Aware Fill is magical, yes, but it didn’t work so well for this!<\/p>\n


\nThis would be the day debut of this lens.<\/p>\n


\nThe classic Minolta color is all there.<\/p>\n


\nNote how the sky peeking through the trees is not distracting.<\/p>\n


\nBy distracting, I mean like this – this was shot with a Minolta 50mm F1.7. So you see what I mean by bad bokeh? That sharp outline, around out-of-focus highlights, is called brightline bokeh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I finally got the grand master of bokeh – the Sony 135mm F2.8\/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus! This is the undisputed king of rendering a smooth, clean and undistracting out-of-focus area. It brings my number of primes to 8! Left to right: Peleng 8mm F3.5 M42 circular fisheye, Vivitar 24mm F2.0 OM-mount, Sony Carl Zeiss Distagon […]<\/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-1584","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\/1584","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=1584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}