{"id":841,"date":"2007-04-04T02:08:08","date_gmt":"2007-04-04T02:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/?p=841"},"modified":"2015-08-09T08:18:23","modified_gmt":"2015-08-09T08:18:23","slug":"lens-shootout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/?p=841","title":{"rendered":"Lens Shootout"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alright, so I posted a lengthy entry about my excessive camera geeking out<\/a>. Thanks y’all for all the comments!<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n


\nI recently acquired a Minolta 35-105mm F3.5-4.5 lens for my Sony A100<\/a>. 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<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

My Minoltas!<\/p>\n


\nFrom left: Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan lens, Minolta 35-105mm F3.5-4.5 (N) lens, Minolta 50mm F1.4 (pre-RS) lens.<\/p>\n

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.)<\/p>\n

The 35-105mm focus is very zippy<\/b>. 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<\/a> reckons that this is because the 35-105mm’s closest focus range is 85cm and thus it doesn’t have to bother with macro.<\/p>\n


\nI like how the beercan looks like a slender cannon. Internal zoom is awesome.<\/p>\n


\nI also like how the 50mm F1.4 has a stumpy look.<\/p>\n

I went down to Sony Wings, KLCC to try some lenses. They’re real friendly and will let you try everything!<\/p>\n

Super Steady Shot (SSS)<\/b><\/p>\n

I used a different method of testing stabilization; how many shots does it take to get a crisp, sharp, motion-blur-less one?<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

If it is blur again, then I know I probably cannot shoot at that speed with that lens and focal length consistently.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA<\/b>
\nI could shoot at 1\/8 seconds, for 4.66 stops of SSS.<\/p>\n


\nCarl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 at F1.8.<\/p>\n


\nCarl 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.<\/p>\n


\nAnother crop.<\/p>\n


\nEven 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.)<\/p>\n

Sony 70-200mm F2.8G<\/b>
\nEasy 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.<\/p>\n

I can also brace this lens with the tripod mount on my left hand comfortably.<\/p>\n


\nPardon the lousy quick snap of this. I was in awe. Okay, my hands were just tired after shooting with it.<\/p>\n


\nThe lens hood is cool! It has a sliding door which lets you rotate polarizer filters without removing the hood.<\/p>\n


\nSony 70-200mm F2.8G, at 200mm F2.8 1\/60s.<\/p>\n

The Sony price of RM10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/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-841","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\/841","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=841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9641,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841\/revisions\/9641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}