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ddk said:
You either have a great knack for shooting portraits with the lens
wide open or you've trained your children well to stand still while
shooting this way. I'm lucky to catch mine at f8 and have her in
focus.
Click to expand...
Well i only shoot manual, and often alot wide open, so i guess its been paying off lol. My kids are quite cooperative, but standing still isnt their strong suite.

And they do get bored quite quickly.... lol

Taken with D2X 135mm/2 Ais


ddk said:
These are all nice images but I'm not crazy about the rendering of
this lens for portraits. I might be spoilt with the elegance of
135/f2's (both DC & none DC) rendering or the special way that Zeiss
lenses render everything but Voigtlander's rendering looks common to
me and kind of unappealing.
--
david
http://www.pbase.com/ddk
Click to expand...
Thanx, yes i tend to agree that the bokeh isnt the best, certainly not wide open. Stopping down a bit it gets better, but upclose its not as distracting (even when you shoot wide open) imo.

I quite like it for upclose portraits and medium distance, it seem to perform less at a distance (wide open).

Yes i like the 135/2 ais alot, and offcourse the ZF lineup is great in this regard, the one that seems to be least pleasing when it comes to bokeh (wide open) is the ZF 50/1,4 ,wich i havent had much time to use yet. Will have to "test drive it" the coming weeks.

Kindest
--
Regards
Paul L.
 
Also your shots in the 135/2 thread. Great portraits. I got a 105/2.5 a couple weeks ago and I am struggling with the MF and the shallow DOF wide open.

I also love your BW pics. Could I ask you how you do your conversions? I have tried several things in Capture and Photoshop but I'm not getting where I would like to.

Thanks

Sergio
 
wide open regardless of brand? (Nikon 1.4 AFD, Zeiss 50mm I.4, Voitglander Nokton)

--
Best Regards,
Renato
 
Very nice! I meant the lens too. When you have beautiful subjects the image can carry you away. I have considered the Zeiss 85mm f1.4 and the Nikkor version. However, I must admit that although the sharpness is better on the Zeiss, the AF on the Nikkor captivates me more. I too have three little ones and they don't stand still for portrait shots....unless I take my stern face out from behind the view finder of my D200.

Tu
 
and congratulations to your family, Paul! She is lovely. I hope Mama had an easy delivery. Welcome to the wild and wonderful world of four children! :) I also have one boy and three girls.

This grab shot is great -- I SO know this expression, heh heh.



Enjoy your new baby with that Nokton. Perfect FL for a newborn, isn't it? Curious what the closest focal distance is...
Cheers,
Crystal
--
http://www.crystalkeesey.com
 
ddk said:
You either have a great knack for shooting portraits with the lens
wide open or you've trained your children well to stand still while
shooting this way. I'm lucky to catch mine at f8 and have her in
focus.
Click to expand...
She's still REALLY little, Mr. K :). Give her another year and she WILL model for her daddy (of course you will have to bribe her with lovely princess dresses and jewels).
ddk said:
These are all nice images but I'm not crazy about the rendering of
this lens for portraits. I might be spoilt with the elegance of
135/f2's (both DC & none DC) rendering or the special way that Zeiss
lenses render everything but Voigtlander's rendering looks common to
me and kind of unappealing.
Click to expand...
Grateful to Paul for these shots, and I totally agree with what you are seeing David.
ddk said:
--
david
http://www.pbase.com/ddk
Click to expand...
--
http://www.crystalkeesey.com
 
Savarin said:
Also your shots in the 135/2 thread. Great portraits. I got a 105/2.5
a couple weeks ago and I am struggling with the MF and the shallow
DOF wide open.

I also love your BW pics. Could I ask you how you do your
conversions? I have tried several things in Capture and Photoshop but
I'm not getting where I would like to.

Thanks

Sergio
Click to expand...
Thanx, yes the mf can be a bit tricky, especially on Nikons DX cameras. Focusing aids like Katz eye does help alot, and is highly recommended. (have one on my D2X)

As for 135/2 Ais, its proven to be a gem, i just love it!

BW conversion is made with several techniques, mostly done with a plugin like NIk color efex or similar, but sometimes with the channel mixer. (i cant make up my mind lol)

And often finnish with adding a hue/saturation layer.

Kindest
--
Regards
Paul L.
 
Revision said:
wide open regardless of brand? (Nikon 1.4 AFD, Zeiss 50mm I.4,
Voitglander Nokton)

--
Best Regards,
Renato
Click to expand...
Well i dont have the nikkor, and have no intentions to get it either im afraid. Up close id say the ZF50/1,4 @ F/1,4 wins. Then again i havent used neither of them extensively to form a strong opinion as of yet.

Kindest
--
Regards
Paul L.
 
tuabui said:
Very nice! I meant the lens too. When you have beautiful subjects the
image can carry you away. I have considered the Zeiss 85mm f1.4 and
the Nikkor version. However, I must admit that although the sharpness
is better on the Zeiss, the AF on the Nikkor captivates me more. I
too have three little ones and they don't stand still for portrait
shots....unless I take my stern face out from behind the view finder
of my D200.
Click to expand...
Thanx, yes AF can be very useful to hunt down kids :-)

Eventhough i havent experience it to be a problem.

Kindest

--
Regards
Paul L.
 
acrystalball said:
and congratulations to your family, Paul! She is lovely. I hope Mama
had an easy delivery. Welcome to the wild and wonderful world of four
children! :) I also have one boy and three girls.

This grab shot is great -- I SO know this expression, heh heh.
Click to expand...
acrystalball said:
Enjoy your new baby with that Nokton. Perfect FL for a newborn, isn't
it? Curious what the closest focal distance is...
Cheers,
Crystal
--
http://www.crystalkeesey.com
Click to expand...
Thanx Crystal!

Yes everything went very smooth, thanx.

I belive the minimum focusing distance is 45cm

Kindest
--
Regards
Paul L.
 
Most of my shots are of my young daughters and of course the shots are much more pleasing when the sunjects are not posed. I was also nervous about getting an MF lens. But in fact the number of shots that are sharp is comparable to using an AF lens. When using AF, I was continually put a focus point on the eye, getting focus and then recomposing. Meanwhile the subject moves or the expression changes. If I use AF-C then I am required to keep a focus point over the eye. Whether using AF-S or AF-C I am always fiddling with the focus point selecter as the subject moves around. With MF I compose, focus and shoot. Obviously, having a good viewfinder is critical, I'm shooting with a D200.
--
mumbler
 
Paul.R.Lindqvist said:
miancu said:
Hi Paul.

Wonderful shots, as usual.
I also got the 90mm apo lanthar and I'm very pleased by it.
Thanks for sharing.

Gorgeous kids, and nice Zeiss lineup you have there. ;)

cheers

miancu
--
-------------------------------
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikonion
http://nikonion.smugmug.com
Click to expand...
Thanx!

How do you like the 90?
Click to expand...
Excellent. Look:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1030&message=27092587

cheers

miancu
Paul.R.Lindqvist said:
Kindest
--
Regards
Paul L.
Click to expand...
--
-------------------------------
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikonion
http://nikonion.smugmug.com
 
Thanks Paul, for the hints.

Adding some hue is working to get rid of the bluish cast I was getting in my BW conversions. I hadn't been able to get the tone I wanted just with the channel mixer.

I will have to look into the Katz Eye. Is it difficult to replace the original screen? Doest it change the metering?

Regards

Sergio
 
paul - thanks for the OP re the Nokton 58.

two questions if you don't mind:

1. is it worthwhile to have both nokton 58 and zeiss zf 50 1.4? i have latter and am definitely interested in former but would value your opinion.

2. re zeiss zf 28 vs. zeiss zf 25 - which to get first? which more useful. fyi i have the zeiss 35/2 and 50/1.4 and the 50/2 makro, and a 12-24 nikkor dx. i am torn between the 28 IQ vs. the 25, but the 25 close focusing and slightly wider angle is attractive too.

mostly landscape, some city, some flowers (i also have the 105 VR for that and when i grow up hope to have $ for the zeiss 100/2 makro).
 
and paul, a postscript -- what a lovely family you have!

best to you and all.

mark
 
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