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Which 35mm? Advice needed please...

Started Mar 24, 2016 | Questions thread
LaszloBencze
LaszloBencze Contributing Member • Posts: 828
Re: Which 35mm? Advice needed please...
2

The MK II version is clearly much better at f1.4 than the old version.

It is better at f2.0

It is slightly better at f2.8

It is almost identical at f4.0

Therefore, unless you are doing a great deal of shoot at wide apertures you will gain very little from the new and very expensive 35mm f1.4 MK II. The appearance of the MII has pretty much destroyed the resale market for the old version which is now selling for somewhere between $700 and $900, although it seems the price is trending lower. Therefore, the old 35mm f1.4 becomes something of a bargain, especially since it's performance wide open is not nearly as inferior as you may be led to believe. I own this older lens. Here are a few examples of shots at f1.4 from my "Old Roseville" series:

Would all these images be sharper if they had been taken with the MKII version? Of course they would. But the question to ask yourself is "How much would that increase in sharpness matter?" Is it worth paying 2 1/2 times the price?

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