Lee Baby Simms wrote:
Perfect in everyway, except the busy bokeh wide open (compared to 35L II).
You’re not the first person I’ve heard say that bokeh gets less busy slightly stopped down. I’d really love to see an example of two shots of the same scene, one wide open and one stopped down where the bokeh is better, if you have ever done a comparison?
Many thanks
Shane
I don't have any progressive comparisons on hand (deleted them after the quick test), but here's the busy bokeh at 1.2
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomkphoto/46422926181/in/dateposted-public/
Not so bad here at 1.2 ...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomkphoto/46353669104/in/dateposted-public/
Here's 1.6 ...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomkphoto/44606416460/in/dateposted-public/
and 2.0, oddly the balls are not fully round ...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomkphoto/40112389953/in/dateposted-public/
compared to the 35L II, in roughly the same spot (a different day, on a Mark IV) ...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomkphoto/47022032172/in/dateposted-public/
I always have to frame it that it's not that the RF50 is bad, it's that the 35L II is perfect.
Thanks for sharing those. Really beautiful images. Stunning.
The fact that you are a relatively large distance from your subjects in your "busy bokeh" shot (full body taking up about half the height of the image), however, will of course impact on the bokeh.
By contrast, you are much closer to your subject in your "not so bad" f/1.2 example, which looks fantastic to me, btw.
You are similarly much closer to your subjects in the other stopped down shots so they are not fair comparisons.
I am not saying you are wrong, but these images certainly don't show any issue with f/1.2 that is improved on stopping down.
Your 35mm shot is indeed wonderful. Is it a slight crop? I guess some people might say that it would be better with a 50mm from a distortion perspective but really it looks great to me.