08-29-2016, 01:43 PM
Most of these images have artificially increased contrast and reduced tonality - thus they are heavily post-processed either digitally or in the lab. Merely 3 or so images have a subtle contrast. Thus the lens contrast does hardly matter.
Regarding sharpness - a 200$ 50-200mm is PLENTY sharp till "135mm" in the relevant image area - you won't go longer that than anyway.
@JoJu - the card test for bokeh has a purpose. The harsh contrast in there emphasizes nisen bokehs. Testing blur is utterly useless. That cheap 50-200mm can produce awesome blur for those head portraits. In fact I can take the worst bokeh lens of em all and produce a smooth blur - all it takes is a short focus distance and a pronounced focus spread ... like in essentially all of those famous portraits.
Regarding sharpness - a 200$ 50-200mm is PLENTY sharp till "135mm" in the relevant image area - you won't go longer that than anyway.
@JoJu - the card test for bokeh has a purpose. The harsh contrast in there emphasizes nisen bokehs. Testing blur is utterly useless. That cheap 50-200mm can produce awesome blur for those head portraits. In fact I can take the worst bokeh lens of em all and produce a smooth blur - all it takes is a short focus distance and a pronounced focus spread ... like in essentially all of those famous portraits.