08-10-2010, 11:50 AM
Thanks for the (once again) excellent review, Markus. I had the same problems with the 85/1.4 on my D80 back in 2008 when I bought the lens brand new, profiting from the weak Dollar. The focus shift led to many, many misfocused shots at wide open aperture. This was the reason I sold it although it was probably one if not the most beloved lens I ever had (I had a soft spot for the 105VR).
[quote name='mst' timestamp='1281360249' post='1607']
Now, the real question is: are any of the possible improvements really field relevant ... for such a lens?
[/quote]
It depends on the camera. The higher the contrast and resolution of a lens wide open, the better the data for noise algorithms to work with. Besides the benefit of having a shallow dof, I buy and use f/1.4 lenses mainly for their light gathering ability in available light photography. And using only an Fuji S5, despite her once good NR performance, the demands today for clean ISO 1600 images make an efficient NR software more desirable than ever. It is sometimes better to stop the lens down half a stop to get better contrast and edge definition while raising the ISO than to shot wide open as clever NR software can overcompensate the increase in noise with better contoure definition. In other words: motif dependend, the trade of sacrificing textuer detail for edge definition is often profitable, but has to be made in the first place because wide open performance is siginificant lower than a bit stopped down.
Chris
[quote name='mst' timestamp='1281360249' post='1607']
Now, the real question is: are any of the possible improvements really field relevant ... for such a lens?
[/quote]
It depends on the camera. The higher the contrast and resolution of a lens wide open, the better the data for noise algorithms to work with. Besides the benefit of having a shallow dof, I buy and use f/1.4 lenses mainly for their light gathering ability in available light photography. And using only an Fuji S5, despite her once good NR performance, the demands today for clean ISO 1600 images make an efficient NR software more desirable than ever. It is sometimes better to stop the lens down half a stop to get better contrast and edge definition while raising the ISO than to shot wide open as clever NR software can overcompensate the increase in noise with better contoure definition. In other words: motif dependend, the trade of sacrificing textuer detail for edge definition is often profitable, but has to be made in the first place because wide open performance is siginificant lower than a bit stopped down.
Chris