10-11-2013, 12:15 AM
Two days ago I got it. 
Impressive piece of optics. Zoom and focus ring are a big pleasure to use (better than Nikon, I'd say), sharpness and contrast are great and usability in low light photography with a zoom is something I'm happy with, especially because there are no flares. Now, as for the AF... I think this lens will face the problem, that the AF focuspoints in APS C cameras of Nikon (can't speak about Canon) are just a bit huge. In height, the AF field of a focus point already covers 1/16 of the whole height. Didn't measure it in width. But with such a huge box, this is covering 50cm in a distance of 5m at 18mm FL (or 10cm at 100cm distance). In 50 cm, there can be a huge distance when shooting at open aperture. Somewhere in those 50 cm height the the phase AF is working and tries to catch some focus. But where exactly? That's something I also have to deal with any other f/1.4 lens: if I'm very close to the subject, it sometimes is hard to guess on which point the focus will be - no matter how exact the adjustment of the lens is.
I had problems to get the target of Spyder lenscal properly at some of the distances necessary to adjust the lens via USB-dock. In real life, the challenge is not so much for the camera's AF but for the photographer to guess on which point the camera will hit the focus.
I'm sure there are already tons of pictures available, but I dare to post this link to some original size pics anyway. Camera was D7100 for which I bought that lens.
Ah, nearly forgot: What do you think about it's bokeh?
Impressive piece of optics. Zoom and focus ring are a big pleasure to use (better than Nikon, I'd say), sharpness and contrast are great and usability in low light photography with a zoom is something I'm happy with, especially because there are no flares. Now, as for the AF... I think this lens will face the problem, that the AF focuspoints in APS C cameras of Nikon (can't speak about Canon) are just a bit huge. In height, the AF field of a focus point already covers 1/16 of the whole height. Didn't measure it in width. But with such a huge box, this is covering 50cm in a distance of 5m at 18mm FL (or 10cm at 100cm distance). In 50 cm, there can be a huge distance when shooting at open aperture. Somewhere in those 50 cm height the the phase AF is working and tries to catch some focus. But where exactly? That's something I also have to deal with any other f/1.4 lens: if I'm very close to the subject, it sometimes is hard to guess on which point the focus will be - no matter how exact the adjustment of the lens is.
I had problems to get the target of Spyder lenscal properly at some of the distances necessary to adjust the lens via USB-dock. In real life, the challenge is not so much for the camera's AF but for the photographer to guess on which point the camera will hit the focus.
I'm sure there are already tons of pictures available, but I dare to post this link to some original size pics anyway. Camera was D7100 for which I bought that lens.
Ah, nearly forgot: What do you think about it's bokeh?