Recent posts by Lloyd at MacPerformanceGuide.com, WindInMyFace.com:
2020-09-19 Apple Core Rot: iOS 14 and macOS Safari Update Bring Treasure Trove of New Bugs
2020-09-19 Dealing with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis and Epstein Barr Virus (EBV): a Few Things that Have Helped
2020-09-18 Protecting Yourself in the Age of the Internet is Darn Hard: 3 Credit Cards Compromised in 2 Wee…
2020-09-16 Did China Create the CCP Virus? Tucker Carlson Interview of Chinese Virologist
2020-09-15 CCP Virus: “The Doctor Is In: Scott Atlas And The Efficacy Of Lockdowns, Social Distancing, And …
2020-09-13 Tigger Cat Goes Nuts over Duck Fat
See my Voigtlander FE wishlist page.
This page evaluates the Voigtlander FE Nokton 35mm f/1.2 Aspherical at very close range, a reproduction ratio of about 1:11.3, or roughly a very tight head and top-of-shoulders shot.
Voigtlander FE 35mm f/1.2 NOKTON Aperture Series: Dolls
Includes images up to full camera resolution from f/1.2 through f/11.
Separately, I show a distortion example: Voigtlander FE 35mm f/1.2 NOKTON: Distortion.
See my Sony wishlist page and Voigtlander FE wishlist page.
I’m not prepared to post images just yet (lousy subject matter, being confined to home by forest fires), but I’ve added some brief usage notes that are important to understand when working with the Sony FE 12-24mm f/2.8 GM.
Sony FE 12-24mm f/2.8 GM: Usage Notes
It’s going to be a 'bear' comparing this lens to the Sony FE 12-24mm f/4G and the Sigma FE 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN Art, because they all behave so differently in terms of field curvature and focus shift—trusting “quick tests” is ill-advised. A key part of my review work will be how to best use the lens to exploit its sharpness, given the land mine of focus shift.
That said, the Sony FE 12-24mm f/2.8 GM might be the finest lens of its kind ever produced.
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See my Voigtlander FE wishlist page.
This page evaluates the Voigtlander FE Nokton 35mm f/1.2 Aspherical at close range from f/1.2 through f/11, discussing sharpness, focus shift, and correction for secondary color.
Voigtlander FE 35mm f/1.2 NOKTON Aperture Series: Bicycles
Includes images up to full camera resolution from f/1.2 through f/11.
This series will give you a very good idea of how the Voigtlander FE 35mm f/1.2 NOKTON might apply to work where its pleasing rendering might apply, but also its potential for landscape photography.
See my Voigtlander FE wishlist page.
This page shows examples at full aperture, and assesses sharpness, secondary color, and bokeh with the about $999 Voigtlander FE 35mm f/1.2 Nokton Aspherical SE.
If you want a 35m lens that offers a lot of 'character', this might be your lens.
Voigtlander FE 35mm f/1.2 NOKTON: Examples at f/1.2
Includes images up to full camera resolution.
Last night the air started to clear—what joy to have AQI back below 40, and now it is near zero (ultra clean) because it is actually raining today at my place, a light drizzle... hooray! But whether any of it makes it over to the Livermore CA area or the Creek Fire area in the Sierra foothills... unlikely.
Later in the day, it cleared up to sunny skies in icky humidity with normal season AQI of around 40, but I’ll take that over the godawful smoke. I enjoyed my first bike ride (2.5 hours) in about two weeks—a double joy since I had decent physical energy and clean air! Being holed-up for 2 weeks inside the house has been a real downer. But my legs let me know that I’ve lost a lot of conditioning.
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So much for photographing in the mountains! I wasn’t aware of this until today, so I am sure glad I didn’t head out. Even the Inyo National Forest is closed (White Mountains and Eastern Sierra), and that is a mainstay for me. However, the order for Inyo NF expires in 9 days, on September 25.
UPDATE Sept 18: the National Forest Service announced that permission to access certain national forests is granted again, see Forest Service to Increase Access to National Forests in California 9/18/2020. However, Inyo National Forest (entire Eastern Sierra and most of White Mountains) remains closed until September 25 (TBD what happens).
Nine National Forests in California remain closed: Angeles NF, Cleveland NF, Los Padres NF, Inyo NF, Klamath NF, San Bernardino NF, Sequoia NF, Sierra NF, and Six Rivers NF. This decision will continue to be reviewed daily with evolving fire and weather conditions.
As yet, I am unsure whether BLM (Bureau of Land Management) lands are closed other than a few localized areas (such as the Slink Fire near Coleville), but it appears that BLM lands near Bishop CA remain open, with certain restrictions. However, at this time of year, BLM lands are generally hotter than a pistol.
Accordingly, I may head to Utah for my autum work and shoot the Canyonlands National Park, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Capitol Reef National park, and other areas this year—if they’re open... gotta check on that. Would be a nice change of pace.
See also:
Contact(s): Jonathan Groveman, (707) 562-8995
VALLEJO, Calif., September 9, 2020—Due to unprecedented and historic fire conditions throughout the state, the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region is announcing a temporary closure of an additional ten National Forests, meaning all eighteen National Forests in California are now closed. The closure of the additional ten forests will be effective at 5:00 pm today. These additional forests include the Eldorado National Forest, Klamath National Forest, Lassen National Forest, Mendocino National Forest, Modoc National Forest, Six Rivers National Forest, Plumas National Forest, Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Tahoe National Forest, and Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. This decision will be re-evaluated daily as conditions change.
We had closed eight National Forests on Monday evening, Sept. 7, 2020. Explosive growth of fires throughout California during the day and late evening of Sept. 8th led to this updated decision.
“The number of large fires and extreme fire behavior we are seeing across the State is historic," said Regional Forester Randy Moore. "These temporary closures are necessary to protect the public and our firefighters, and we will keep them in place until conditions improve and we are confident that National Forest visitors can recreate safely. I ask all Californians and visitors to take these closures and evacuations seriously for their own safety and to allow our firefighters to focus on the mission of safely suppressing these fires."
The Forest Service thanks our partners and the public for their cooperation and understanding of this monumental fire threat. It is critical that all Californians and national forest visitors follow these important closures and restrictions for their own safety and the safety of our firefighters. Citizens with specific questions within their area may call their local forests for more information.
The Forest Service manages 18 National Forests in the Pacific Southwest Region, which encompasses over 20 million acres across California, and assists forest landowners in California, Hawaii and the U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands. National forests supply 50 percent of the water in California and form the watershed of most major aqueducts and more than 2,400 reservoirs throughout the state. For more information, visit www.fs.usda.gov/R5.
Get Zeiss DSLR lenses for Nikon and Canon at B&H Photo.
See my in-depth reviews of Zeiss DSLR lenses.
I wanted to pass along another thank you note regarding your work with the 15mm Zeiss. I’ve owned this lens (pre-Milvus) for about a year now, and I spent quite a bit of time puzzling over the issues of sharpness that you’ve aptly mapped to field curvature. One of the first days I owned this lens I put it on my D810 and went for a walk through central Tokyo, just shooting handheld, getting a feel for the lens and its perspective, etc..
The attached cityscape image was shot at f/8 and ISO100, I’ve done some tweaking in Adobe Raw to bring up shadows and bring down highlights. Of course I instantly fell in love with the look and perspective that this lens can deliver. On the D810 it is a wonderful tool.
But I couldn’t help pixel peeping and seeing what the lens was doing. Like some others, I thought…f/8 + 15mm means huge depth of field and everything sharp. But as you say, it never turns out that way, more effort is required to get the best results.
In this photo I can see the field curvature that you’ve presented, the crosswalk offers a nice guide, but you can actually see focus creeping closer going away from the center, and then moving back again toward the edges. This is another confirmation of everything you’ve written on the lens…it is spot on. Of course, it works very nicely for this particular scene, but I wasn’t always that lucky.
Keep up the nice work, it is very helpful and valuable to get the most out of this gear…which is very much worth doing.
DIGLLOYD: the Nikon D810 still takes some of the best images available.
The Milvus 15/2.8 is interesting in always making its owners happy.
$2399 ZEISS 15mm f/2.8 Milvus ZF.2 in Lenses: DSLR
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$2299 ZEISS 18mm f/2.8 Milvus ZF.2 in Lenses: DSLR
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$1843 ZEISS 21mm f/2.8 Milvus ZF.2 in Lenses: DSLR
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$4990 ZEISS 28mm f/1.4 Otus ZE in Lenses: DSLR
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$1999 ZEISS 35mm f/1.4 Milvus ZE in Lenses: DSLR
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This series is at close range at a reproduction ratio of 1:14.7 (measured it). It evaluates all aspect of lens performance including distortion correction vs without.
Sigma FE 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art Aperture Series: Dolls
Includes images from f/1.4 through f/11 plus crops and with and without distortion correction so that readers can see the effects across the entire aperture range.
Reader James K suggests that my loaner sample of the Sigma FE 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art could be underperforming. Though I have not detected any obvious issues that would indicate lens skew, I also have been homebound due to horrible smoke, so I have no distance shots which are the easiest way to see it.
It is perfectly possible that this sample is at issue—I had sample-quality issues (lens skew and underperformance in general) with the Sigma FE 35mm f/1.2 DG DN Art. I have requested a 2nd sample, but do not yet know if I will get one. Sigma’s claims of MTF testing prior to shipment for quality control are IMO totally unsatisfactory, but that’s true of all brands these days.
A superb optical design means nothing if it cannot be built to strict tolerances!
Update Sept 17: a 2nd sample is definitely better and focuses spot-on as well. The first sample simply never focuses quite right with AF.
This series is about evaluating secondary color including violet fringing and magenta/green color bokeh. It alsos evaluates focus shift and sharpness across the frame as well as which aperture for optimal performance.
Sigma FE 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art Aperture Series: Kitchen Countertop
Includes images from f/1.4 through f/11 plus crops.
This series is primarily about evaluating secondary color and bokeh, but also evaluates focus shift and sharpness across the frame at a distance of approximately 8 feet / 2.5 meters.
Sigma FE 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art Aperture Series: Glass Vase
Includes images from f/1.4 through f/11 plus crops.
This series evaluates sharpness across the frame along with focus shift at a distance of approximately six feet / two meters. The results are especially instructive and rather disappointing.
Sigma FE 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art Aperture Series: Frog On Table
Includes images from f/1.4 through f/8 plus crops.
The Sigma FE 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art is an exceptionally sharp lens wide open at f/1.4, so it is a fine candidate for this study of how image quality can be degraded by a variety of factors.
How to get the best possible results?
Conclusive results are shown as to the effects on micro contrast, color aliasing and moiré from f/1.4 to f/11 from all of the following:
Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art: Distortion and Distortion Correction
Includes images from f/1.4 through f/11 in 6 variations: {single shot, single shot enhanced, pixel shift} with uncorrected and corrected-for-distortion versions.
This page looks at the hideous pincushion distortion of the Sigma FE 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art. The distortion is so strong that it really makes distortion correction all but mandatory.
Pincushion distortion is far more unnatural looking than barrel distortion, particularly for human faces, but it is also a Big Deal for horizons, architecture, etc. The world tends to bow-out or round-out, not pinch in as with pincushion distortion—it feels unnatural to me.
The de-facto requirement to correct this level of distortion guarantees sub-optimal micro contrast and sharpness in a substantial portion of the central areas of the frame. That makes the sharpness and Sigma FE 85/1.4 MTF chart highly misleading.
Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art: Distortion and Distortion Correction
Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art: Distortion Correction Impact on Micro Contrast and Sharpness
Includes discussion and uncorrected vs corrected images.
As a measure of detail, JPEG output file size is a solid indicator: the uncorrected image compresses at very high quality to 60.2MB versus 52.3MB for the corrected image. In other words, JPEG is saying that there is more than a 10% loss in pixel detail. Simply put, the Sigma FE 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art is a very fine lens, but it is not what is cracked up to be by Sigma in terms of sharpness.
Like Nikon, Sigma engages in misleading advertising, which I deem borderline fraudulent because the very same paragraph refers to pure optical characteristics with software correction for distortion:
The angle of view for 85mm focal length helps to focus on the essential elements. In landscape and snap photography, it vividly expresses the very impression of the scene by only showing the element that appeared impressive. The edge-to-edge resolution and beautiful bokeh bring the special atmosphere that a zoom lens cannot produce. Distortion is perfectly controlled as well.
...Improving image quality and compactization were made possible by optically correcting axial color aberration which can only be corrected optically, while utilizing in-camera correction to deal with vignetting and distortion...
Below, this is a picture of my framed tulips image hanging on my wall.
The comparison pits the Nikon NIKKOR Z 24mm f/1.8 S against the Nikon NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S at near to far distances. The zoom looks better here than it does in Bonsai Above Beaver Pond, but the reasons it performs so “unpredictably” are explained in detail.
A must read if you want to understand how to get the best from either lens.
Includes images up to full camera resolution from f/1.8 through f/11, plus crops and extensive commentary.
Ash is accumulating on everything and the air stinks like burning creosote or kerosene.
Although the US EPA PM2.5 AQI is nominally about 110, the real situation is more like 1000 because fine ash particles are everywhere, obvious on any surface.
Update, 11:15 AM: it was dark before, but now it’s like early night: I just checked outside, and at ISO 100, the Sony A7R IV is metering 6 seconds at f/8 here at 11:20 AM! Hopefully our 'green' dumbf*ck electricity supply won’t give us a rolling blackout.
Update 14:50: it is now so dark that the construction workers next door are using flashlights!
Update Sept 10: less orange and a bit less dark today, but raining fine white ash all day long. AQI approaching 200.
Update Sept 11: lAQI (air quality) is absolutely horrible to the nose and eyes, and at hazardous levels—toxins go directly into the bloodstream.
We are running all our IQAir HEPA air purifiers on high and sheltering in place with conviction, in contrast to doing so for the COVID-19 hysteria, which might have made sense for a month or so back in March, but now has become an economic cluster-bomb having no rational basis that will kill millions by policy.
Yesterday:
I am really hoping to get back here in a smoke-free situation—my home in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as the entire Eastern Sierra are one huge pall of smoke hazardous to health.
Below, great place to mellow out, and way better than Portland.
The series assesses the Nikon NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 30mm on a near-to-far scene. The 30mm end is much stronger than the 14mm end except that this lens sample looks to have a bad lens skew issue, showing that quality control at Nikon needs work.
Nikon NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S Aperture Series @ 30mm: Bleached Trees in Old Beaver Pond
Includes images up to full camera resolution from f/4 through f/11, plus crops.
The San Francisco Bay Area is choked with smoke (AQI of 150 or so), and entire Eastern Sierra Nevada and Owens Valley is choked with smoke and the central valley is choked with smoke. Local parks and beaches are closed due to fire. In short, there is nowhere to go that is both open and a health hazard, short of perhaps Utah or eastern Nevada. So my testing will be delayed until I can get clean air somewhere reasonable.
Along with the new Sigma FE 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art and Sony 12-24mm f/2.8 GM, I will be testing the new Voigtlander FE 35mm f/1.2 Aspheric for Sony mirrorless soon—on the way.
See my reviews of Voigtlander lenses for Sony mirrorless.
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See Nikon mirrorless wishlist.
This series evaluates the Nikon Nikkor Z 85mm f/1.8 S at medium to far distance from f/1.8 through f/11. It confirms how the 85/1.8S struggles to create a fully sharp image across the frame as also seen in Pre-Sunrise View South over Patriarch Grove.
Nikon NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.8 S Aperture Series: Rainstorm at Conness Lakes
Includes images up to full camera resolution from f/1.8 through f/11, plus crops.
