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Aperture Series: Burghers of Calais
This scene tests the Nikon 28mm f/1.4E at close range with off-center focus to see how well the lens performs at wider apertures in the mid zones.
Mosaic
Adobe Camera Raw 9.10.1.750. View ACR Settings. Camera Profile = Adobe Standard. No lens corrections used. Diffraction mitigating sharpening for f/9, f/13.
Focus was on the the right eye (left side) of the burgher.
Wide open sharpness and micro contrast from f/1.4 through f/2.8 are good, but lacking in the 'bite' that starts at f/4 and peaks at f/6.3. It’s not that it’s a bad performance at f/1.4 through f/2.8, it’s that it is so-so and that f/4 is very good but still not as good as I’d expect from the Zeiss Otus 28/1.4 at f/2 (and maybe f/1.4). Since a subject off-center in this position is a very good use of a lens compositionally at times, this is a bit disappointing, but it is also consistent with the mid-zone and outer-zone decline in performance seen with all the other comparison.
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