Manual focus lenses - wide is best

The more I review my gear, the more I realize that manual focus telephoto lenses, especially good quality fast aperture ones, are just a waste of time.  It's not due to the optical quality, its due to focusing.  Using something like an 85mm f1.4 or 135mm f2, it is very difficult to get the focus spot on, especially if the object is moving or relatively close.  If it is both, then forget even trying.  If it is difficult to get an in focus shot, no matter how good the optics are, its very difficult to justify owning.

So, just recently I sold my Nikon 85mm f1.4 Ai-S and Nikon 105mm f1.8 Ai-S, and will sell the Nikon 135mm f2 Ai-S shortly.  I've already purchased the Sigma 85mm f1.4 HSM recently to add to the Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 AF-S I already own.  Both these lenses have fast AF, and the chances of missing a shot are much, much lower.  My hit rate (ie perfect focus) is now about 70%, as opposed to 5-10%.

Wide angle lenses are a different kettle of fish.  Even with a fast lens, like the Nikon 24mm f2 Ai-s, it is much harder to miss a shot as the depth of field is much greater. The Nikon 35mm f1.4 Ai-S though, is trickier, and so I have just replaced this the new Sigma 35mm f1.4.

Sigma 85mm f1.4 HSM, Nikon D600

Sigma 35mm f1.4

One lens I am very intrigued with at the moment in the Sigma 35mm f1.4.  Although announced, shipping hasn't started and I can't find any reviews on the web.  If it's good, ie up to Nikon's excellent but expensive equivalent, I'm pretty keen to get one.  It is reasonably priced at around $900 - half that of the Nikon.  I love the 35mm focal length (one of the reasons I love the Fuji X100) and f1.4 is just a dream to shoot with.  I have the older Nikon 35mm f1.4 Ais manual focus, and while it is a nice lens, the quality at f1.4 bothers me, especially the weird bokeh.  It is still capable of producing good image, but I am hoping this Sigma will be a big step up.

Eaton Centre - Nikon D600 and Nikon 50mm f1.4 AF-D

Night time Flower Bed, 35mm f1.4 style

With a Nikon D700 and a fast wide angle lens, like the Nikon 35mm F1.4 used here, it is absolutely amazing how dark you can hand hold a camera without flash.  The orange daisys were shot at 1/30^th second (you can detect a touch of shake) and the red geraniums at 1/60^th second (pin sharp at the focus point), both using f1.4 at 3,200 ISO.

Even with theD700’s very bright view finder it was still difficult to see that the part I wanted was in focus.  It would have been next to impossible on the D90.

Bokeh-licious

The Nikon 35mm f1.4 Ai-S is an interesting lens.  It’s a very fast wide angle lens that focuses to just 30cm away.  Sounds all good, but the older design results in lower than expected contrast at f1.4 and quite an unusual - if not a little disturbing - out of focus blur, or bokeh.

In the last year three different 35mm f1.4 lenses for Nikon have been released on the market.  There’s the very expensive Nikon 35mm f1.4 AF-S, the also very expensive manual focus Carl Zeiss 35mm f1.4 Biogon T*; and interestingly the Korean made Samyang 35mm f1.4 manual focus.  PhotoZone gave the Samyang an excellent review, and at around $500 it’s one quarter the price of the AF-S Nikon and Zeiss, and only slightly more than the ageing Nikon 35mm f2 AF-D.  Better start saving – a comparison is in order.