I definitely will go on using my wide angles, but I'm wanting to get
some isolated portraits, for which the 50mm seems ideal.
Part of the trouble with zone focusing is that I'm not even holding
the camera a good part of the time. I've been mounting the camera on
a telescoping house painters extension pole and using it with the
wired remote as a super monopod. Sometimes this is right beside me, I
even use it at eye level and use the viewfinder some of the time, but
it's often higher or lower or even held at arms length. I can get
12-14 feet off the ground this way, nice in a crowd! But it's a bit
harder to estimate the distance to the subject. Even getting it
pointed right is tough!
I was having trouble with my f/2 A. Too many blurred shots even for
me! The viewfinder is fairly dark under these conditions, if it's
accessible at all. For zone focusing, the narrower DOF was beating me
more often than not. I'm used to the Oly C5050 and having to deal
with DOF issues is a novelty at this point. I probably ought to try a
little more with my A lens, but this seemed like a situation that
might actually justify AF, assuming that it would work reasonably
well.
At 5:09 PM +0200 8/2/05, Jens Bladt wrote:
Why use an AF lesn for zone focusing?
One of the best (according to Photodo tests) 50mm lenses ever made by
anybody is the SMC Pentax-F 1.4/50mm - or the 1.7.
This lens will sell for appr. 100 USD. It's worth it. I have the FA 1/50mm
wich is excellent.
The differences I don't know (F/FA). PErhaps something about transfering
info to the camera body.
Why not go on using wide angles 24mm or 35mm?
Regards
Jens Bladt
Arkitekt MAA
http://hjem.get2net.dk/bladt
-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: Alan P. Hayes [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sendt: 2. august 2005 16:58
Til: [email protected]
Emne: Need advice on picking a 50mm AF lens
Sending this twice, 'cause I have a suspicion that my other mail
address doesn't make it through. If others are seeing it twice, I'd
appreciate it if someone would let me know.
****************************************************************************
**
I've been thinking about getting a fast 50mm F or FA for my istD for
shooting at county fairs and carnivals. I've been using a 24 f/2
mostly for the night stuff. I've tried shooting with a 50 f/2 A lens
I have with less than satisfactory results. I mostly zone focus,
which works fine with the 24, but not too well with the 50.
My questions are:
Will the AF work in this kind of light?
Are the 1.4s likely to be worth the extra they cost?
Roughly how much pricier are they likely to be?
Is there any real functional difference between F and FA lenses?
Here are a couple of samples of the sort of thing I'm trying to take
pictures of.
<http://www.ahayesphoto.com/figurestudy/pages/IMGP5188.htm>
<http://www.ahayesphoto.com/figurestudy/pages/IMGP5167.htm>
These are both at ISO1600, 1/60, wide open with a Kiron 24 f/2.
Probably underexposed one to two stops. That's fairly typical. My
main concern isn't the light, but being able to focus with a somewhat
longer lens while shooting from the hip or off a painter's extension
pole!
--
Alan P. Hayes
Meaning and Form: Writing, Editing and Document Design
Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Photographs at
http://www.ahayesphoto.com/americandead/index.htm
http://del.icio.us/ahayes
--
Alan P. Hayes
Meaning and Form: Writing, Editing and Document Design
Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Photographs at
http://www.ahayesphoto.com/americandead/index.htm
http://del.icio.us/ahayes
