Following on from my recent posts regarding my purchase of this bargain 85mm f/1.4 manual focus lens from Rokinon/Samyang, here are some more images from today.
First to show depth of field for a head shot at f/1.4 – here I have used a store mannequin through a window and used a polarising filter to reduce window reflections:
and with another mannequin, but for this one contrast is decreased as I could not fully eradicate all reflections, bt nevertheless, one can see depth of field well and a small degree of purple fringing on out of focus strong highlights – this lens is incredible for its control over purple fringing in general, at least when compared to the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8:
Now here is a nice nature shot of a bee on some flowers – I used the lens set at closest focus (1m) and moved camera in and out until the bee looked in focus – no time for magnified view with this shot, note the delicious smooth bokeh:
But how sharp is this lens? Well, even though I had not been sure of obtaining critical focus, and the bee could have been moving, here is a 100% crop of the bee in the above image for pixel peepers – not bad given the uncontrolled circumstances! (Click on image to see 100% view)
and, while I was in the mood for some close up nature work, and it was Autumn in Melbourne on a lovely sunny day, here is another nature shot at close focus of 1m in the shade but with some backlight on the leaf:
Finally, as I walked in the park, I could not resist this quick snap of this lady with her grand-daughter to demonstrate that even at a distance (perhaps 15-20m from me), the background can still be thrown out of focus when using this lens at f/1.4. No Photoshop apart from sepia toning. This image is best appreciated in larger view by clicking on it.
As you can see, I am enjoying this lens, and it really adds to the Micro Four Thirds fun factor as well as giving almost identical imagery as a Canon EF 135mm f/2.0L lens on my Canon 1D Mark III but at considerably less weight, size and cost.
A must have lens for the photographer willing to use manual focus – if only Olympus would make an autofocus version!
More images of this combination can be seen on my website here.
What’s the blockyness in the OOF area of the first two images? It kind of looks like JPEG compression, but is that on your originals?
Yep, that’s jpeg compression – I overlooked that when I was creating these for the web using Paintshop Pro (which I am not used to – I don’t have Photoshop on this laptop).
oh, and no, it is not on the originals.
Where did you pick the Rokinon up from. I absolutely love the look of it, and although it isn’t a traditional 85mm frame on the GH1 it still looks terrific. The shot above in the park with the lady and daughter is really gorgeous. I have the GH1 and GH2 but I am looking for something to really pull the subject out of the background. What is the nearest you can focus on the lens. I live in Melbourne too. Nice to see another GH user in the area!