5/7/2023 0 Comments Best nikkor bokeh lens![]() ![]() This is a lens that makes you work for the amazing results that it can yield. In other words, this is not a lens to run and gun with. Instead of simply grabbing the focus ring and turning to make manual tweaks to the focus, you have to turn a ring on the camera that disengages the Auto Focus and then you can make manual adjustments. ![]() In addition to this, one of the major flaws with this lens is its lack of an automatic manual focus override. I learned to start focusing on ears, not eyes in order to get the eyes of my subject in focus. Luckily the D800 that this was tested on allowed me to go in and fine tune the Autofocus which nearly fixed the issue when maxed out at +20, but did not completely solve the problem. The lens that I bought consistently front focused on subjects less than about 10 feet away. So while the issues with Sharpness in less than ideal situations can be fixed simply by stopping down a few clicks or simply adjusting your light, the issues with Autofocus are a bit more tricky to deal with. Like this shot of my friend Taylor goofing off. The answer for me is simple: It’s tack sharp and you get some of the best Bokeh of any lens I’ve used recently. That of course begs the question, if I have to stop down to f/2.8, then what’s the point of the lens? With this lens, the best bet is to shoot at 2.5 or 2.8 to avoid the problems with CA. If you put the sun behind your subject, you’re going to have severe Chromatic Aberration or Purple/Green fringes.Īll of these are fixable in post, but it’s certainly a little annoying. It is very sharp at f/2 in selective circumstances. The problem, however, lies in the fact that this lens opens up to f/2. I think I can best sum it up by saying that it is one of, if not the sharpest, f/2.8 lenses I’ve ever used. Now that we've covered the things that aren't in focus, let's focus on the things that are in focus. Obviously this is an extreme example, but it demonstrates what this particular lens can do. If you would like to see exactly what this lens does when you’re changing the DC ring, the following image was locked off at f/2 and the Defocus control lens was rotated from Maximum Front Focused to Maximum Rear Focus and all points in between. Once these decisions have been made, simply adjust the ring so that the marker is pointed to the aperture on which you are shooting. It looks complicated but the best way to look at it is to pick which aperture you plan to shoot on and then decide if you want to control the out of focus areas in front or behind the focus point. ![]() In addition to an aperture and focus ring, this lens also has a ring dedicated to its Defocus Control feature. I have absolutely no idea how all of this is done from a technical standpoint, but I can show you how to operate it on the lens itself. However, it seems that “Defocus” is just a translation of the Japanese word for Bokeh, so instead of a soft lens, it simply offers you the ability to control the out of focus areas of the picture. I did a little research on this and it seems that when Nikon first introduced this lens in the United States and other English speaking countries back in 1991, they got the translation a bit wrong and it earned bad reputation as a soft focus lens. The first thing that I wanted to test was the legendary Bokeh of this lens owing not only to its fast aperture of f/2, but also a feature that has not been fitted to a Nikon lens since the 135mm f/2 and its little brother the 105mm f/2: Nikon calls it Defocus Control. So what happens when this lens is put to task? Besides, I’ve never had a client complain because my lens looked funny. It is a dated looking lens, but who really cares? It's solid and should stand up to whatever you throw at it. It is also quite prone to sticking if you don’t push it back in properly. The attached metal hood is also quite nice, although it makes it difficult to attach/remove the lens cap when it is out. It weighted nicely and its all-metal construction means it feels solid. That being said, it’s quite compact for a telephoto. That exclamation was quickly followed by “Wow this lens looks old!” That may sound harsh, but the lens is nearly 25 years old and Nikon has done quite a lot of updating to the outward appearance of its other lenses since then. My first impression of this lens when I pulled it out of it’s box was “Wow, that front element is massive!” The 72mm filter size makes quite an impression. ![]()
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