Time for the next instalment of the SLR Magic 35mm review!
I used this lens quite a lot yesterday and once again I was pleased with the images I got. I have started to realise the lens has two personalities in a way, when the lens is wide open you can coax the type of flare from it that is fitting of a blog entitled lens porn, In my humble opinion it's some of the most awesome looking flare I've ever seen and the really great thing is you can eliminate it quickly by stopping down just a TINY amount, I'm talking before you even get to T2, it's like having a switch for the flare.
Taken at T1.4
There's some aspects of shooting wide open such as the flare and purple fringing that are somewhat "lo fi" but on the other hand I find the lens to be reasonably sharp at this setting and consistent across the frame, I would have expected the resolution at T1.4 to drop off severely towards the edges but it doesn't. The bokeh wide open is very nice too, it's mostly relatively neutral apart from some types of light sources such as xmas decorations where the light discs have an outline effect which I find quite cool but most of the time the bokeh is just nice and smooth.
The following shots are taken at T1.4
The sharpness gradually increases as you stop down and by T2.8 things are already bitingly sharp, certainly enough to provoke some moire here and there with my Sony NEX-5n which is usually a clear sign of high resolution.
Current thoughts:
The more I use this lens the more I like it, when it's wide open you can use the shallow depth of field and crazy flare to get some funky looking effects but that's not to say it can't be used seriously wide open, with some care you can get shots from the lens that belie it's relatively modest price tag. Don't forget this lens with it's T1.4 maximum aperture will be available for around $349 with a $50 rebate and additionally owners of the SLR Magic 35mm F/1.7 will be able to trade there lens in and get an additional $90 discount. Consider that a Zeiss 35mm F/1.4 will set you back $1800 or a Leica Summilux $5000 and you begin to realise how reasonably priced this lens is, obviously the SLR Magic isn't going to be as good optically, to claim that would be foolish but proportionately I would have to say it offers much better value.
First shot taken at T2.8, the rest taken at T1.4
You can now find the final part of this review here
7 comments:
Interesting. I have the Fujian f1.7. Do you think the SLR Magic f1.4 would give better image quality than the Fujian f1.4? From your review of the SLR Magic 1.7 it seems as though there's little difference from the Fujian. i wonder how both f1.4 versions compare.
@Rob Davis
Are you asking how the the 35mm 1.4 compares to the 35mm 1.7?
I'm not aware of a fujian 35mm 1.4 but the SLR Magic 35mm 1.4 trounces the fujian 35mm 1.7 in terms of IQ, much much sharper at the edges and no field curvature so the centre and edges of the image can be in focus at the same time!
can you pls post more sample photos esp bokeh in low lights. what do you think about this lens going up against a voigtlander 25 f0.95?
perhaps a low light scene with lots of background lights for the bokeh. i would want to examine closely how the light discs would turn out or how the out of focus background would render. thanks!
@dumplingsiomai
Hi there,
Sorry for the late response! I still intend to get some shots like this but my life has been complicated recently so it has been hard to find the time.
I do have one shot that is a bit like how you describe but I didn't consider it good enough to put on the blog, I would be happy to email it to you though, it's relatively low light and has lots of xmas lights in the background.
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