Nobody on the shores of Zurisee today
Nobody waiting for the ferry boat back to Zurich
Nobody in the city centre but a couple of tourists
Nobody by the Limmat … is everybody at Expovina tonight?
Each picture shot with a Sigma 20mm f/1.8, thanks Thiago! Amazing how much stuff can be shot in a single picture with a 20 mm. Click on pics to zoom
Ignorance is a bliss, but in this case I should have been blind, too. This picture panel (click to enlarge) shows you that my brand new Nikon D800 (sn 60xxxxxx) has the so called left focus point problem. Just google for D800 asymmetric focus issue and you will find hundreds of sad D800 owners.
From the test you can see the asymmetric nature of the issue: correcting with the AF fine tuning cannot solve the problem, as when the left AF looks slightly better (tuning AF = -12), the center point gets into troubles. With plus or more negative values (down to -20 !) it gets strongly blurred.
I contacted via mail the Swiss Nikon Service in Egg (close to Zurich), I will keep you updated. At least after this photo test I had something to drink to forget ;(
The test was run with:
– Nikon D800 (surprise!)
– 50 mm f/1.4G Nikkor full open
– 500 W halogen lamp
– 3 objects at a distance of 2.5m corresponding to left, center, right AF points
– pictures were shot in M-up and camera was on tripod to avoid vibrations
– live views were shot as lens tests
– before each shot, focus was changed manually to let the AF find the subject
– these pictures are representative of 5 replicates
– the panel is assembled with 100% cropped pictures
The first impression this small toy-like lens gives you is unbalanced, as your DSLR was never so light before with a mounted objective. The first approach with manual focusing using your two fingers is even worse: it is not easy at all keeping in focus and shooting the subject at the same moment. Especially if you use the biggest diaphragm which gives you the best blurred / focused point effects.
Nevertheless, after quite some practice you will strongly appreciate:
– the macro possibilities a lensbaby gives you, if you had no macro already; by manually pulling the objective you can get really close to the subject
– the Lilliput-effect you obtain by shooting people from above or far distance
– the efficacy of building photo-messages by focusing only one part of the subject, although practice is really necessary to avoid fully blurred pictures
Give it a look by clicking on the pictures below.
Copyright 2011-2021 Lorenzo Borghi. All rights reserved
