Welcome again to my evaluate of the publish restore Leica SL2 and a choose lens. On this part we might be trying on the Nikon 50mm f1.4 AIS lens mounted on a reasonable Fotasy “NK-L L” adapter, as a result of in my electronic mail conversations with Pascal I discussed that it renders very properly within the SL2 and Pascal thought it will be attention-grabbing to see.
The primary a part of this evaluate might be discovered right here.
All of those photographs had been made in late Could and early June after I was nonetheless getting reacquainted with the digicam. Because the digicam’s firmware didn’t present a generic lens setting to supply stabilization, I set the digicam to make use of the lens profile for the Leica 50mm f1.4 Summilux M (non aspheric)* and later used the Seize One profile for the Nikon 50mm f1.4 G. Additionally, like in Half 1, all photographs that embody folks can have faces noticed out to accommodate French legal guidelines.
Our first alternative to get out after recovering from our return journey from Arizona was a stroll on the seaside. Our vacation spot was the Level No Level Mild Home and surrounding seaside; positioned close to the neighborhood of Hansville, Washington. We determined to take, Tucker, our good friend’s canine for a stroll and our timing was good, as a result of the tides for this morning had been going to be actually low, giving us a number of seaside to discover.
This sequence gave me my first alternative to work with the digicam in circumstances that will let me consider the publicity meter and the way the sensor offers with highlights.
For the good thing about those who didn’t learn the feedback to the primary article. The SL2 has a characteristic generally known as “Blinking Highlights”, that’s just like zebras in different cameras; the SL2 does embody zebras when set to file video. When this characteristic is turned on, when the brightness degree exceeds a certain quantity, the spotlight will blink black and white to provide you with a warning to the scenario. You then scale back publicity till the blinking is scale back to an appropriate quantity or eradicated. The brightness degree to activate the blinking is about within the digicam menu, and right now I used to be utilizing a setting of 230 out of 255; the digicam’s default setting is 253.
For the above photographs, setting publicity compensation to -2/3 cease for the overall publicity seemed good and a further -2/3 cease of compensation for the highlights seemed good on the digicam. Reviewing the pictures in Seize One, solely a small quantity of publicity and spotlight adjustment was crucial. Which made me optimistic that my points with the sunshine meter and spotlight clipping had been addressed. I’ll return to mild meter changes in Half 3.
My subsequent excursions to make use of the digicam had been to the Ballard and Fremont neighborhoods of Seattle. My first cease was Ballard and the Farmer’s Market, the place the next picture was made.
Later that night I returned to Fremont, also called “The Heart of the Universe”, to go to the Seattle Troll, that lives below the Aurora Bridge, and re-try making photographs with an Edward Hopper really feel to them.
The pictures of the Troll above and the picture beneath, with very shiny and darker adjoining areas, convey up a problem in utilizing legacy guide focus lenses. The problem is focusing the picture. As focus peaking, in any digicam, is definitely fooled by the obvious distinction distinction between shiny and darkish surfaces/areas, or you could have a spherical/easy topic and there’s no distinction to help you. In these instances, it’s useful to zoom into your scene and concentrate on the a part of your topic that’s most vital utilizing the EVF somewhat than the peaking. Or you could discover that you’re focusing behind your topic.
Returning to Fremont I walked round in search of topics that caught my eye.
One of many issues I’m making an attempt to do extra usually, is to not consider sharpness as a most fascinating high quality in a picture. Within the following photographs I’m making an attempt to see how the lens renders; de-focused and large open, centered and large open, and centered and stopped down (f5.6 on this case1. The primary three photographs obtained no publish processing past the default settings in Seize One. The fourth picture is similar because the third with a small quantity of adjustment to style.
My conclusions from making this sequence of photographs are:
Processing the pictures from the Nikon 50mm F1.4 AIS compelled me to broaden my expectations of it. This was the primary lens I bought with a Nikon digicam again after I began taking images severely, and I had off/on emotions in direction of it. Stopped down I actually preferred the pictures I might get. However used between f1.4 and f2.8, I is also upset with the pictures I might get. This lens was in all probability the genesis of my obsession with picture sharpness. As a result of, pals utilizing different methods would guess higher outcomes at related settings than I used to be.
Utilizing this lens on the SL2 opens reveals us what this lens, and any lens, is able to when the variables within the SLR optical chain are eradicated. In the course of the time I used to be making photographs for this a part of the evaluate, I made photographs of a memorial gathering for a good friend, the portraits and group photographs made had been fairly good and the household was proud of the outcomes. I didn’t miss having a local lens. The outcomes right here present me that whereas the lens will not be as clinically good as many new lenses, the picture rendering could be very pleasing in its personal manner. From a creative/technical perspective, large open this lens satisfies my needs for a creative rendering, with f4-f11 being the candy spot for sharp and clear photographs. It is a lens that’s effectively value being in your digicam bag.
The SL2 is regaining my belief that it’ll carry out the best way I count on a Leica digicam to function. I nonetheless want to make use of it in a greater variety of settings earlier than I can resolve that the problems that prompted me to ship it to Leica USA service have been corrected.
Plus, the extra I take advantage of the digicam with legacy lenses, it’s reenforcing the concept that is in all probability the very best common again for legacy lenses obtainable to us. The sensor merely collects the sunshine projected on it and offers us with an unaltered view, not like different mirrorless cameras.
(*) The SL2 additionally offers lens profiles for Leica R-mount lenses. For the seaside stroll I forgot to vary the setting after I switched lenses and determined to maintain the setting fixed whereas making photographs for this text. Utilizing the setting for the R-mount lens would offer related, if not improved outcomes.
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