In the distant past when dinosaurs roamed the earth and film was the method of recording images here’s a Nikon 55mm F1.2 lens, this one is from the end of 1977 or the begining of 1978. This lens was made for men (and women) to show off how big their F number was, Ooer missus! It was a way for camera/lens manufacturers to show off their prowess in designing wide aperture lenses but in doing so we end up with a lens with lots of “issues” until you stop the lens down to a lower f stop (for example an expensive f1.2 lens will perform better at f2 but another cheaper f2 lens will just be as good at it’s max f stop at f2! So why not just buy the cheaper f2 lens in the first place!!) We all know that dosen’t work, when given the choice I’ll have the large one and while we’re on, I’ll have two!
One of the many problems this lens has is a contrast issue ie. it dosen’t have any until you stop the lens down to about f2.8. In the days of film this was a bit of a problem but now we live in the future we can make corrections in the retouching process (it’s like magic!). The other main problem is this lens struggles with coma at wide apertures (this is where points of lights take on a coma shape instead of a point).
So why buy/do all this stuff, if you haven’t already guessed I like stuff like this, it’s what makes image creation fun and I think the more you know how things work it makes the most important thing, like why and what we do at the image creation stage has the ability to enhance the final image for the better.
Image below taken a Hartlepools Big Lime Triathalon event (that’s my oldest son putting on his goggles, he did fantastic, I’m so proud!) but just look at the shallow depth of field! It’s amazing!
Seeya mb
