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<blockquote data-quote="Brian" data-source="post: 228174" data-attributes="member: 17621">&quot;Fast&quot; is a relative term, F2 used to be considered &quot;Fast&quot; for a normal lens, and F2.8 is Fast for a Zoom. With High-ISO performance in modern digital cameras, it's a whole new game. The expression used to be &quot;Shoot Black Bears in Caves at Midnight&quot;.F1.4 takes some getting used to, and most &quot;fast&quot; lenses have &quot;focus shift&quot; when stopped down. With an F1.4 lens, focus typically shifts slightly towards infinity as you stop down. Somewhere around F2.8~F4 is the worst as depth of field is not quite enough to overcome the shift. It takes some practice, with a manual focus camera it was easy to &quot;shift&quot; the focus ever so slightly to compensate. Just be aware of it, and try a few practice shots on something like a fencepost, which is what I use when testing out lenses.With the 50/1.4 lens- it's strong points are existing light photography and smooth out of focus areas when used close-up. It gives a natural perspective for close viewing ranges. &quot;it's a normal lens&quot;. Sometimes that throws people as wide-angle, telephoto, and zoom lenses give a novel perspective, different from your &quot;normal&quot; one.I haven't had the Df long enough to build up some samples, these are with a 50/1.5 Aspheric Nokton on &quot;my other brand digital camera&quot;...</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Brian, post: 228174, member: 17621"] "Fast" is a relative term, F2 used to be considered "Fast" for a normal lens, and F2.8 is Fast for a Zoom. With High-ISO performance in modern digital cameras, it's a whole new game. The expression used to be "Shoot Black Bears in Caves at Midnight". F1.4 takes some getting used to, and most "fast" lenses have "focus shift" when stopped down. With an F1.4 lens, focus typically shifts slightly towards infinity as you stop down. Somewhere around F2.8~F4 is the worst as depth of field is not quite enough to overcome the shift. It takes some practice, with a manual focus camera it was easy to "shift" the focus ever so slightly to compensate. Just be aware of it, and try a few practice shots on something like a fencepost, which is what I use when testing out lenses. With the 50/1.4 lens- it's strong points are existing light photography and smooth out of focus areas when used close-up. It gives a natural perspective for close viewing ranges. "it's a normal lens". Sometimes that throws people as wide-angle, telephoto, and zoom lenses give a novel perspective, different from your "normal" one. I haven't had the Df long enough to build up some samples, these are with a 50/1.5 Aspheric Nokton on "my other brand digital camera"... [/QUOTE]

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