Is Nikkor 50mm 1.2 for D800 any good for portraits?
- Thread starter hulk2012
- Start date
My thoughts is that the lens is wonderful but a little short for portraits in my opinion. I have a 55 1.2 Ais and it's razor sharp at f/2 but soft in the corners between 1.2 and 2. It makes a nice portrait lens in DX format but I find it too short for portraits with the FX format.
The 85 1.8 would be a better portrait lens and my preferred one is still the old 105 f/2.5 Ais.
The 85 1.8 would be a better portrait lens and my preferred one is still the old 105 f/2.5 Ais.
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Can you explain that a bit further please?
I know of a pro that shoots with the D800e and a Noct Nikkor 50mm f1.2. I would say his images are nice, but don't blow me away in the sharpness department. It is an older lens design and most of the time as Marcel mentioned you would not be shooting wide open anyway. I would bet a 50mm f1.8G stopped down to f2 would be sharper. If you want crazy shallow depth of field, you lose the image sharpness with that lens. Then you might as well go with the 85mm 1.8 or 1.4G as you will have much more isolation of your subject and better background bokeh than with any 50mm lens.
Coma is the small off-color flaring you get off of bright points of light at night time.
Coma is the small off-color flaring you get off of bright points of light at night time.
I suspect he meant "chromatic aberration" that tends to create colorful halo around lights at night.
Ohh I got it now.. Thanks
Coma and chromatic aberration are somehow different things. Chromatic aberration, as you say, creates a colourful halo. This happens because the diffraction coefficient depends on wavelength, so different colours focus in different places.
Coma usually refers to a distortion which affects off-axis point sources (stars or street lights), which become blurred and elongated (the name refers to a nebula around the nucleus of a comet, hence it is a coma, not comma). This is because the lens does not focus perfectly at large off-axis angles. Sometimes comatic aberration depends on the wavelength and then it can be considered a type of chromatic aberration. But usually coma refers to a different type of distortion than chromatic aberration.
Coma can be a big problem in astrophotography, smearing images of stars. Also in nightscapes, where remote street lights are no longer points, but little "commas".
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Thanks for the info. I didn't know about that.
Isn't that kind of a nice bokeh effect with all these lights when shooting portraits wide open?
Comma is the phenomenon where point sources of light are rendered as "comma", that is point + a tail. Lenses meant for really low light are designed with minimal comma, so that point sources remain points. Lenses with large aperture are designed for excellent OOF (bokeh). They may or may not be designed for low light. The Nikon and Leica Noct series is designed for low light, where as the Nikon 50mm F1.2 is not.
Chromatic aberration (CA) is when all the colours do not focus at a single point. This gives rise to colored fringes at the edges (it is always there but gets masked in the main body). Chromatic aberration also affects the diffraction limit, as at high F stops with fine detail, CA will create fringes, reducing resolution. That is why APO lenses tend to be sharper at higher F stops, as there is no CA fringing. Another way of looking at it is that APO lenses can be used at much higher stops before diffraction softens the image up.
Chromatic aberration (CA) is when all the colours do not focus at a single point. This gives rise to colored fringes at the edges (it is always there but gets masked in the main body). Chromatic aberration also affects the diffraction limit, as at high F stops with fine detail, CA will create fringes, reducing resolution. That is why APO lenses tend to be sharper at higher F stops, as there is no CA fringing. Another way of looking at it is that APO lenses can be used at much higher stops before diffraction softens the image up.
Thanks bud. I appreciate your input but if that's the case with 50 1.2 in terms of comma then where is the use for their 1.2 speed?
Daylight portraits.
Then I would think with flash or strobes, too, providing the background isn't thrown into too much darkness, yes @aroy?
At F1.2 you do not really need a flash, even at ISO 100.
When taking indoor portraits with either strobe, flash, or constant lighting to control highlights and shadows, I could see a lens being used at f/1.2. My question is if a backdrop light isn't used and the backdrop or background fades into darkness, how would that affect comma or chromatic aberration?
Comma is most pronounced with point source, so general background lighting will not be affected.
Here is a portrait taken at F1.8, during the wedding in a hall. Now F1.2 will give you one more stop advantage, or half the ISO, with even better background isolation
