Thursday, May 10, 2012

Me & my Minolta 85mm f1.4G D (review)

Meow
(iso 200, f4 on aperture priority)

I just bought myself a Minolta 85mm f1.4G D. Do I love it? hell yeah. So, for the past two weeks I've been testing the lens. Surprisingly the lens really impressed me.

My Handycam
(iso 200, f1.4 on bounce flash, unedited)

The picture above is a picture of my handycam taken on full aperture and unedited. Just look at the detail, bokeh, colour, contrast and the depth, really awesome right?

_DSC6488Testing my New Lens
(my first shot with the lens)

The Minolta AF 85mm f/1.4G (D) is one of the old professional grade lenses by Minolta. Obviously it is a discontinued item now because Sony took over Minolta's photo department back in early 2006. In the meanwhile the lens has been replaced by the Zeiss ZA 85mm f/1.4 - not exactly a cheap lens so used Minolta AF 85mm f/1.4 G are in high demand on the used market where they seem to sell around 700 €/US$ vicinity at the moment. On APS-C DSLRs such as the Sony Alpha 100 (used for testing) its field of view is equivalent 128mm so it doesn't really leave its primary scope (portrait photography) here.
(source : www.photozone.de)



As from my point of view, the lens really performs well for its price and it also depends on the user himself. Some user owns a kick ass gear but come out with a crappy result and some just us a basic gear but the result really good. In my opinion, the only lack about this lens is slow focusing, chromatic aberation at f1.4 and it quite expensive for a used lens but worth every penny. Lemme share with you some of the results. My first session with the lens I've made a mistake by set the exposure to Zero, some how the picture turn up to be brighter in my PC. So, what I did I set it to minus 1 on the exposure, check this out:

Hafiz Jeffer
(iso 100, f1.4 on aperture priority)

Hafiz Jeffer
(iso 100, f2 on aperture priority)

Hafiz Jeffer
(iso 100, f1.4 on aperture priority, shoot at low angle)

Hafiz Jeffer
(iso 100, f1.4 on aperture priority, shoot at low angle)

For your information, the pictures above I didn't increase the saturation, what I did was I just adjust the colour contrast in lab color mode then adjust the black on every channel and finally burn on few places. What do you think? Oh ya, smart sharpen(motion blur) at 100 and margin at 1

Bit Bit Vivit
(iso 100, f1.4 on aperture priority, shoot at low angle)

Good contrast produced by the lens, check out the sample above.

Mischa Luvriella
(iso 100, f1.4 on aperture priority, shoot at low angle)

I really love the dimension produced from the lens, the subject somehow pop up from the background. Frame your picture well then just snap.

Mischa Luvriella
(iso 100, f1.4 on aperture priority, shoot at low angle)

Look what happen when I burst the colour, wow isn't it? hehehehehe

Kristi
(iso 100, f1.4 on aperture priority, eye level. Normal tone)

Kristi
(iso 100, f1.4 on aperture priority, eye level. warm tone)

Abby Kumicky
(iso 100, f1.4 on aperture priority, eye level. Look at the dimension and colour contrast)

Abby Kumicky
(iso 100, f1.4 on aperture priority, eye level. Look at the dimension and colour contrast)

Abby Kumicky
(iso 100, f2 on aperture priority, eye level. Backlight, with proper camera handling the result will be like this, not forgetting you Photoshop skill also)

Mischa Luvriella
(iso 100, f1.4 on aperture priority, spot metering, eye level. Backlight, with proper camera handling the result will be like this, not forgetting you Photoshop skill also, this is not a good shot but I love the tone)

Mischa Luvriella
(iso 100, f1.4 on aperture priority, low angle. This is my personal favourite shot)

Mischa Luvriella
(iso 100, f1.4 on aperture priority, eye level. I really love the depth)

Mischa Luvriella
(iso 100, f1.4 on aperture priority, eye level. I really love the depth)

Conclusion, the reason I bought this lens is because I don't have to stand or sit far away from the subject especially wedding couple so my instruction will be clear because before this i used my Minolta 200mm f2.8G APO. The best part about the lens is the dimension produced by it and surprisingly the lens can capture sharp image at f1.4. CA is not a problem for cause I can always Photoshop it. What I'm trying to say here is to all portrait lovers out there 85mm is a must have lens doesn't matter if its a f1.2 or f1.4 or f1.8 or f2.8. Maximum the usage of the lens and you will get what you want :)

Have fun photo shoot :)

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