5D / Zeiss combo
Ok, so this week was busier than I thought with after-effects of the move, but I did get some shooting in. Mainly using the Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 ZE I rented from LensRentals. This image above was captured of the dead tree on my front lawn. Some notes about this image:
- Camera: 5D
- Lens: Zeiss 50mm ZE
- ISO: 400
- Exposure: 1/50 @ f/4, -1.7 EV
- Processed in Capture One. Yellow Filter b&w
Whew. Lots of stuff there. I processed this image after I got my desktop setup back in working order tonight, and I’ve been anxious to work in Capture One again with the 5D images. Below is an enlargement of a portion of this image:
Center portion zoom in
So, I really, really like the way this lens draws, especially in b&w conversions. It’s a manual focus lens, and it works really well with Canon’s AF systems: activate auto focus through whatever means you normally do (I use a button on the back of the camera rather than the ‘halfway depressed shutter’ method) and, while activating this system, focus the lens. When a portion of the image over which one of the active focus rectangles comes into focus, the camera beeps and the rectangle flashes as if the lens had auto focused on that point (the ZE models of these lenses are created by Zeiss to mate with Canon’s electronics). It’s kinda the best of both worlds, as it were. I’m not as fast right now as if I was focusing with a screen that supported it, but given the fact that the focusing screen in the camera is not designed to support focusing by eye, as it were, it really helps. The 5D does have such a screen (I think its a split-prism), and I bet that combo would work just great. Research to do.
The electronic mating with the body also supports auto aperture exposure methods, so I’m not exposing manually, either.
It’s Pittsburgh, right, so I can’t really work a lot in, um, color at this time of year, but below is an image of a fence near work:
construction site
I hope the sun shines a little before the lens has to go back.
Another thing I’ve been experimenting with this lens is focusing at f/1.4. Holy crap, the DOF is razor-thin. When I use my Sigma 30mm f/1.4 on my 10D, the increase DOF of the crop sensor really saves me when I focus at subjects close by. But with 5D’s full-frame, that aperture results in a DOF that is just fractions deep (if that) at a distance of about three feet. Below is an image where just the corner tip of the cardboard box is in focus.
Here is the full frame:
I focussed on the box edge
And here is the close up of the edge:
I *think* that edge is in focus
So, I don’t know how much use I’d get with this lens at f/1.4 up close.
Still playing.
Jeff Lynch commented on the same DOF with a FF camera going from a crop sensor, I have found the same thing with the Nikon FF. It makes life real interesting but didn’t take long to get used to. I find it all feels a lot more like my 35mm film cameras did for DOF and focus than the crop sensors did.
Great images and I understand the lack of color, have the same problem on this side of the continent this time of year.
As you noticed, we seem to have similar weather in Lund and Pittsburgh. From what I can tell seeing the pictures, our colours are not a bit deeper than yours. But trees, like the one on your front lawn, always look more interesting during the winter. We have lots of these climbers too, whom take over entire trees and make them look winter-green, thought the tree is dormant (or dead). These makes dramatic pictures, yours not an exception.
That DoF is purrrrrdy.
I’m waiting to see when I have to bring back my Winterscapes Gallery series like last winter.
The strange mix of creepiness and beauty in those winter trees makes a great subject.
5D with a Zeiss 50/1.4 sounds like a great way to get my A-1 out of my hands (without them being cold and/or dead). The images from the 40D don’t quite have the feel to them. I just need to convince my wife that the savings in film and processing are worth it.
I agree with your assessment, although I do have a soft spot in my heart for the A-1. Many of my older color slides were captured with exactly that beast.
I think you’d be happier with the 50 2.0 macro, sharper at 2.0 than the 1.4 with better contrast overall. The ee-s screen with the 5d or the eg-s with the 5d mk2 work wonders with MF lenses, no need for a split image.
Absolutely, I have the ee-s screen on my Christmas list.