Nikon 24/1.4G and WPPI Update

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For the next three days, I'm out at WPPI in Vegas (Wedding and Professional Photographers International). Nikon

sent me along with 4 other professional wedding photographers to blog/write about the show.

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Using the new Nikon 24/1.4G ED, I went out to photograph some nightlife scenes near MGM Grand. It was a rainy

evening, so was able to capture some cool reflections and colors. View the gallery of images here: <a

href="/photodb/folder?folder_id=958843">http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=958843</a>.

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<p>Today I'll be attending workshops/1-1s/presentations with Cliff Mautner, Tony Corbell, Susan Stripling, and John Solano, among others. I'll be updating throughout the day on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.net">Photo.net's Facebook page</a> and the <a href="http://blog.photo.net/">Photo.net Blog</a>.</p>

<p>thanks for the photos, but i don't understand why none of them are taken at f/1.4</p>

<p>lol<br>

it's like buying a Ferrari and driving it in first first gear on the highway.</p>

<p>Well, just because you have f1.4 does not mean you should use it all the time. Most f1.4 lens are not that great at f1.4, and the depth of field is usually too shallow even for web JPEG images. Typically you are better off stopping down to f4 or so.</p>

<p>But it is still interesting to see how this lens performs when f1.4 or f2 is necessary.</p>

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<p>it's like buying a Ferrari and driving it in first first gear on the highway.</p>

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<p>Well, the roar of the engine would be impressive of course, and onlookers would notice ;-)<br /> But seriously, fast lenses are often very good slightly stopped down, e.g. f2-f4 is probably very nice on this lens. To put it in another way, it's good to have those gears for different kinds of roads; a racing car should do well in curves too.</p>

<p>I'm with Nina on this one. While fast apertures may help with visibility through the finder and focusing, blah blah, I'm all about what the lens can do wide open, and from the signals I've seen coming from Nikon recently, I believe they are too. Thus, I expect to see new IQ heights scaled with this lens wide open when independent tests begin to appear on the web. Assuming that's true, I'm potentially interested in this lens. If OTOH it's just another 'use it in the mid f number range' lens, I'll be left scratching my head over why this lens would ever be the lens of choice over the host of much cheaper Nikon lenses that do 24 mm just fine stopped down. Almost all lenses made by major manufacturers are great stopped down, so to me it seems bizarre for anyone to defend the use of an ultra-fast lens stopped down. I think the Ferrari analogy is apt here. I guess the force we're fighting is the same one that puts so many Porsche 911s on the freeways here in SoCal driven by people who wouldn't know how to take their car at speed around even a slight bend in the road without jamming on the brakes.</p>

<p>I want to see some wide open shots too. Why waste the extra grand to get 1.4 if you are not going to use it :)<br>

I've always lusted after the canon version of this lens and have seen some great images shot utilizing the Canon's shallow depth of field. I'd like to see how the Nikon compares.<br>

It's one thing to have subject isolation using an 85 1.4 but quite another to be able to go wide and still blur the background while maintaining a sharp center image. It definitely sounds like a fun lens to experiment with.</p>

 

<p>Thanks Steve :)<br>

IMO, you could have told me these shots at f/4 and f/5 are from the 14-24 or 24-70, and i wouldn't be able to tell the difference.</p>

 

<p>I too was looking for more wide open shots to get a sense of the lens. However, given most pictures are architecture or cityscape by Hannah, I can understand the reason to step down. I thought 24mm f1.4G would be more appropriate for low lights events or interior for the advantage of fast. Wenhan </p>

I will be posting images shot wide open in the next day or so. Possibly even this evening. Given my subject matter, it wasn't really conducive to shoot at f/1.4. Will provide examples that showcase the lens more.

<p>You should try to shoot architecture wide open.<br>

I've done it before, with a 55mm f/1.2... great results :D</p>

More images posted from WPPI in Vegas shot wide open at f/1.4.

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder.tcl?folder_id=958843

<p>May I ask what camera you are using? Thanks!<br>

And have fun!</p>

<p>Hannah uses a D700.</p>

<p>Actually, shooting wide open does not necessarily mean shooting something close to cause the background to be blur. Of course, that is one scenario which should definitely be tested.</p>

<p>There's also a scenario where focus is set at infinity or close to infinity with point source lights and the aperture is wide opened.</p>

<p>Lastly, if a fast lens is not made to be used wide opened then it's a corporate lie or a design flaw and they should be Toyota-ed! Why even bother to build and sell a fast lens if the darn thing cannot perform well wide open?</p>

<p>Having said this, I still have a certain level of trust that Nikon will deliver.</p>

<p>PS: Is the sample which Hannah was using a production lens or pre-production or prototype?</p>

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