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Sirui Aurora 85mm F1.4 Review | A Full Frame Portrait Dream?
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Dec 6, 2024
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a deep dive review of the popular new Sirui Aurora 85mm F1.4 full frame portrait lens. | This episode is sponsored by Into the AM. Use the code DUSTIN10 for an additional 10% off at intotheam.com/DUSTIN10. | Read the Text Review: https://tinyurl.com/Aurora85DA | Visit the Image Gallery https://tinyurl.com/Aurora85Pics | Purchase the Sirui Aurora 85mm F1.4 @ Sirui https://tinyurl.com/BuyAurora85 | B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/411V0kt | Amazon https://amzn.to/3On8NL1 | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3OmGKvb | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/4eK6JY4 | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/3OlTTVh Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/ Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Adorama: https://howl.me/cjU0LKdp3LN Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan Sony Canada: https://www.thesonyshop.ca/?ref=abbott Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3qG1p18 Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay Into the AM Clothing: https://bit.ly/intotheAMda and use code DUSTIN10 for 10% off Fioboc Clothing: https://tinyurl.com/FiobocDA20 and us code DUSTIN20 for 20% off Make a donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dustinTWI ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro and Concept
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:11
hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
0:12
to give you my review of the Siri Aurora
0:16
85mm f1.4 this is an important lens for
0:19
Siri because it is their first
0:21
autofocusing fullframe lens it's also
0:24
their first lens with a number of some
0:27
of the new and included features that
0:29
they have it's starting off very
0:31
competitively by offering a 2024 early
0:34
bird discount of
0:36
$499 100 bucks up and they're including
0:39
two filters the CRI Aurora has some
0:42
strengths and weaknesses relative to the
0:44
other 885mm options but the overall Buzz
0:47
that I'm seeing seems to be very
0:49
positive so is it worth buying well
0:51
we'll explore that in today's review
0:53
today's episode is brought to you by
0:55
into the am and their great collection
0:57
of graphic te's and hoodies designed by
0:59
local artist there are tons of deals
1:01
right now so visit intotheam.com
1:05
dustin1 for an extra 10% off so let's
1:08
start by taking a look at the build
1:10
handling the overall design features of
1:12
this lens today first thing that really
1:15
kind of stood out to me is great
1:16
presentation uh the Box itself is nice
1:19
there is a nylon padded case the
1:22
included filters as as previously
1:24
mentioned all of that added up to a very
1:26
positive first impression for me now the
1:29
size of the lens it is 80.3 MM in
1:32
diameter or 3.2 in it is 102 mm in
1:36
overall length I'll pop off the hood so
1:39
you can see that and that is 4 in it has
1:42
a fairly small 67 mm front filter thread
1:45
though as we'll see in just a bit it has
1:47
surprisingly low vignette for having
1:49
such a relatively small entrance pupil
1:52
there the weight of the lens is 540 G
1:55
which is obviously lightweight compared
1:57
to a lot of 85 mm lenses though is not
2:00
as light as the lightest in the class
2:02
which is samyang's 885mm f1.4 Series 2
2:06
lens and that lens weighs 9 G so 31 G
2:10
lighter than this one probably not
2:12
enough to be a deal breaker obviously
2:14
that's 1.4 lbs for those of you that
2:16
speak Imperial now one thing that stood
2:18
out to me is that Siri over the last
2:20
number of years I've reviewed I think
2:22
about a dozen of their lenses or so and
2:25
one thing that I think that they've done
2:26
very well is to have very unique
2:29
different designs with different
2:30
materials than what other brands are
2:32
using that's a little less true here we
2:34
have a little bit more conventional lens
2:36
uh but I will say that definitely
2:38
there's the difference is is that they
2:40
they're fairly aggressive with the fonts
2:42
that they use on here which is are a
2:44
little bit Bolder and stronger than what
2:46
I typically think the lens Hood itself
2:49
is relatively plain it does have a
2:51
little bit of a grip section here but
2:53
the Plastics they'll Flex a little bit
2:55
doesn't seem to be particularly high in
2:57
to me I also noted that the tolerance in
3:00
mounting it it's it's just a little bit
3:02
tight and so it feels like a tight fit
3:05
but not necessarily a great fit now this
3:08
is a very feature-rich lens and one of
3:10
the things that stood out to me is the
3:12
fact that they have really improved on
3:13
the overall feature set of the lens and
3:15
so that starts with a really thorough
3:17
approach to aperture and so aperture we
3:20
have the option of having nice clicks at
3:22
onethird stop to tense there is that big
3:24
gap between F16 and the automatic mode
3:28
if you want to control it from within
3:29
the camera
3:30
we also have the ability to declick the
3:32
aperture and to smoothly rack through
3:34
all of the different aperture options so
3:36
if very uh good kind of hybrid approach
3:38
for video as well I will note that
3:40
inside the apture itself is gorgeous 15
3:43
rounded blades so helping you to
3:45
maintain very circular specular shapes
3:47
even when you stop way down it still
3:49
looks pretty circular even when it
3:51
stopped all the way down to the minimum
3:52
mture of F16 so that's pretty awesome
3:55
over on the left side of the lens we
3:57
have a couple of other features we have
3:58
an AF MF switch always welcome and then
4:01
we have a custom button function button
4:04
here AFL as they're calling it which can
4:07
be programmed to a variety of functions
4:09
from within the camera itself one other
4:11
feature here is that on the actual lens
4:15
mount there is a USBC Port much like
4:17
what vro does and so you can do quick
4:19
firmware updates while I have this off
4:22
I'll also note that there is a rubber
4:24
gasket here there are internal seals
4:26
there's a flooring front coating on the
4:28
lens itself Now sir's language and their
4:31
marketing they use the word uh
4:34
weatherproof or waterproof I think
4:36
actually I wouldn't uh test that by
4:39
dunking it in water or anything however
4:41
if you're going out in the rain at least
4:43
you should be safe with that as noted
4:46
there are two included filters right now
4:48
one of those is a UV filter SLP
4:50
protection filter nice enough it's got
4:52
multi- Coatings the Nano coating on
4:54
there I'm not personally a big fan of
4:57
using UV filters at this point
4:58
particularly when you got already got
5:00
floring coating on the front element I
5:02
think that that's protection enough in
5:03
my opinion and anytime you add glass
5:06
elements you are adding the potential
5:07
for degraded image quality the other
5:10
filter however is a little more
5:11
interesting to me and it is a black mist
5:13
filter and the purpose of this is to add
5:15
just a little bit of a softer look kind
5:17
of a glow to images that can be
5:18
flattering for uh portraits in
5:21
particular and you can see here there is
5:23
definitely a difference between having
5:25
no filter and then having that black
5:27
mist filter attached so it might be a
5:28
look that really Appeals to you the lens
5:31
itself is actually really nicely made
5:32
it's aluminum alloy chassis here which
5:35
has a nice level of build quality the
5:37
manual focus ring has a pretty decent
5:40
level of damping and moves fairly good
5:42
and overall build quality is nice here
5:46
the minimum Focus distance is 85 CM very
5:50
average and the resulting magnification
5:52
of 0.12 times also very average and so
5:56
nothing really exceptional in that
5:58
regard however we do have a nicely built
6:00
lens the only thing that feels kind of
6:02
cheap is the lens Hood itself but
6:03
everything else is pretty impressive so
6:06
let's move on and talk about autofocus
6:08
here this has an STM or stepping motor
6:11
and as you can see here Focus speed is
6:13
quite good it's not at GM's level but I
6:16
would say it's close to the sigma DN
6:18
lens in terms of the focus speed that
6:21
also has an STM Focus motor and so it's
6:23
fast enough that I didn't really notice
6:25
any kind of focus related issues unless
6:27
I was doing like a really major close to
6:30
Infinity kind of rack then I could tell
6:32
just a hint of slowdown you know like
6:34
the new GM Mark I lens that would be an
6:36
instantaneous Focus change and it's a
6:38
just a hair slower here I did get very
6:41
good uh accuracy however on pet eyes you
6:44
can see the shots to Ferrari whether
6:46
it's front on but even if it's on the
6:48
side and I'm just getting getting him in
6:50
profile I got very good focus on the
6:52
eyes I did a portrait session with my
6:55
wife and at various Focus distances
6:58
whether it be close medium or a little
7:00
bit further away overall I had zero
7:02
issues as far as my focus accuracy it
7:05
would lock onto the eye it would deliver
7:07
F you know appropriately focused
7:09
results also found kind of in general
7:11
like birthday or holiday celebrations uh
7:14
just kind of the shooting around the
7:16
table or in a room type look that again
7:18
Focus picked up quickly on what I wanted
7:20
it to and delivered accurately focused
7:22
results so in general I would say that
7:24
Focus accuracy for Stills was good focus
7:27
is quiet I mean you're only going to
7:29
hear any kind of focus noise if you put
7:31
your ear right up next to the barrel no
7:33
problem so how about video AF well first
7:36
of all I I was actually quite impressed
7:38
with the look of the video Focus pools
7:40
they were actually fast and confident no
7:42
visible steps no hunting no settling
7:45
none of those things so quick back and
7:47
forth you do see that there's some Focus
7:50
breathing there in that kind of pool
7:52
that you are going to notice when I
7:54
transitioned over to my hand test I
7:56
actually was thought that that went
7:58
really well too and never missed a beat
8:00
in terms of transitions from the hand to
8:02
the eye moving fairly quickly you might
8:04
want to dtune that a little bit in
8:06
camera if you want a little more C
8:08
cinematic look but again I I wasn't
8:11
displeased with it at all I also found
8:13
that in other real world Focus
8:14
transitions that they looked good and
8:17
and so overall I actually thought that
8:20
the uh quality of focus in video was
8:23
fairly good I did have this one shot
8:25
where I was panning from a close Target
8:27
towards a bigger scam and you you can
8:29
see that Focus just kind of got stuck
8:31
and it didn't really want to make that
8:33
transition in the way that I wanted but
8:36
that fortunately was an exception to the
8:38
rule I had other Clips where I did a
8:40
similar kind of shot and it picked it up
8:42
fine one thing I will say about the
8:44
footage is it has a look it's a little
8:47
bit lower contrast and the optical glass
8:50
has a a different look than what any of
8:52
the other 885mm lenses on Sony that I've
8:54
tested and so uh you know you just
8:56
either that you're going to like or
8:58
you're not going to like that it's kind
8:59
of of a taste related thing but as far
9:01
as focus goes a good job here at least
9:04
on the Sony platform now this lens is
9:06
also going to be available on uh Nikon Z
9:09
Mount and then on Fuji X Mountain so
9:11
there will it's APC platform and so will
9:14
function a little bit differently and so
9:16
I would say probably with my experience
9:17
with those platforms I'm probably seeing
9:20
the best Focus here on Sony Nikon's
9:22
going to be close just a little bit
9:23
behind and it's going to be reduced a
9:25
fair bit on Fuji because of all the
9:27
limitations that you're probably already
9:28
aware of of if you're a Fuji
9:31
shooter all right let's talk about the
9:33
image quality here and so obviously I'll
9:36
be giving you a quick overview and then
9:37
there is a breakdown to follow after
9:40
that the Deep die for those of you that
9:41
are interested Optical formula is 14
9:43
elements in nine groups that includes HR
9:46
uh Ed extra low dispersion and then
9:49
aspherical elements as you can see the
9:51
MTF chart shows a pretty consistently
9:54
good performance across the frame but
9:56
not exceptional and one thing that
9:58
actually stood out to me that even as
10:00
soon as I saw the MTF chart and I saw
10:01
the notes that the testing distance was
10:03
3.4 M which is quite far for a lens like
10:08
this and I think that the reason for
10:10
that is that what I found is that this
10:12
is a lens that tends to be optimized for
10:14
a certain Focus distance and so up close
10:18
performance uh so so contrast it seems
10:21
to drop a fair bit and then at Infinity
10:24
I wasn't really impressed with the
10:25
performance at Infinity at all uh just
10:28
there's for a a couple of reasons that
10:30
we'll detail in the optical breakdown
10:32
but it's never like razor sharp out in
10:34
Infinity however in a sweet spot of
10:37
between 2.5 and 5 m let's say 8 to 20 ft
10:41
the lens is very obviously at its best
10:44
at that distance and so at that zone I
10:46
found like contrast looked better even
10:48
at f1.4 I found that there's just a
10:51
little just a a better performance in
10:54
general now when I begin to dive into
10:56
the details I found that that
10:58
longitudinal chromatic ortion which is
11:00
the type I would expect to find on an 85
11:02
mm f1.4 lens that actually looked pretty
11:04
good but what surprised me is that I
11:07
definitely saw some lateral style
11:09
chromatic aberration and I think that
11:10
that's part of the reason why it doesn't
11:13
perform fantastic at a Infinity distance
11:16
or a landscape distance is because there
11:19
is some of that fringing and while you
11:20
can take away the fringing you don't get
11:22
that contrast back and so the details
11:25
aren't quite as crisp and so I did
11:26
notice in some higher contrast landscape
11:29
scenes even at smaller apertures they
11:31
just never were quite as sharp as what I
11:33
wanted now really good news when it
11:36
comes to the amount of of vignette here
11:39
on Sony I only saw a plus 38 which is a
11:42
little over a stop which is not bad at
11:45
all definitely best say the sigma 885mm
11:48
f1.4 DM which I had to pretty much max
11:51
out the sliders and kind of like that
11:53
Sigma lens this has some pin cushion
11:55
Distortion more so than what I saw from
11:58
Samy or any of the Sony options in the
12:00
past in this case it took a minus 7 to
12:03
correct that pin cushion Distortion not
12:05
as severe as what I saw on Sigma which
12:07
is really noticeable it took about a
12:08
minus 12 to correct there and so it has
12:11
some of the same Tendencies just not as
12:14
extreme now if we look at sharpness and
12:16
again I'm testing at a 61 megapixel
12:18
level so that's the highest at least on
12:21
uh Sony or Nikon that's the highest
12:23
level you're going to deal with
12:24
obviously if you're shooting on Fuji on
12:26
their 40 megapixel apsc sensor that's
12:29
actually a greater pixel density by a
12:31
good margin so it's going to struggle
12:32
the most in that particular application
12:35
but as far as full frame this is as
12:37
difficult as it gets at this point and
12:38
what I found in my crops looking at 200%
12:41
magnification is that the detail is is
12:45
pretty good but the the contrast is
12:46
unexceptional focus distance for uh
12:49
doing my tests is going to be right
12:50
under 2 m for that and at that distance
12:53
I would say it's not as contrasty as it
12:55
would it would be at the 3 m distance if
12:58
you stop down to F1 1.8 or F2 you'll
13:00
find that uh that the contrast will
13:03
begin to improve at that point I would
13:06
say that for most people it's going to
13:07
be sharp enough for portrait work don't
13:10
expect everything to just pop as far as
13:12
the contrast for portraits and maybe
13:15
that's not necessarily what you're
13:16
looking for um it's it's not going to
13:18
have as many fine details you're
13:20
obviously not going to resolve pores and
13:22
things like that the same of course not
13:23
everybody wants their pores to be
13:25
resolved but the tradeoff here is that
13:27
the bokeh is Maybe the best of any of
13:30
the 885mm F 1.4s I've seen on Sony um
13:33
it's really soft really creamy it's kind
13:36
of an in many ways it's kind of like the
13:38
anti-gm Mark I lens I was blown away by
13:41
the Acuity of that lens you can shoot at
13:43
f1.4 at a distant landscape scene and
13:46
you can deeply crop because all the fine
13:48
details are just perfectly resolved that
13:51
is just not true at all here but I kind
13:53
of knocked the gm2 in my review because
13:55
I just felt like the overall rendering
13:58
the Boke was just eh it was only so so
14:01
this is pretty exceptional in that
14:03
regard and so it's it's kind of the
14:06
strengths and the weaknesses are
14:07
basically polar opposite on these two uh
14:10
lenses the contrast starts looking good
14:13
by
14:14
f2.8 and uh but as noted previously
14:17
while you sharpen up you know in your
14:19
sweet spot I didn't find that the
14:21
landscape results ever got really
14:23
exceptional as typical defraction will
14:26
begin at f11 become very noticeable by
14:30
F-16 but really the the strength here is
14:33
the bokeh it is really really beautiful
14:36
very creamy now when it comes to
14:38
specular highlights geometry is pretty
14:40
good but you still will get some
14:41
deformation near the edge of the frame
14:43
what did surprise me is that there's
14:45
kind of not quite onion bokeh in there
14:48
but there's definitely some busyness in
14:50
the boka circles specular highlights but
14:53
uh if you're out in other type shots
14:56
just its ability to make backgrounds
14:58
look really soft and creamy it's really
15:00
quite exceptional in that regard and
15:01
that is definitely the standout behavior
15:03
of the lens and I think that that that's
15:05
the real reason why a lot of people are
15:06
quite positive about the lens is because
15:08
for its kind of intended main target for
15:11
portraits it does create a very pretty
15:13
look as far as the Boke rendering I also
15:16
found that the flare resistance is very
15:19
good overall and even at its kind of
15:22
most flare prone with the sun kind of at
15:24
an angle right out of frame it creates
15:27
this kind of warm glow localized effect
15:30
that frankly is a look that I've added
15:33
to hundreds of images in the past
15:35
because it just kind of amps up the
15:37
overall look of them and so the fact
15:39
that you can get that in camera of
15:41
course is probably something that will
15:43
please a lot of portrait photographers
15:45
just kind of a warm glow one thing I
15:47
will say also that has been kind of a a
15:50
truism of sirai so far and remains true
15:53
here is that I don't necessarily love
15:54
the optical glass the colors to me are
15:57
only so so and I I tend they tend to at
16:00
some points to me to just kind of fall
16:02
apart they're not they're not
16:03
particularly rich in my opinion that's a
16:05
taste thing obviously subjective so your
16:08
mileage may vary when it comes to that
16:10
but that's just my kind of overall feel
16:13
when it comes to that and so some
16:14
definite strengths and weaknesses I
16:15
wouldn't say any kind of of great
16:17
weaknesses it's not as sharp and
16:19
contrasty as as some of the other lenses
16:23
so my conclusion is I don't think that
16:25
I'm quite as wowed as some other reviews
16:28
I've seen some fairly hyperbolic reviews
16:30
already this lens that you know make it
16:32
out to be like the best uh available on
16:35
the Sony platform I will say that if
16:37
you're just talking about bokeh I I I
16:40
could probably go there with that
16:41
argument but I would say also that it's
16:45
not nearly as sharp and overall
16:47
contrasty at wide apertures as some of
16:49
the competing lenses for example it's
16:52
only $100 less at the moment than the
16:55
slightly smaller and lighter samyang 85
16:57
f1.4 series 2 and that lens I would say
17:02
I I probably like the overall blend of
17:04
attributes a little bit better
17:06
personally though this lens does have
17:08
more features it's Superior in some
17:10
elements I do love the upgraded
17:12
packaging the features the presentation
17:15
this is a great lens for those in
17:17
particular who care more about the look
17:19
of images rather than at actually pixel
17:22
peeping and if that happens to to
17:24
describe you then you may just really
17:27
love this lens I think I will throw
17:29
together a future video because I happen
17:31
to own the sigma 85 DM yes it costs
17:34
twice as much but for those of you that
17:35
are interested in seeing how this holds
17:37
up and whether or not this lens could be
17:39
enough for you I'll try to satisfy that
17:42
at least bit of curiosity with a video
17:44
comparison in the future if you want
17:47
more information right now you can check
17:48
out either the text review that's Linked
17:50
In the description down below there's
17:51
also an image gallery there and some
17:53
buying links if you'd like to purchase
17:54
one for yourself or if you want a deeper
17:56
dive into the optical performance stay
17:58
tuned with with me right now we'll jump
18:00
into it together all right so starting
18:01
by taking a quick look at vignette and
18:03
Distortion as far as the Distortion goes
18:05
you can see that there is a pin cushion
18:07
Distortion this is manually corrected
18:09
with a plus 7 it's good and linear no
18:12
real issues there mild amount of
18:14
vignette but a plus 42 to correct for
18:16
that again very simple to correct for
18:19
and frankly in real world shots you'll
18:21
see that in all the images I show you at
18:23
f1.4 there's been no correction and it's
18:25
not really an issue I never noticed in
18:27
that I thought needed corre ction now
18:29
frankly it's a good thing that we don't
18:32
need correction because as you can see
18:34
here from the jpeg at least at this
18:35
stage I'm not seeing any kind of in
18:37
camera correction and so uh jpegs and
18:40
raws look the exact same I've actually
18:42
added a third of a stop of light to the
18:44
SRA image otherwise it would look
18:46
identical to the jpeg now as mentioned
18:48
previously on some fringing fronts not
18:51
too bad you can see here very mild
18:53
amounts of longitudinal style comatic
18:55
aberration a little bit before a little
18:57
bit afterward no big deal there but on
18:59
this kind of like real world torture
19:01
test where a lot of times I'll see bad
19:03
fringing either in this lettering or in
19:05
the edges of the camera frankly not bad
19:07
at all also not really a lot around
19:10
these highlights you can see what I
19:11
referred to previously though about the
19:13
general busyness that's just there in
19:15
those specular highlights not completely
19:17
the onion look but kind of almost like
19:20
um planetary bodies or something just a
19:22
little bit of a swirl effect in there
19:25
but what I did definitely see is a fair
19:28
bit of this kind of fringing which is
19:31
the lateral style chromatic aberration
19:33
they show up near the edges of the frame
19:34
and in this case it's not just the edges
19:36
of the frame that I see but for example
19:38
in an image like this as I poke in and
19:41
look at a pixel level you can see around
19:44
these ducks or these geese for example
19:46
there's fringing in there means that the
19:49
textures are not like super sharp and
19:51
just kind of robbed a bit and you can
19:53
see that there's some of that fringing
19:54
all throughout these bare branches now
19:56
the problem with this style of fringing
19:58
is we sto down a bit here's the
20:01
f2.8 the fringing is going to still be
20:04
there you're still going to see it in
20:05
the branches it doesn't really go away
20:08
and as you can see it doesn't really
20:09
sharpen up as much as what I would like
20:12
to personally see and I think that that
20:14
lateral style chromatic aberration has a
20:16
bit of a factor in that now as noted the
20:18
lens does come with a black mist filter
20:22
and if you this is without the filter on
20:24
the left this is with the filter on the
20:25
right you can see that it adds kind of
20:27
just a glow effect if we look in at a
20:29
pixel level at Nala's face here you can
20:32
see that you know one has just kind of a
20:36
a softer kind of almost like the black
20:39
levels have been raised a bit whereas in
20:41
this case you can see that the uh
20:44
contrast is a little bit more intense
20:46
the effects a little more obvious in
20:47
this particular shot so first of all if
20:49
you look at it at a global level you can
20:51
see that the background looks just a
20:53
little bit softer almost a little bit
20:54
more cinematic and that's can be useful
20:57
for obviously for shooting video as well
21:00
but here's the non-filtered look you can
21:01
see contrast is a little bit better here
21:03
is with the black mist filter on there
21:05
and you can see again it's just a softer
21:08
type look you know either you like it or
21:10
you don't but it is there freely
21:12
available now as noted previously uh
21:15
here's the test chart and we're going to
21:16
look at 200% magnification 61 megapixels
21:20
uh detail is really not too bad you can
21:22
see just a little bit of that fringing
21:24
that is there that is going to reduce a
21:26
little bit you can see that contrast is
21:28
not off the charts I don't see any kind
21:30
of moir pattern in there because
21:31
contrast and detail isn't really intense
21:34
enough likewise here it doesn't actually
21:36
looks pretty good as far as some of the
21:38
detail here but at the same time
21:40
contrast is not exceptional we look down
21:42
in this area you can see that really
21:45
both sides are fairly equal but on all
21:47
of it it's just the contrast is not
21:49
intense down here in the corner you can
21:52
definitely see of course as we get
21:53
towards the fringing that's really
21:55
localized at the edges but even here in
21:58
general you can just see contrast it's a
21:59
bit lower so out in the real world at
22:02
f1.4 here you can see that again detail
22:05
is there but it's everything all the the
22:09
kind of textures just still seem a
22:11
little bit muddy to my eye just not
22:13
really exceptional and so again it's not
22:15
like there's a big drop off towards the
22:17
Eds it's just that in general none of
22:19
the textures really really pop the way
22:21
that they could or do with other lenses
22:24
and for portraits this is a JPEG and so
22:27
you can see that the detail is it's okay
22:30
again contrast is okay but it's not like
22:33
exceptionally crisp in this shot more of
22:35
a casual shot well focused and there is
22:38
you know there's sufficient detail but
22:40
not exceptional detail so again it's all
22:42
about what your expectations are now
22:44
stopping down to f1.8 you can see
22:46
contrast is definitely starting to
22:48
improve there in the center of the frame
22:50
from f1.8 to F2 mostly about the same
22:55
but if we go from F2 to f2.8 you can see
22:57
the beginning some of that moir pattern
22:59
starting to come as contrast is starting
23:01
to get better I'll pop back over here
23:03
and look at a mid-frame result you can
23:05
see a definite Improvement on this side
23:07
and over on this side also you can see
23:09
it's definitely starting to look a lot
23:11
better and down into the corners Corners
23:14
definitely looking crisper also here's a
23:17
real world shot at f2.8 and you can see
23:20
the detail looks you know pretty good
23:22
there not exceptional but quite good at
23:24
f5.6 and f8 you're going to be achieving
23:27
your kind of maximum potential there and
23:30
then at f11 there'll be a little bit of
23:32
softening due to defraction and a bit
23:34
more at F16 though it's not like a
23:36
dramatic uh reduction either you can see
23:39
here that up close performance at
23:42
f1.4 it is not really what I would call
23:45
exceptionally good and uh definitely not
23:47
super high detail or contrast uh it
23:50
seems fairly flat plane of focus so
23:52
that's not too bad but again what really
23:55
stands out here to me is not that which
23:58
is I've seen a whole lot sharper than
24:00
that but really the overall softness of
24:03
this shot which I take quite regularly
24:05
is really really good and so here's the
24:07
lock I often take a photo of and you can
24:10
see that its ability to just completely
24:12
defocus the background is pretty sweet
24:15
this shot I think is you know kind of
24:17
shows the highlights there's sufficient
24:19
detail and contrast in there to look
24:21
good and then the overall scene I think
24:23
just looks really fantastic all of these
24:26
kind of harder edges of other grasses
24:28
really handled quite artistically great
24:30
job here we're closer to the kind of
24:33
sweet spot for contrast and so you can
24:35
see that that looks really good and the
24:37
background remains very very creamy this
24:39
shot too I think is really kind of a
24:41
standout of the best qualities of this
24:43
lens shooting in the zone where contrast
24:46
is maybe towards its best and again the
24:48
background just looks really defocused
24:50
and then of course the strength for
24:51
portrait work is not that it's going to
24:53
be you know blindingly sharp but your
24:55
ability to really strongly defocus a
24:57
background and to get a really pleasing
24:59
background blur even at a medium
25:02
distance like this flare resistance for
25:04
the most part I'm going to say is a
25:06
strength you really can't tell from this
25:07
image but there is massive amounts of
25:09
light that is coming through a window
25:11
and kind of flooding the scene but it's
25:13
holding up just fine uh sun is intense
25:16
right there and you can see there's a
25:17
little bit of a localized veiling but no
25:19
big ghosting artifacts stop down a
25:21
little bit of a ghosting pattern here
25:23
but really not bad and then of course
25:25
this video clip I think really shows you
25:28
know even at its worst is maybe even at
25:30
its best as far as having an artistic
25:33
glow to the image itself so overall for
25:35
me it's a little bit of a mixed bag but
25:37
it's all about what you're looking for
25:39
in an optical performance so hopefully a
25:41
look at the Optics of this baby has
25:43
helped you to decide whether or not it
25:46
is a lens worth buying for you as always
25:49
thanks for watching have a great day and
25:51
let the light in
25:53
[Music]
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