[Leica] f/1.4 and be there...at ISO 25K!

[summicron at comcast.net (Frank F. Farmer)]

Excellent!  Thanks for sharing.  I've been considering the D700.  This  
helps make a pretty good case for it.  Such low noise at such  
ridiculous speeds!  What fun!

Frank Farmer
Jackson, Miss.

On Feb 8, 2009, at 10:58 PM, Howard Ritter wrote:

> See, I wanted to treat the D700 to a dose of raw SPEED, but  
> despaired of ever seeing the new Nikkor 50/1.4 G-series prime lens  
> actually becoming available. So I started to read about that Sigma  
> 50/1.4 that I've been seeing advertised for a while, and the more I  
> read the more I was intrigued. So I sprang for it the other day and  
> have been playing around with it. Thought I'd post a few photos  
> taken with lens and camera at the extremes of their capabilities.  
> Naturally one cannot resist the twin temptations of 1.4 on the  
> aperture ring and 25600 on the ISO knob forever, so eventually they  
> came into conjunction, as you will see.
>
> First, let me tell you that the reviews are right. This is one  
> bodacious hunka glass and metal! Filter size the same as on the  
> Nikkor 28-70/2.8 (77 mm) though thankfully only half the length and  
> weight. But when one carries the D700 into battle, one has already  
> given up hope of tripping the fantastic lightly. On the other hand,  
> despite its bulk and avoirdupois, this is the smallest and lightest  
> lens that this camera has ever borne.
>
> We had a mostly-clear night recently and so I went prowling the  
> countryside. All outdoor shots in this gallery link are at f/1.4,  
> ISO 6400, 12800, or 25600, handheld, at exposures of 1/5 to 1/20 sec? 
> you can see some smearing due to hand-holding if you look closely.  
> Nothing unusual about these night shots...except that they were made  
> with exposures short enough to allow hand holding. As you might  
> expect, the biggest problem shooting with this lens at full aperture  
> and virtually in the dark is getting good focus. Neither my eye nor  
> the AF is to be trusted, and the light was too low even to read the  
> focusing scale on the lens (as with most modern AF lenses, the Sigma  
> 50/1.4 focuses past infinity, so you can't just rotate the focus  
> ring until it hits the stop and be assured of infinity focus). In  
> most cases, I cranked off a dozen shots while advancing the focus  
> ring just a tad between shots. While hand-holding.
>
> See: http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/hlritter/f1point4+and+be+there/
>
> Although the photos from the countryside look like they were taken  
> during the day or at twilight, they were actually taken around 2300  
> local time; it was really rather dark, and the only illumination of  
> any consequence was from the gibbous Moon in a hazy sky. Visually, I  
> could barely make out the blades of the wind turbines even though I  
> was close enough to hear their "whoosh...whoosh". The exception is  
> the one of the rocks and evergreens at the edge of the lake, where a  
> glow from the town is seen in the background. Even in this one, the  
> moonlight dominates, as shown by the shadow on the snow below  
> center. This is the one shot where the screen appearance  
> approximates the visual experience. For all the others, the pictures  
> are much brighter than the live scene. Looking at the LCD after a  
> shot and then back to the barely visible scene itself reminded me of  
> looking at a night scene, alternately live and then through a third- 
> gen image intensifier?bright, detailed image/dim murky scene. It's  
> like this thing manufactures photons out of thin air! Did I mention  
> this was accomplished with the camera hand-held? And that it was too  
> dark to read the focusing scale? Look at the stars in the sky in a  
> couple of shots!
>
> One other thing worth noting is the huge increase in noise in going  
> from ISO 6400 to the HI settings. ISO 6400 images taken under, say,  
> indoor lighting conditions are remarkably pleasing and useable?I'd  
> say comparable to the M8 at ISO 640?while the higher ISOs produce  
> images for record only. Full disclosure: I did apply Noise Ninja.  
> Also posted for your edification is a photo of my three  
> implementations of the 50mm f/1.4 full-frame prime lens and their  
> respective wearers. Sublime to necessary to ridiculous.
>
>
> --howard
>
>
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