Hey guys,
today things are going to be a bit more technical than usual. I am going to talk about camera gear. And more precisely about a lens I just bought: the Canon FD 55mm f1.2 S.C.C.
Canon lens you said? I thought you used a sony camera?
Yes, that's right, i am not crazy. As I said in my post about mirrorless camera as a good choice for aspiring photographers, you can adapt any kind of lens to these cameras. Which makes them kind of universal.
So why did I buy this specific lens?
Well I have been reading a lot of good reviews of the newly released Fuji 56mm f1.2. Apparently portrait photographers around the world are loosing their mind over it.
The problem is: i don't own (yet?) a fuji camera and the lens costs 1000$!
So i started looking for alternatives. Since it is going to be mainly a portrait lens (roughly 85mm f1.8 equivalent) i did not care about the autofocus abilities. I looked on ebay and food this lens:
It had everything I wanted, f1.2 for crazy bokeh (background blur) and the adapter for my camera was about 9$!
total price of the package 209$, hard to beat that.
209$, it must be a piece of crap lens for this price?
That's the cool thing, no it is not. This lens is more than 30 years old, that's why it is cheap. But that does not remove any quality from it. The build feels very solid with an all metal construction. My only thing to say is that it is actually pretty heavy. But the more i use it the more I like the weight. It feels very solid.
So, that's all nice and technical but what can it do?
Well because it is a f1.2, even on a cropped sensor, you get a really shallow depth of field. Which is nice for really dreamy photos and portraits
here are a few examples:
See, the area in focus is really thin... and that what's make this lens so cool... and sometimes hard to work with. Focusing properly definitely requires some skills, but after a while you get the gist of it and everything becomes pure photographic happiness!
I am not gettin too much into technical details so yes the lens is a bit softer at f1.2 and has some chromatic aberration when wide open. However for the price you can beat that. And you can correct most of the defects in 2min in post.
So for me it's an ideal companion for someone who likes portraiture or beautiful soft backgrounds!
Jeremy