NikonGear'23
Gear Talk => Lens Talk => Topic started by: richardHaw on May 19, 2017, 07:42:58
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https://nikonrumors.com/2017/05/19/kerlee-35mm-f1-2-full-frame-dslr-lens-for-nikon-f-mount.aspx/
Larry, Moe and Kerlee... :o :o :o
looks interesting. the looks were ripped-off from Zeiss, not it's a Sheisse lens ::)
the pictures do look nice. and 1.2 on 35mm does look dreamy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukUD9BTxPOA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwpgSciP7VY
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It's pretty decent and totally usable at f1.2, the bokeh fringing (or spherochromatism? Did I spell that right) is pretty serious from what I've heard.
China's used market has an abundant supply of this lens.
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It's pretty decent and totally usable at f1.2, the bokeh fringing (or spherochromatism? Did I spell that right) is pretty serious from what I've heard.
China's used market has an abundant supply of this lens.
yikes! that's not a good sign :o :o :o
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Maybe that's not a good sign. But in Paris, I could find (not: buy) a second hand 105/1.4, and buy (not only find) a second hand Milvus 50/2.0 shortly after they were released... sometimes well-to-do photographers seem to buy for trying and resell shortly after, especially MF lenses.
Indeed the lens looks zeiss-ish :)
A pity we cannot see real pics with decent resolution.
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China's used market has an abundant supply of this lens.
I suspect that most photographers very quickly tire of working with a strictly manual aperture.
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I suspect that most photographers very quickly tire of working with a strictly manual aperture.
On the contrary some will not tire of this at all.
(some kind of aperture linkage to camera to move past the standards of the '50s and early '60s though is required, though. But virtually all Nikkors with manual focusing provide this)
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On the contrary some will not tire of this at all.
(some kind of aperture linkage to camera to move past the standards of the '50s and early '60s though is required, though. But virtually all Nikkors with manual focusing provide this)
By 'strictly manual aperture' I meant the kind where there is no linkage with, or actuation by the camera; basically like an enlarging lens from the 1950's. Pre preset, if you will. That is my interpretation of how the sales literature of this Kerlee 35/1.2 lens is describing the lens.
The modern system of wide open viewing combined with 'instant stop-down at the moment of exposure' that Nikon established in 1959 *used to be specified* in USA camera literature as "Auto Diaphragm", a term which seems stylistically archaic now. No one calls it a 'diaphragm' any more. "Diaphragm Actuation By Camera For Wide Open Viewing And Focusing' is too long. We need a new term which is short, accurate, and works for the autoexposure-oriented times we live in.
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I had a suspicion of this that's why I wrote the way I did. Call this automated aperture if you like.
Even third-party lenses provide aperture linkage these days. Preset operation, once the normal way back in time, is becoming very uncommon.
I think it's unlikely a modern lens design, Chinese or not, doesn't provide a minimum of automated aperture functionality. In fact, I cannot recall testing any third-party lens for F-mount lacking that feature for a good many years.
Whether they also have implemented a CPU chip is also becoming quite common.
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I found this nice review where the Kerlee 35/1.2 is compared to the Nikon AiS 35/1.4 and the Nikon AF-S 35/1.4.
Oh, and it is without what the reviewer calls "auto stopdown".
http://www.photobyrichard.com/reviewbyrichard/kerlee-1-235-35mm-f1-2-review/ (http://www.photobyrichard.com/reviewbyrichard/kerlee-1-235-35mm-f1-2-review/)
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thanks for the link!
it looks decent. :o :o :o
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The missing auto aperture, if reported correctly, is a really surprising drawback for any modern lens. On the other hand, all those users yearning for stop-down metering, with all its drawbacks, at last will have it :D :D
I seem to have lost any further interest of that particular lens.
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Some Chinese photographers buy these Chinese lenses out of "patriotism", while some buy it out of curiosity. Get bored of it, time to sell it!
There's another problem with this lens, it doesn't accept conventional filters. Kerlee had to fix the issue by giving away specifically made UV filters to the buyers.
What's the first problem? Yeah, no aperture coupling prong with the camera.
But still 35mm at f/1.2 renders some very unique photos. It's not at a premium pricetag either.
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I might be in the market for a fast 35mm, and when things evolve as portented at the time, even my Nikkors might be without automatic index coupling in my digital future. Not sure if this would be the lens though, as, from the 100% crops shown here, it's not exactly sharp in the image center (or this result is caused by user error)
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Some Chinese photographers buy these Chinese lenses out of "patriotism", while some buy it out of curiosity. Get bored of it, time to sell it!
Ha ha-When I feel relatively wealthy, I do as the Chinese photographers do!
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Ha ha-When I feel relatively wealthy, I do as the Chinese photographers do!
Yeah biological in-group preference exists even if one isn't born into their native country, like me. I am Chinese born in Australia, and I bought Laowa's 105mm f/2 STF out of "support", I felt the need to help them and I was curious too. No patriotism involved though but I'll be frank, if an American start-up company made such a lens, I would probably not buy it and wait for reviews to finalise the purchase.
It has proven itself to be a great reproduction lens, so I bought their 12mm too which is now my favourite UWA. :)
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I have the impression that such "coupling-less" lenses have been encouraged by the increasing popularity of live views and videos where no coupling is needed practically.
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it is just cost-cutting. it may also be the direction of Nikon's aperture ring rotation :o :o :o
this makes it a preset aperture lens. OK for my Nikon RF but not OK for SLR ::) unless you LV
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it is just cost-cutting. it may also be the direction of Nikon's aperture ring rotation :o :o :o
this makes it a preset aperture lens. OK for my Nikon RF but not OK for SLR ::) unless you LV
Nah. 'Preset' means there is a second ring, usually without click-stops, used for closing down the aperture. You first moved the click-stopped real aperture ring to the intended setting, twisted the preset ring to its Wide Open position, focused and composed the picture, then twisted the preset ring in the opposite direction until it stopped at the setting of the click-stopped first ring. Common on old lenses from '50s and '60s, very rarely seen these days. The old long lenses for the Nikkor S mount (18 cm, 25 cm, 35 cm at least) used to have this.
The Kerlee has just a single aperture ring so is not preset. It will stop down directly when the aperture ring is rotated.
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My Canon-using friends have tried to tell me, for years, that the beauty of Canon cameras are that they also can use Nikon lenses with adapter. They are truly believing it is a nice feature. And that means without any aperture linkage.
Other cheap lenses, like Samyang, is also without any aperture linkage in Canon mount. And Canon users buy them and believe it is the way to use manual focus lenses. It is understandable that they dont understand why we Nikon manual focus users are so happy with ours gears. I don't know if Samyang in Canon mount is preset.
I have a PC 35mm/2.8 and a bellows 105mm/4 that both have preset aperture, but those lenses are for special use, so it is ok. I really don't want any general use lens without aperture linkage, that is just to cumbersome.
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Using a lens with no aperture linkage - stop down metering - has certain advantages:
- You get permanent DoF preview so you always see exactly what the sensor will capture (within the limitations of the viewfinder).
- It avoids problems with focus shift because any shift occurs before you focus.
- Metering can be more accurate because there is no discrepancy between the calculated aperture setting and the actual aperture.
However it does not work so well when smaller apertures are used:
- The viewfinder becomes very dark.
- More difficult to assess critical focus due to the larger DoF.
- Less light for metering so metering starts to get less accurate.
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Back to film times - the Canon T90 had a stopped-down mode, so the photographer had a choice. In that particular case, the photographer nearly never chose it (except at times for macro, IIRC).
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'Preset' means there is a second ring, usually without click-stops, used for closing down the aperture.
This is what preset has always meant to me. The one preset lens I owned was really easy to flip the stop down ring to open and close the aperture. For me the preset ring was the one with f/stops engraved. The lens was a 400/6.3 and I problem never stopped down below f/11 and characteristically f/8.0 for a little better image quality. I'd "preset" f/8.0 and flip the aperture open, focus and flip the aperture closed to the preset value. Anyway that's how I though of preset.
Dave