Joint effort to describe the classic Ai-S 1.4/35mm

[Frank Fremerey]

[everybody who knows about this lens is invited to enter here and add!]

Dear Ai-S 1.4/35mm!

I send a love letter to you, you crazy horse of a lens!

I want to carry you with me every day and I do it most of the time, currently on a D600, hopefully soon on a D850 with the Sony A7R2 chip as its heart.

You are so tame and well behaved at f=4.0 and f=5.6 but you are wild and crazy at f=1.4. Uncorrected optical faults like spherical aberrations make your wide open bokeh wild and crazy, esp when repetitive, well lit forms appear in the background.

I first heared of you at naturfotograf.com, then I saw the wild rides Fons Baerken takes with you, dreamscapes of nature!

I lost you 10 years ago, found you again and now I guess my love will never end.

Yours sincerely

Frank

Some pictures from the last few weeks:

1) yellow flowers and Koblenzer Tor @f=1.4
2) Bergamot & Chillies @f=4.0
3) A shot to demonstrate the bokehbility @1.4
4) Well behaved action shot @f=4.0

[Jakov Minić]

Frank, could you please epoxy the aperture ring to f/1.4

[Frank Fremerey]

Jakov: I would lose the versatility this way.

Here are some direct comparsions. More or less the same vantage point, one shot @1.4, the other @5.6

[Frank Fremerey]

For me a new feature was that I can take portraits with the lens.

Parental Advisory: This is not for the faint hearted. You sometimes lose shots you were sure to have nailed.

All shots @1.4!

[elsid]

Frank, you are bad. You just made decide to spend whatever is necessary to put this lens into my arsenal.
Great pictures.

[Frank Fremerey]

A very good copy is about 450€ ... That is what I spent ten years ago and that is what is necessary for a purchase today. Given inflation the price seems to have slightly dropped

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Seems the current prices on eBay are easily 550 to 600 Euros ...

[Hugh_3170]

Off Topic - wrong lens.

[Erik Lund]

For sure this lens is a handful wide open, super strange back grounds appear especially with highlights,,,
Super focal length for street shooting!
35mm and wider are nice focal length for 'environmental' portraits, but in my view only if you include something that convey or help to see the 'environment'-  that often leads to having to re-position yourself or the subject.
A pain to chip.

[BW]

Seems the current prices on eBay are easily 550 to 600 Euros ...

There is one for sale on a norwegian site (foto.no) for 390 euro. As new. Thats quite cheap. Wont be able to justify another 35 right now 

[simato73]

I've got the AI version. Should be optically the same as the AI-s except perhaps different coatings? The focus throw is longer though, I think.
Mine has seen some rough use before I purchased it, hence I got it cheap, about £180.

I have chipped it several years ago, it has been a long tense surgery but it works (too bad I have no Nikon camera for it now!).
Focus action is a bit stiff, especially at one end of the focus throw where it could benefit from some further demelling of the inside - or a thinner contact block (I have already filed extensively the standard one that Bjørn sent me).

[chris dees]

I'm happy you're enjoying the lens.
I should have charged you double.

[Frank Fremerey]

I was happy that you put it on offer, Chris.

[simsurace]

Very interesting lens.
I wonder how it was marketed when it came out. Of course the speed was even more important than it is today with our highly sensitive sensors, but the very temperamental character wide open must have gathered attention even back then.
Does anyone still have an old brochure where this lens was advertised?

[Lowell]

Frank,

Thanks so much for posting these images.  All the images, are really interesting and helpful to me.  People talk a lot about the wonders of this lens.  Additionally, Bjorn has used the term, "temperamental".  So demonstrations, in the form of actual images showing the wonders and nature of this lens, is something I look forward to seeing.

Excellent idea!

Thanks,

Lowell