Just before relocating to Tenerife i have bought an new Sony A7R II camera and Sony 55mm f1.8 Zeiss Sonnar T* lens. Putting all of that into one post would make it a huge one so i have decided to break it into separate posts and in the end i will make a condensed version.
I will start with the lens which has been around for a few years i guess. It is not the cheapest 50mm portrait lens and retails around 900 USD but it is worth every penny and here is why.
Bokeh
Bokeh (source wikipedia) is basically blur produced by a lens in out of focus area. And oh boy... I have never ever in my life have seen anything like this. Focusing distance of this lens is quite long, about 50 centimeters so you will not be able to get very close to your subject. (and the closer you are to the subject the more bokeh you can achieve). But not in this case...
The out of focus areas are sweet and creamy with nice transitions and extremely pleasant to an eye.
Sony A7R II Sony 55mm f1.8 Zeiss Sonnar T* @ f/1.8 1/500 iso 100
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Sony A7R II Sony 55mm f1.8 Zeiss Sonnar T* @ f/1.8 1/5000 iso 100
Bokeh is also pronounced in the foreground as well as background when in large aperture.
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Sony A7R II Sony 55mm f1.8 Zeiss Sonnar T* @ f/1.8 1/1600 iso 100
Which looks especially flattering with people in frame. I still did not have a chance to use it for closeup portraits but when i will i will share it for sure.
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Sony A7R II Sony 55mm f1.8 Zeiss Sonnar T* @ f/1.8 1/2000 iso 100
Even though due to it's long focusing distance you can't get very close to the subject, when coupled with 42 Megapixels of Sony A7R II you can almost do macro photography shots.
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Sony A7R II Sony 55mm f1.8 Zeiss Sonnar T* @ f/1.8 1/500 iso 100
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Sony A7R II Sony 55mm f1.8 Zeiss Sonnar T* @ f/1.8 1/320 iso 100
I used to own Nikkor 50mm 1.4G which was also a great lens but it does not stand close to Sony's 55mm Sonar when talking about that smooth, creamy and godly bokeh it produces. I was and still am literally shocked and pleasantly surprised by it's performance, focus speed, color rendition, sharpness. But i will cover these parts in my next posts. Hope you have enjoyed the photos :)
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David