Toni Ahvenainen
Sea of Light
Season of Touit - picture 13
Week 39 - Wednesday
Today's picture is something that was already shot some time ago. And it was actually taken by Sari, Aura's mother, while me and Aura were playing in the lake. One of my favorites of this summer for sure. There are two reasons why I wanted to include this picture in to 'Season of Touit'. First of all it's a good example how nice the Touit 2.8/50M can be shooting in standard range. Even though it is labeled as a macro lens, many times it works very nicely in standard photography too. The second reason is that the picture also exemplifies the optical quality of this lens: taken straight into sun the Touit 2.8/50M delivers very good colors but also almost non-existent chromatic aberrations. With a SEL50F18 the lake and it's reflections would have screamed of purple and green edges. I understand that it is relatively easy to get rid of it in Lightroom for example, but it doesn't substitute real optical excellence (no corrections done for this picture). The Touit 2.8/50M having a very little chromatic aberrations, almost apochromatic by its nature, means of course better edge contrast and color accuracy.
But what about the compromises regarding the Touit 2.8/50M? As I've already dealt with the Touit 2.8/12 and I didn't found much that would compromise it, I feel I should also write about the compromises regarding the Touit 2.8/50M. Being a makro-planar design the Touit 2.8/50M is very versatile lens that does macro and standard photography very well. However, this versatility comes with couple of compromises which are good to know if you planning to get it for your Sony Alpha system. First of all being able to focus at both macro and standard range means that the focusing system needs to move quite a bit inside the lens barrel. While this doesn't bother much in good light, it makes the Touit 2.8/50M very slow to focus in dim light. If the camera doesn't find the focus immediately it usually moves through the whole focus range and it takes time. For me this is a limitation of this lens that needs to be considered when using it. Another characteristic of the Touit 2.8/50M, which could be seen as a compromise, is the bokeh it delivers. When working in the macro range, the bokeh is superb and there is no question about it. However, in standard ranges it might sometimes turn out to be a bit nervous, depending how far the background is and its characteristics. Don't get me wrong, the Touit 2.8/50M can certainly deliver a nice bokeh in standard use too and I've used it with good results. But if it would be my only option for shallow depth of field pictures, I would certainly crave for more. Part of this relates to maximum aperture being 'only' f/2.8 , but from time to time there is also a bit of nervousness bokeh character.
Year of the Alpha – 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: www.yearofthealpha.com
Sea of Light
Season of Touit - picture 13
Week 39 - Wednesday
Today's picture is something that was already shot some time ago. And it was actually taken by Sari, Aura's mother, while me and Aura were playing in the lake. One of my favorites of this summer for sure. There are two reasons why I wanted to include this picture in to 'Season of Touit'. First of all it's a good example how nice the Touit 2.8/50M can be shooting in standard range. Even though it is labeled as a macro lens, many times it works very nicely in standard photography too. The second reason is that the picture also exemplifies the optical quality of this lens: taken straight into sun the Touit 2.8/50M delivers very good colors but also almost non-existent chromatic aberrations. With a SEL50F18 the lake and it's reflections would have screamed of purple and green edges. I understand that it is relatively easy to get rid of it in Lightroom for example, but it doesn't substitute real optical excellence (no corrections done for this picture). The Touit 2.8/50M having a very little chromatic aberrations, almost apochromatic by its nature, means of course better edge contrast and color accuracy.
But what about the compromises regarding the Touit 2.8/50M? As I've already dealt with the Touit 2.8/12 and I didn't found much that would compromise it, I feel I should also write about the compromises regarding the Touit 2.8/50M. Being a makro-planar design the Touit 2.8/50M is very versatile lens that does macro and standard photography very well. However, this versatility comes with couple of compromises which are good to know if you planning to get it for your Sony Alpha system. First of all being able to focus at both macro and standard range means that the focusing system needs to move quite a bit inside the lens barrel. While this doesn't bother much in good light, it makes the Touit 2.8/50M very slow to focus in dim light. If the camera doesn't find the focus immediately it usually moves through the whole focus range and it takes time. For me this is a limitation of this lens that needs to be considered when using it. Another characteristic of the Touit 2.8/50M, which could be seen as a compromise, is the bokeh it delivers. When working in the macro range, the bokeh is superb and there is no question about it. However, in standard ranges it might sometimes turn out to be a bit nervous, depending how far the background is and its characteristics. Don't get me wrong, the Touit 2.8/50M can certainly deliver a nice bokeh in standard use too and I've used it with good results. But if it would be my only option for shallow depth of field pictures, I would certainly crave for more. Part of this relates to maximum aperture being 'only' f/2.8 , but from time to time there is also a bit of nervousness bokeh character.
Year of the Alpha – 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: www.yearofthealpha.com