A few more from the 1.4

Here's a couple of portraits taken with the new AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G that perhaps will give you a better sense of how this lens does when shot wide-open than the example images I used in my earlier post comparing it with Nikon's  previous iteration of the 50mm f/1.4. These examples clearly demonstrate the improvements in the optical performance of this lens over the older version. Note the lack of any perceptible light-falloff at the edges and the  sharpness and detail of the in-focus areas of the images. (Bear in mind that at f/1.4, the depth-of-field is quite narrow. Focus was on the subject's eye.) Also note the reasonably clean bokeh (background-blur). It's not especially wonderful, but it's much more pleasing than what you'd have gotten with the older AF-D 50mm lens, which had a sort of mottled appearance.

Not bad for a lens shot at its widest aperture, where its optical deficiencies are usually most apparent.

Both of the above images were shot with the 50mm on the D700 @ f/1.4 with a shutter-speed of 1/125 of a second. ISO sensitivity was 3200. The auto-focus module on the D700 was set to 51-point 3D in continuous-focus mode. The focus-point was selected manually and placed on the subject's eye. The AF- module kept focus on the eye as I moved the camera slightly to recompose. 

Per usual, you can click on the photos above to view the larger images in my galleries.

Ollie Checks-In with Uncle Dan McGonagle

It's been awhile since Dan has seen Oliver in a context other than sound asleep in the baby seat in the back of my car; a good year or so, in fact. Tonight, when we picked Dan up at the airport, it looked like Ollie would stay true to form and snooze away his opportunity to hang out with Dan. But, lo and behold, he woke up when we arrived at Dan's apartment, so we went upstairs to socialize for a bit.

Oliver immediately impressed Dan by turning on my new iPhone and tuning into a video of Thomas the Tank Engine on You Tube. No Luddite is our Ollie.

After spending the next hour or so rearranging Dan's apartment, Ollie settled in with Dan's "dee dee" (better known as a guitar to most of the rest of the world) for a spell.

Having grown tired of rocking out, Oliver decided it would be a good idea to eat one of Dan's DAT tapes that he found while rummaging around the apartment. DATs are old-school, after all, and Oliver apparently felt that he needed to nudge Dan forward a bit in the technological realm.

Finally, Oliver encouraged Uncle Dan to engage in a few rounds of bounce the baby before retiring for the evening..

A wonderful time was had by all (and very little damage was inflicted on Dan's apartment).

Oliver & Mommy

I love these two photos of Ollie & his Mom. I don't know, they just seem to capture perfectly the wonderful rapport that they share with one another...

 

There's a couple more from this batch on this page in my galleries.