Why are modern 50mm lenses so damned complicated?
1–10 of 291 posts
Re: Why are modern 50mm lenses so damned complicated?
#2Roger Cicala is probably the best photo gear blogger around these days.
Re: Why are modern 50mm lenses so damned complicated?
#3I have a bunch of full frame lenses.
Recently I looked at some very old ones I haven't used in a long time. I thought they are faulty (soft).
After some diagnosing I found that it is not the fault of lenses but rather in the meantime I have started looking at images at 1:1 in Lightroom and gotten used to ridiculously sharp images from new cameras.
Have you ever watched an old TV show and despaired how unwatchable it is because of low quality of image? Yes, that's the same thing -- our tastes change.
Re: Why are modern 50mm lenses so damned complicated?
#4I have a bunch of full frame lenses. Recently I looked at some very old ones I haven't used in a long time. I thought they are faulty (soft). After some diagnosing I found that it is not the fault of lenses but rather in the meantime I have started looking at images at 1:1 in Lightroom and gotten used to ridiculously sharp images from new cameras. Have you ever watched an old TV show and despaired how unwatchable it…
>Have you ever watched an old TV show and despaired how unwatchable it is because of low quality of image? Yes, that's the same thing -- our tastes change.
I've had the opposite reaction - I'd watch something I've seen before in 4k remastered or something and it would be a worse experience because the extra details reveal the low quality tricks you can get away with on lower reproduction quality. I've even noticed poor acting a lot more on higher def. It took away from immersion IMO.
Re: Why are modern 50mm lenses so damned complicated?
#5Couldn't there be a volumetric description of lens focusing ability/sharpness/distortion similar to that of the polar sensitivity plot of a microphone?
Re: Why are modern 50mm lenses so damned complicated?
#6I have a bunch of full frame lenses. Recently I looked at some very old ones I haven't used in a long time. I thought they are faulty (soft). After some diagnosing I found that it is not the fault of lenses but rather in the meantime I have started looking at images at 1:1 in Lightroom and gotten used to ridiculously sharp images from new cameras. Have you ever watched an old TV show and despaired how unwatchable it…
>Have you ever watched an old TV show and despaired how unwatchable it is because of low quality of image? Yes, that's the same thing -- our tastes change. I've had the opposite reaction - I'd watch something I've seen before in 4k remastered or something and it would be a worse experience because the extra details reveal the low quality tricks you can get away with on lower reproduction quality. I've even noticed po…
Turn off motion smoothing on your TV. It's also called the "Soap Opera Effect".
Re: Why are modern 50mm lenses so damned complicated?
#7I have a bunch of full frame lenses. Recently I looked at some very old ones I haven't used in a long time. I thought they are faulty (soft). After some diagnosing I found that it is not the fault of lenses but rather in the meantime I have started looking at images at 1:1 in Lightroom and gotten used to ridiculously sharp images from new cameras. Have you ever watched an old TV show and despaired how unwatchable it…
>Have you ever watched an old TV show and despaired how unwatchable it is because of low quality of image? Yes, that's the same thing -- our tastes change. I've had the opposite reaction - I'd watch something I've seen before in 4k remastered or something and it would be a worse experience because the extra details reveal the low quality tricks you can get away with on lower reproduction quality. I've even noticed po…
I had this experience watching the Hobbit in high frame rate - it felt like I was watching a play, a bunch of actors on a stage.
Re: Why are modern 50mm lenses so damned complicated?
#8How are these lens systems designed? Do they use "black box" optimization methods like gradient descent, simulated annealing or even genetic algorithms to find the optimal configuration of lenses?
Re: Why are modern 50mm lenses so damned complicated?
#9I have a bunch of full frame lenses. Recently I looked at some very old ones I haven't used in a long time. I thought they are faulty (soft). After some diagnosing I found that it is not the fault of lenses but rather in the meantime I have started looking at images at 1:1 in Lightroom and gotten used to ridiculously sharp images from new cameras. Have you ever watched an old TV show and despaired how unwatchable it…
>Have you ever watched an old TV show and despaired how unwatchable it is because of low quality of image? Yes, that's the same thing -- our tastes change. I've had the opposite reaction - I'd watch something I've seen before in 4k remastered or something and it would be a worse experience because the extra details reveal the low quality tricks you can get away with on lower reproduction quality. I've even noticed po…
Sweat. Beads of sweat on everyone. They were invisible at 720p and in cinematic projection, but 1080p and especially 4K remasters at close range at home reveal more about human skin than I cared to know.
Re: Why are modern 50mm lenses so damned complicated?
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Have you ever watched an old TV show and despaired how unwatchable it is because of low quality of image? Yes, that's the same thing -- our tastes change. I've had the opposite reaction - I'd watch something I've seen before in 4k remastered or something and it would be a worse experience because the extra details reveal the low quality tricks you can get away with on lower reproduction quality. I've even noticed po…
I had this experience watching the Hobbit in high frame rate - it felt like I was watching a play, a bunch of actors on a stage.
I watched the second Hobbit movie in 48fps and it was a horrible experience. Everything looked fake, which is how I imagine it actually looked in real life. Props seemed made of plastic, makeup looked like makeup, etc.
Also, when there was a cut to a new scene, for a few seconds my brain thought the movie was playing faster. Like those old black and white movies of the early 20th century.