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Originally Posted by astroboy
Great run down on some excellent lenses Greg , I'll be looking forward to hearing about the Zeiss 45mm .
A couple to add to the list
nikkor 85mm F2 excellent at 2.8 ( old AI )
nikkor 50mm F2 also excellent at 2.8 ( also old AI )
One thing I noticed about Micros wide open they are often sharp but Vignette badly so the Nikkor 105 F2.8 Micro is very good at F4
You have me tempted with your thoughts on the Fuji , I use a X100 now and love it and trying to justify the X1 Pro or the XE-1
Any thoughts on which is the better camera.
Thanks
zane
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The Contax g Zeiss 45mm F2 is regarded as one of the sharpest lenses anywhere. I have only started using it on my Fuji XE1 and Sony Nex 6.
Its beautiful. I was so amazed by the performance of the 90mm Sonnar that I could see why people rave about their Zeiss lenses. I could be hooked. Its like using a Takahashi scope for the first time! Too bad its only manual. But there is a Taiwanese guy who has invented an adapter that allows AF with Contax g lenses. Its $300 and only for Sony Nex for You can rotate the dial to get up to 10X. So manual focusing is not that hard.
Of course the downside to Contax G lenses is they are limited to mirrorless. You also have to be careful of the 21mm as the rear lens element is close the sensor. There are some reports of filing down the rear metal flange. No problem with the 45mm. You can't use them on your DSLR. There are Contax Yashica Zeiss lenses that I think will fit DSLRs (not 100% sure though).
As far as XE1 versus XPro 1 I think that is pretty easy. The XE1 came out later. They are identical except XE1 has a worse LCD but much better EVF and XPro has a hybrid viewfinder (both optical and evf). XPro 1 is larger and more expensive. But sensor, menus, everything is the same. XE1 has a remote port for an intervalometer - XPro 1 does not so be careful there. You may be unable to use XPro 1 for time lapse.
An XPro 2 is slated for later this year. No doubt it would at a minimum have the X100s improvements which have received enthusiastic reports.
XE1 is quite clean at ISO6400 but Fuji does overstate their ISO by at least 1/3rd of a stop so its really only ISO5000+ not ISO6400. Sony Nex 6 is a tight competitor for XE1 and in some ways is better suited for astrowork.
It has a tilt screen, same sensor except the latest version with on chip PDAF autofocusing (same as X100s), focus peaking ( a colour fringe appears in viewfinder when you have maximum sharp focus - very nice to use),
wifi (perhaps a bit of a gimmick but you can control it from iphone, not set anything but simply fire off a shot), gps (again not important to me), more importantly for me was there is a time lapse app you can buy for $10.
I have used it. Its nowhere near as friendly as the Nikon which is sooo nicely implemented. But I "think" it works. The last time I used it I did manage to do a time lapse but when played back on the camera it seemed way too gappy. Not sure why, all the settings were correct. Its not very user friendly but I think once you master it the good news is it stays at your last settings so it would be fast to operate next time.
XE1 and Nex 6 are almost as clean as my Nikon D800E. But full frame of course still has the edge.
XE1 video is only so so. Perhaps even poorish. Sound is poor. Nex on the hand is superb with great clear stereo sound and non distracting AF as well as power zoom and stabilisation so your videos look like they were taken on a stabilising video mount.
You can also get a Metabones speed booster to up the cheap legacy lenses in F ratio speed. Same as a reducer on a telescope. There is one available for Nex 6. I was looking at getting one when they had the right type for me (lots of models). This is supposed to make your APS sensor perform the same as a full frame. It gets good reviews. They start at US$399 and go up to $599 depending on the model.
Most simply get a Canon to do their astrowork and they are great cameras. But I don't think Canon has anything in APS size that can match Fuji and Sony. Exmor sensors rule and are ahead of everyone at this stage (the scene is always changing but they have a significant lead. Toshiba have a high QE sensor in the Nikon D5200 but apparently it can band in shadows like 5D2). Basically Exmor sensors retain high dynamic range and have very good high ISO performance, are light (very good for Polarie), lenses are cheaper and are aimed also at users of legacy lenses with good manual focus facilities (mainly Nex but XE1 is useable that way for sure).
Greg.
