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Sony A7 with Minolta F2.8 [T4.5] 135mm STF
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 2014 11:06 am    Post subject: Sony A7 with Minolta F2.8 [T4.5] 135mm STF Reply with quote
Quote:
The STF is a manual focus lens, though designed for use on the auto-focus Minolta AF/Sony Alpha mount. It's engineered specifically to produce pictures with great bokeh (Bokeh is the name for the rendition of unsharp areas in the picture). When an image displays good bokeh, it is characterised by smooth transitions between sharp and unsharp areas... bad bokeh includes lines being doubled when unsharp, donut or hexagonal highlights. The 135 STF creates smooth, aesthetically pleasing out-of-focus backgrounds that make sharp-focus subjects stand out more vividly.

The STF (Smooth Transition Focus) telephoto lens incorporates an apodization optical element that distributes light rays to create smooth, aesthetically pleasing bokeh. The apodization element reduces light transmission by 1.5 stops, so actual brightness (transmissive) is expressed as T4.5. Manual exposure ring enables precise, continuous adjustment
from T4.5 to 6.7.


http://www.the135stf.net

Last weekend was very nice weather in Berlin, so I took my favorite lens out for a little walk..

























..it was the first time I used the STF on the A7 and one thing for sure: this will be happen a lot from now! Very Happy


PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 2014 2:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
WOW, very impressive all, specially #2 and even more so #4


PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 2014 3:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Wow wow! So nice bokeh Shocked


PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 2014 3:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I love apodization filtering! Great unique (series production) lens!


PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 2014 4:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Great , bright series! Congrats!!


PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 2014 7:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I want one of those, and the weather. Great series!


PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 2014 8:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
The lens that makes Sony/ minolta stand out for me, I love that lens and want one bad, these pictures do not help with the wanting


PostPosted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 6:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
thank you Smile

I love this lens.. it's the last one I ever would sell. It's not just this smooth bokeh, the STF is one of my sharpest lenses wide open.. also build quality and handling are just wonderful.
A very very nice lens and to make it even better: I paid only 499,90 Euro for it.. new in the box and from a shop (Foto Oehling.. now Besier Oehling) with full waranty. It was in 2006.. the time Konica-Minolta stopped make cameras and just before Sony announced their first DSLR. Very Happy

















the most busy bokeh I was be able to produce:



PostPosted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 6:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Do you have some portraits taken by this lens?

For close-ups, the bokeh is very nice. I would like to see in portrait distances as well. For a 135mm, the subject should be popping out of the screen... Is there any relation between STF settings and DOF?


PostPosted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 7:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Tedat wrote:
...
A very very nice lens and to make it even better: I paid only 499,90 Euro for it.. new in the box and from a shop (Foto Oehling.. now Besier Oehling) with full waranty. It was in 2006.. the time Konica-Minolta stopped make cameras and just before Sony announced their first DSLR. Very Happy ...


Great price for that lens, you had the right idea to the right time!
Even the used prices are very high - this is one of the lenses I made my Sony A - Canon EF adapter for. But still the lens is missing Smile

To get more nervous bokeh try sun reflections (eg. on water, metal) which are much brighter than the apodization filter density can absorb.

hoanpham wrote:
...For close-ups, the bokeh is very nice. I would like to see in portrait distances as well. For a 135mm, the subject should be popping out of the screen... Is there any relation between STF settings and DOF?


The apodization filter kind of reduces blur size (size is still the same, but outer regions are with very low intensity). So the DOF is larger.
This is one reason why I want to make DIY apodization filter for faster lenses - like the Porst 135mm/1.8 for example. The image quality would get better, and smaller DOF and bigger blur circles would be nice.


PostPosted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 8:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
hoanpham wrote:
Do you have some portraits taken by this lens?

For close-ups, the bokeh is very nice. I would like to see in portrait distances as well. For a 135mm, the subject should be popping out of the screen... Is there any relation between STF settings and DOF?



there are no special STF settings.. just the apodization element (basically kind of a graduated ND Filter) and two different sets of aperture: the "normal" which is controlled by the camera and a second which is fully manual. First one goes from F2.8(T4.5)-32 and the second is stepless between wide open and T6.7

It's a F2.8 lens but the apodization element takes some light.. means it's 1.5 stops slower than a usual 2.8/135mm lens (T4.5) but has the same DOF.

Quote:
In terms of depth of field, this lens acts like any other lens with a neutral density filter mounted on the front. Shooting wide-open, the depth of field will be the same as a "true" f2.8 lens however the light reaching the sensor will be equivalent to a lens at f4.5. The construction of the apodization element is "consuming" 1.5 stops of light which makes an effective maximum "speed" or "brightness" of f4.5, which is expressed in the optical world as T4.5. The stepless aperture is controlled by the aperture ring (not by the camera) and ranges from f4.5 to f6.7 only


quoted from here: http://www.the135stf.net/handling.html


Unfortunatly I haven't any classical portraits at the moment.. 135mm on crop was a too long for this (at least for me). With the A7 this has now changed so be sure there will come some in future. The head of the sculpture (last picture on my first set) should give you a hint. And here two older photos (taken with NEX-5) which are the closest to portraits I have:







ZoneV wrote:

To get more nervous bokeh try sun reflections (eg. on water, metal) which are much brighter than the apodization filter density can absorb.


believe me.. this won't work that easy. And if I realy want a busy bokeh, I use the Meopta Meostigmat Wink


PostPosted: Fri Apr 04, 2014 1:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
and here a photo how it looks like:




PostPosted: Fri Apr 04, 2014 3:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
hoanpham wrote:
I would like to see in portrait distances as well.


I have several photos taken with the Sony version of this lens at “portrait distances” (though currently only one actual portrait), here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/arkku/sets/72157627152362731/with/9011125451/


PostPosted: Sat Apr 05, 2014 6:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Tedat wrote:
..
ZoneV wrote:

To get more nervous bokeh try sun reflections (eg. on water, metal) which are much brighter than the apodization filter density can absorb.


believe me.. this won't work that easy. And if I realy want a busy bokeh, I use the Meopta Meostigmat Wink


Yeah, it is not the lens for really busy bokeh, but the apodization element density is not infinity.
As soon as you have much brighter unsharp reflections than you normal exposure you can get normal hard bokeh.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/52983032@N02/4957844280/in/pool-stf135/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/28422542@N07/3902272929/in/pool-stf135/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/28422542@N07/3420474708/in/pool-stf135
https://www.flickr.com/photos/28422542@N07/3386822094/in/pool-stf135
https://www.flickr.com/photos/alvse/3337688438/in/pool-stf135/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/slowhand7530/5536524992/in/pool-stf135/

I think the situations where you get soap bubbles with the Meyer Trioplan 100 are those situations where you could normal bokeh with the Sony/Minolta STF 135.

But I agree apodization lenses are a great tool for photography!


PostPosted: Sat Apr 05, 2014 7:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
ZoneV wrote:

Yeah, it is not the lens for really busy bokeh, but the apodization element density is not infinity.
As soon as you have much brighter unsharp reflections than you normal exposure you can get normal hard bokeh.


looking at those pictures.. your'e right.. it can get busier. But those pictures still look wonderfull and some even more interesting. I would love to see the same situation with a "normal" lens.. just for comparing it.


PostPosted: Sat Apr 05, 2014 1:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
ZoneV wrote:

Yeah, it is not the lens for really busy bokeh, but the apodization element density is not infinity.
As soon as you have much brighter unsharp reflections than you normal exposure you can get normal hard bokeh.


While true in some cases, in all but one of the examples linked that had EXIF available (two didn't) the aperture was stopped down – the edges of the apodisation element are then covered by the aperture blades and it is indeed just a regular lens where bokeh is concerned. The only linked example known to be taken wide open is:



(In my opinion it has very smooth bokeh.)

For fairness, the ones taken at unknown aperture are:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/52983032@N02/4957844280/in/pool-stf135/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/slowhand7530/5536524992/in/pool-stf135/

(The first one I don't think is particularly bad, the second one looks strange overall.)

All of the other examples are taken from t/6.3 upwards, one even at f/13. The limit of the manual aperture ring is t/6.7, which is basically “apodisation off”, so the lens wasn't really much of an STF anymore in these photos.


So, yes, you can get normal bokeh from the lens, but in my experience it is very difficult to do so with the lens wide open (full apodisation filter in effect); the closest I've come in my own photos is the bright reflection of the sun in this one:



PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2014 9:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote






PostPosted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 5:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Ahhh, finally a post on this wonderful lens - and the older Minolta version too. This is perhaps the one and only lens that I look at (results) and consider far and above my lenses in this focal length. I have lusted for this lens. Wonderful pictures. Please share more and often.


PostPosted: Fri Aug 15, 2014 7:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
thanks Smile


PostPosted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 5:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Great lens, nice series! Congrats!


PostPosted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 7:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Very nice series, that's an outstanding lens Surprised
If I'm not wrong, based on the photo with A7, this lens is quite big, compared with other 135/2.8 Shocked


PostPosted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 8:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
filtersize is 72mm and weight 730g.. yes it's a bit bigger than the usual 2.8/135 Wink
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