Nikkor AiS 1.8/105mm at Lucerne Carneval (Luzerner Fasnacht)

[stevemark]

Usually when taking images of people I work with autofocus cameras, and with lenses such as the AF 1.4/85, AF 2/100, AF 2.8/200 APO and Af 2.8/300 APO. Today, though, I decided to take a not so well known Nikkor with me, the AiS 1.8/105mm. Unlike its famous cousin, the Nikkor 2.5/105mm, the AiS 1.8/105mm isn't that well known. It is a "simple" [5/5] Xenotar construction, and as such has a high resolution, but relatively low contrast. Color aberrations are an isue as well, as can be read in Haruo Sato's story of the lens (https://imaging.nikon.com/history/story/0059/index.htm).

Ah yeah, befor I for get it: all images were taken wide ope at f1.8 since the aperture of my lens has "frozen" ... I ahevn't been using the AiS 1.8/105mm for a while, and obvioulsy the aperture now is stuck "wide open". All images taken with 24 MP FF sony A7II. Images usually just JPGs out of cam, and re-sized to 800 x 1200 px. Images taken in "Portrait" mode and Auto White Balance.

Now let's go to to the Lucerne Carneval . That's how it looks. Lot's of people, lots of sun and lot's of fun . That's one of the bridges over the Reuss river. People are looking in my direction since on the large stairway between me and the bridge (not visible on the image) there's a music group playing. We call them "Guuggene", and they make a helluva lot of noise.



And here's a 100% crop from the center. Resolution (at f1. is impressive, and there's the typical "glow". Contrast is relatively low, but that's prefect for portraits. More on that later on.


Now here's the view from down there. You can see of the numoeus carnval music groups playing on the stairway. What's interesing here is the forground- abd the backgroud bokeh. Foreground is very smooth, background slighly noisy:

[stevemark]

Now let's look at at few masks.

While some music groups - more than hundred "Guuggen" with usually 30-50 musicians each! - actually are playing in the afternoon, their main focus is the evening / night. Which means that quite a lot of those goups are not playing in the afternoon. They leave their stuff somewhere in the streets, enjoying a drink, a chatter or simply the beauty of the scerenery.




And again a 100% crop from the 24 MP FF image (taken at f1.:



Pretty impressive I'd say - although this one (the above 100% crop) is a RAW, "developped" using Photoshop. Sharpening at 45 (Radius 1 px), Detail 45, and magenta defringed.

Some music instruments eagerly awaiting the evening:



Fringing is quite visible (longitudinal CAs), even on this small image.


Here's another mask waiting on the street:



Our Lucerne masks usually are not beautiful or nice. During the Fasnacht (carneval) all the mountain spirits from mount Pilatus are descending into town, along with old witches and crazy animals. Death - in one form or another - may be part of the game as well. It's a Catholic area, and that means that the awareness of the transcience of all life is rooted within our culture. To some extent, at least. Some details at the outside of a mobile bar:





Sometimes you just catch a detail. At these close distances (around 1.2m I'd say) both foreground as well as backgound bokeh is exceptionally smooth. Very nice indeed.




Next posting will be about actual portraits, finally

[stevemark]

Here are a few portraits - all taken at f1.8 with the Nikkor AiS 1.8/105mm on the Sony A7RII. Three nice girls first



When shooting a portrait of one person, the razor thin DOF of the 1.8/105 isn't much of a problem. Three girls, however, rarely align poperly ...!!


Two guys now, dressed and painted in the style of their music group:



Again, the background is very smooth, and so is the depiction of the skin texture.

Not everyone has a fancy costume. A few utensils, along with a wig and some body paint may be sufficient:






And some, of course, are looking for a new girlfriend ...



And then two of those guys wearing those masks we earlier found laying on the street. They also are part of a "Guugge" (music group):

[Ultrapix]

I like the rendering, and the pictures too, of course

[Minolfan]

Nice and funny!

[jamaeolus]

brilliant colors.

[visualopsins]

too much fun!

[Doc Sharptail]

Some nice images.
Too bad about the aperture sticking open.

Just a bit curious about in-camera saturation settings, especially with-in the first 3 or 4 frames.
I find with most Nikkors, older, or newer, dialing back exposure 1/3 of a stop to help immensely, which oddly enough on digital, mimics the old ranges of Kodachrome behaviour.

-D.S.

[caspert79]

Very nice images, thus lens its still on my wish list.

[stevemark]

[Doc Sharptail]

[KEO]

I'm lucky enough to have a copy in extremely good condition. Not only is it an excellent lens, it's just really fun to shoot with. If you've never had one in hand, it's actually smaller and lighter than it appears in pictures.

It also works great on the GFX with only a tiny bit of vignetting at certain settings.

[stevemark]

[stevemark]

[RokkorDoctor]

All nice images, looks like a fun festival! Proof that even with aperture stuck wide-open and noticeable lens flaws you can still get very nice rendering.

[stevemark]

[RokkorDoctor]

[alex ph]

A joyful coloured multitude, well captured!

From the optical point of view, I know it might sound a sacrilege, this glowy rendering at long distance, together with strong CA, recalls me some Soviet 35mm fast projection lenses.

[Doc Sharptail]

[stevemark]

[Doc Sharptail]