New Lens disappointment

[Lonnie1212]

So I bought myself a new/old 1960s Nikon 55mm f1.2 lens to try on my Z9. Using it in manual focus was a breeze once I reassigned the zoom button to the multi purpose joystick making it easier to zoom in for critical focus (we’ll get to that in a minute)
Anyway me and my girlfriend went out into Phuket old town to try this new lens out and it was really good fun. When we got home I uploaded the pictures into Lightroom and then I was like “SH*T” looking at them in full view they looked okay but as soon as I zoomed in to 100% they were NOT okay soft and just something not correct (it actually hurt my eyes looking at them). Out of the 500+ pictures we took 95% were really bad the other 5% i've posted below.
I bought the lens on Lazada which is the equivalent to eBay /Amazon here in Thailand. It came with a 7 day return policy which included “change of mind policy” but after contacting the seller on Lazada to say I wanted to return the lens his/her “Change of Mind” policy doesn’t apply to camera lenses (Ive started a dispute claim with Lazada, but I’m not holding my breath to get a satisfactory result.

I really enjoyed the experience of the manual focusing with the Z9 so Ive just treated myself to a brand new Voigtlander 50mm f1.0 ..........hopefully I will get a better result


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Camera Lens setup

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So I bought myself a new/old 1960s Nikon 55mm f1.2 lens to try on my Z9. Using it in manual focus was a breeze once I reassigned the zoom button to the multi purpose joystick making it easier to zoom in for critical focus (we’ll get to that in a minute)
Anyway me and my girlfriend went out into Phuket old town to try this new lens out and it was really good fun. When we got home I uploaded the pictures into Lightroom and then I was like “SH*T” looking at them in full view they looked okay but as soon as I zoomed in to 100% they were NOT okay soft and just something not correct (it actually hurt my eyes looking at them). Out of the 500+ pictures we took 95% were really bad the other 5% i've posted below.
I bought the lens on Lazada which is the equivalent to eBay /Amazon here in Thailand. It came with a 7 day return policy which included “change of mind policy” but after contacting the seller on Lazada to say I wanted to return the lens his/her “Change of Mind” policy doesn’t apply to camera lenses (Ive started a dispute claim with Lazada, but I’m not holding my breath to get a satisfactory result.

I really enjoyed the experience of the manual focusing with the Z9 so Ive just treated myself to a brand new Voigtlander 50mm f1.0 ..........hopefully I will get a better result


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I have had the same experience with some older lenses. With some of those lens you have to close down the aperture further. Raise the aperture up to f/4 or f/5. I would say you have a good camera and a good lens. Just raise the lens setting to a higher aperture number. We all want to have dreamy bokeh. But some lenses are just too soft at f 1.8 or 2.0 etc.... The bokeh aspect will be fine. Just my opinion. I am here to learn as well.

 

[greybeard]

Did you shoot everything at f/1.2?

 

[ndwgolf]

Here's a couple more shot with the 55mm 1.2, this time shot around f5.6

 

[Grandpa Ron]

What specifically do you not like about the lens. "Bad results" is very subjective.

What have you asked the lens to do, that it could not deliver?

 

[ndwgolf]

What specifically do you not like about the lens. "Bad results" is very subjective.

What have you asked the lens to do, that it could not deliver?

Basically to answer your question I was hoping it would be easier to shoot wide open...........stopped down its great

 

[Rickbb]

It will shoot wide open, of things that need a very shallow depth of field, close up face shots with the focus on the nose work well wide open, not full body shots. Too much will be out of focus at the distance for a full body shot due to the very shallow DOF.