Uggggghhhh....Nikkor Lens Haze????

Your Vimeo footage is only 640x360 pixels, so it's not great to judge sharpness with.

Looking at the segment at 3:23, it looks like a strong soft-focus filter or something equivalent was used when shooting this segment, as nothing appears sharp at all.

I've used a Nikon 35mm f/1.4 AI-S for still photography and generally found it to be quite sharp lens, so I am surprised by what I see in your video example.

Do you have any other video camera ( even a GH2 ) that you can use to test your Nikon lens ?
 
The last pics posted are higher resolution. Sorry, didn't think about that initially (duh right).
I'll post a link soon w/some footage.

Unfortunately, I have no other camera I could use and I agree w/TheDingo, this was always my go to lens until this year. Focusing/haziness has made this lens TORTURE to use. I'll have to triple check my focus for stand-ups; not good.
 
Here we go:
https://vimeo.com/44264605

I usually like to keep it a stop or two under, but sometimes the producer will request "that super-shallow depth-of-field look". Yeesh.

Anyway, I would like to be able to shoot w/a 35mm 1.4 at ANY stop and not have to worry. What can I do?

LL
 
...My Zeiss ZF 50mm f/1.4 has a lot of uncorrected coma at f/1.4 which makes it a fairly soft lens until I stop down to f/2.0+

The Zeiss also has a fair bit of chromatic aberration ( nasty purpley-blue edges on high contrast subjects ) which makes me want to check out the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 Micro 4/3 lens, which is supposed to be crisp wide open with very well corrected CA. ( I use this focal length for almost every interview I shoot )
 
hendosan, did you watch the Vimeo link in the OP? Watch it on a big screen if you can. Not sure how much lower I should have to be stopping down. I mean really, that shot on the left is pretty dark, no?
 
Oh, I was confused by your phrasing about which shot was which. Yeah, if that's an older AI-S Nikon it's going to have some hazing unless you stop down a to like f8. Did you try sharpening the footage in post?

edit: if you want a sharp image at 1.4, you'll probably need to get another lens. I don't think any of my old Nikkors are all that sharp wide open.
 
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Well after doing a little test tonight w/all of my Nikkors, I've realized I shouldn't be shooting 1.4 with this lens. It gets way to soft, thus multiplying the soft glow.

A few of the other lenses I have had a slight glow but not like the 35mm.

Well good news is, my lens is fine. Bad news is, I think I'd rather pay a little more and be able to be a bit more flexible.

Any suggestions on a 35mm 1.4 Nikon mount that works well A) Wide open and B) With the AF100?

Was a bit hard seeing that I'd been misusing my gear for this long : / Thanks for all of your responses.

LL
 
On my old nikon 35mm 1.4 it goes away significantly at f/2 but I used the glow to my advantage in all the hospitals scenes for this music video: https://vimeo.com/37441938

It gave it an interesting looking instead of doing the diffusion in post.
 
Logan LeBlanc said:
Any suggestions on a 35mm 1.4 Nikon mount that works well A) Wide open and B) With the AF100?
Click to expand...

Ken rates the $500 Samyang 35mm f/1.4 as better than any Nikon lens, even ones costing 3-4 times as much. This lens has very low chromatic-aberration, so it is sharp wide open, and it has a long focus-throw which helps when pulling focus for video work.

Samyang 35mm f/1.4
 
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