The Visual Science Lab : It's a VSL tradition: The Sunday afternoon walk. Today it's all about Samsung's 85mm 1.4

6.01.2014

It's a VSL tradition: The Sunday afternoon walk. Today it's all about Samsung's 85mm 1.4

www.visualsciencelab.blogspot.com

Early on I downgraded the Samsung NX30 for several reasons. The main reason was that the EVF is not spectacular and doesn't match the rear screen. The secondary issue was the silliness of dedicating so many resources to NFC and Wi-fi. Which I still consider a supreme waste of resources. So I was lukewarm about the camera and hell bent on making the m4:3 cameras work for everything.

Then I shot a job for the people at the Appleseed Foundation and I realized that the combination of the really good 20 megapixel sensor and the insanely good 85mm 1.4 lens made the NX30 a very powerful tool for a portrait photographer. I grabbed that camera as I headed out the door today and walked around downtown just looking for stuff to shoot.

The image on top is my favorite. Not because of the content but because of the wonderful way the building is rendered out of focus in the background, along with the almost impressionistic drawing of the clouds. Have a super fast lens combined with a detailed sensor is a nice thing.

While I love the performance of the GH4 there's space in my photographic tool kit for a worthwhile combination like the NX30 + 85mm 1.4. I've also discovered something uniquely interesting about this camera. The EVF is actually showing me the real parameters of the raw file. It's always a little lighter and less saturated than the jpeg file. I never realized this until I switched the camera to shoot raw+jpeg today. I'd look at the image in the finder, like it and shoot. When I chomped it on the rear screen it was darker and more saturated. I had chalked this up to a mismatch between screens but when I opened both files in PhotoShop I found that the Raw files matched the look I got on the internal, EVf screen while the jpeg versions matched (perfectly) what I saw on the external screen. Weird, right?

But knowing this I know have more leeway in deciding how to use and interpret the information. I'll be testing the EVF more and depending on it from now on. Not a fault but a feature not listed in the (damn) owner's manual. Now I have more respect for the camera. In addition the detail I'm getting in the raw files is astoundingly good. As good as what I used to get with the Sony a99 at 24 megapixels. I'll chalk it up the the 85mm maximizing the interplay between lens and sensor. I am smitten with the 85mm lens. I almost did the unthinkable and picked up the phone to call my contact at Samsung to see how cheaply I could get another NX30 body. I was mentally juggling the idea of making it into a full professional system for some of my stuff. I stopped myself and reminded myself not to be so mercurial. How could I be so fickle when just a week ago I'd been gobsmacked by the video performance of the GH4? All the cameras are so good now. It's just that they are all good at separate things....

www.visualsciencelab.blogspot.com

1 comment:

Gato said...: Nice work from the Samsung.

Seeing your wifi comment, I wonder if you've checked out the wifi "tethering" on the GH4? I don't know what the Samsung can do, but recent Panasonics offer live view and very complete camera control from a phone or tablet -- including ability to set focus point and pull focus. You can set exposure mode, shutter, aperture, compensation, white balance and more from the remote screen, fire the shutter and start/stop video.

Worth a look, IMO.; June 2, 2014 at 3:01 AM