I hadn't tried manual focus until Matt (Matt Pasant here) did it this summer and reported back with the results; Cory (Cory Disbrow here) is also big on manual focus. ; Both of them use the 5DmkII and have reported a lot better results with MF than AF on those dark rides. ; Maybe one of them will chime in here. ; My problem is that the D90 has such a small viewfinder that it's so dark on the really dark dark rides. ; I've found that it's a lot of guessing at approximately what distance range the object is in, then moving the focus back and forth a little bit while firing away on burst mode. ; I get a lot of blurry crap that way, but I also get some good shots. ; It's better than the lens just hunting and hunting, which was what was happening otherwise in most scenes on Pan and the HM graveyard scene. Here's some of the luck I've had thus far with MF: Given the relatively weak (compared to you 5DmkII folks) high ISO performance I had and really slow shutter speeds that necessitated, I think I've done okay with manual focus. ; You should see some of Matt's and Cory's shots. ; WOW.
I love it. ; Count me in! ; The Sigma 30 F1.4 is a definite recommend - solid, sharp, detailed, nice color, nice bokeh, and well worth the money. ; That's all I use now for dark rides, but I also use it for indoor flash work. ; I shot a golf tourney last week (paid shoot) and the 30mm F1.4 was my go-to for indoor event shots during the dinner and auction paired with my flash. Tim...cool news on the lens rental discount. ; I am working on possibly buying a new camera soon, so once I get it, I may look into renting a lens to play with at Pixelmania.
Justin- TMIP thanks you for the support. Hopefully Cory and Matt will chime in with some MF tips for the 5dMk2.
Oh, and of course, if you BUY the Sigma 30mm F1.4, you'll want to do that by clicking the B&H banner here on TMIP. ; Right Tim? ; Unless someone decides to drop the price huge on a brand-new camera model, I'll certainly be looking to B&H for my A550. ; Prices being equal, I'd rather go with a trusted source I've had good experience with. ; It would take a mega-super-sale price to get me looking elsewhere.
10-4 Justin, I'm sold on B&H. ; If I don't screw up, I do link through TMIP. ; When I bought my camera I screwed up somehow and TMIP didn't get the credit. ; I'll try to do better in the future.
Wow just checked out B&H and that Nikkor 35/1.8 is around $199 and the Sigma 30/1.4 that Tom recommended is over $400. ; I almost choked on my lunch when I saw the price of the 35mm. ; That is about what I paid for my 50/1.8
Personally, I think the Nikon 35 is only so expensive because it's hot and new. ; It's a lens that's difficult to find right now, and as such, places are charging full MSRP. ; Give it a year, and I'll bet it will be easy to find for $150 (although that doesn't help if you need it now). The Sigma 30 is also reasonably popular, but not nearly to that extent. ; I ended up paying $250 for mine. ; To be fair, the Sigma is a 1.4, which usually fetches a premium over a 1.8. ; If you look at the Nikon 50 1.4, I'll bet it's over $400.
I think you misunderstood me. ; I was expecting that lens to be MSRP around $400-500 like the Sigma 30/1.4. ; When I saw $199, it took everything I had to just not snatch that sucker up. ; To me a lens with those kind of review for $199 is a steal
I know Jeff had/has the Sigma 50/1.4, and after seeing his pictures, I would definitely pay $50 more for the Sigma version of that lens. ; It was dreamy.
Jeff's the reason it's one of the lenses I'm renting for the trip. ; I thought about buying it outright, but I don't know the next time I'll have a use for it, so it can wait a bit. ; Perhaps when a used one pops up on FM...
