Jump to content

56mm APD & regular for night


jbrown90

Recommended Posts

Hey there !


So I've got an XT2 and recently I've started to do a lot more portraits shots that I enjoy doing a lot.


I was considering the 90mm for a while but since my portraits are not only headshots but usually also bust + I like to have the background and bokeh for creative portraits, I started considering the 56mm.


I was settled on a used 56mm but then found a used 56mm APD for about 850€ so now I'm torn. I like the fact that the APD would have smoother bokeh but since it loses one stop, I was wondering how does the APD perform in night shootings for portraits ? Is it really not as good for night shootings as the regular 56mm?


What do you guys think ?


Link to post
Share on other sites

You lose some light with the APD. At widest aperture, you are getting closer to F1.7 light. Try not to confuse this with F1.7 bokeh because you'd still get F1.2 bokeh but F1.7 amount of light.

 

The APD will have smooth bokeh advantage from F1.2 - F5.6. I suspect at night when you probably will shoot closer to wide open, the APD will have better background rendition. It's subtle but it's there.

 

Whether you need the APD will depend on how much you want the night background to be in your picture. I'm assuming you are talking about portraits.

 

All else being equal, the standard lens will perform just as good with actual F1.2 light.

 

I shoot with both and on your X-T2, AF and Focusing on both versions will be almost identical. APD loses a wee bit but negligible.

Link to post
Share on other sites

One potentially relevant aspect is that the regular 56 1.2 should focus more quickly, especially in low light, as it can take advantage of both the contrast and phase detect AF systems built into cameras like the XT2. Whereas the APD can only use contrast detect. However....if you shoot portraits you may wish to use the Face Detect / Eye Focus function, which, however, only works with contrast detect. I don't know where this leaves you for your particular purpose, but I suspect you may be better off with the regular version, if you shoot at night.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...