Another one (in fact two) from the testing session between my Minolta 100mm f2.5 and Minolta 55mm f1.8 (mounted via dumb adapter so working as 82.5). I studied the side-by-side results but finally stitched only the frames from 100mm. As much as I like the more compact package and more comfortable handling of 55, there is no denying that 100 produces superior results. I really like the rendering of this lens so I guess I’ll have to accept it’s size and weight. I also noticed that years of shooting 28mm left a habit of cramming a lot into frame… so I made alternative cropped version. This one is 99 frames stitched in total; shot with Minolta 100mm f2.5 mounted on Sony A6000 via speedbooster.
And here are the results of testing I did while producing the previous image BELLA. I wanted to compare Minolta 55mm f1.8 mounted via dumb adapter on Sony A6000 (so acting like a 82.5mm on APSC) and Minolta 100mm f2.5 mounted via speed booster for purpose of making bokeh panoramas. It is common knowledge that longer lenses will provide more of a background blur – no surprise there. But I wanted to see exactly how much of a difference there is. So, in the top left corner is a bokeh-pano from 100mm lens. In the bottom right is the image by 55mm taken from the same place, same distance to subject. The difference in DOF is obvious, as is a wider FOV of wider lens. Then I moved in with 55mm (as it can focus closer than 100mm) to try and match the subject size; I didn’t match the exact proportion of subject or composition, but it’s sufficiently close for a comparison. Moving closer did provoke more of background blur by wider lens – the effect is superior to initial 55mm shot, but still cannot match the creaminess of 100mm. The top right image is crop of the 100mm shot for sake of enjoying that lovely background separation it produces.
