Fast Lens (Nikkor 50mm f/1.2
I value a fast lens (one with very small f-stop numbers like f/1.4,
f/2.8, etc.) not because I shoot wide open, but because I need to
have maximum light in my viewfinder for focusing well. Since I often
am photographing around dawn or when the light is still fairly dim
(but nice), I need to see what I am doing. The bright light of full sun
is seldom what I am looking for, hardly ever. I avoid open sun.
Also, I do a lot of focus stacking and therefore need to see what to
focus on at each step. I don’t entirely agree with those who say that
to focus stack you just need to get to the front of the subject and
then automatically click on through and not focus on anything in
particular but just make sure to have regular intervals. That does
not work for me, especially when photographing spherical objects.
Of course I understand what they are pointing at, but in my
experience this is not enough. For example round (spherical)
objects in the frame do not stack well. One’s increments have to be
much finer (shorter) than otherwise if the subject is round. In fact, in
many subjects there are key points that you don’t want to just auto-
increment and march past, but rather be very careful to be sure to