We put up our Christmas tree yesterday and the kids decorated gingerbread houses and played games at the table while my wife baked pumpkin muffins - it was a real Norman Rockwell moment. Meanwhile, I walked out to the front porch and found that the postman had delivered my Super Tak 50/1.4 from Canada (thanks Peter Zack!). I tore open the box and just began shooting, all wide open, f/1.4.

Ever since seeing those amazing OOF holiday lights shots from Duh_Vinci last year, I have been patiently waiting for this year so I could check out the OOF highlights from Christmas lights. Here goes:

#1 Li'l Ella[shot with the Cosina 55mm at f/1.2]

#2 Mr. P in deep concentration

#3 Gingerbread house

#4 Li'l E & Tree

[wllm]

Great series Mike, I love these colors, I'm not into Christmas trees, decorations and stuff but when I see these I understand that you are very pleased with your Super Takumar.

wllm

[Ash]

Multicoloured photographic confetti!
Brilliant idea, well taken advantage of.
Lighting in #2 and the look of #4 are great.
Well done.

[Christopher M.W.T]

Very very nice.

How much was the lense?

[mikeSF]

Great series Mike, I love these colors, I'm not into Christmas trees, decorations and stuff but when I see these I understand that you are very pleased with your Super Takumar.
wllm

thanks. my wife is really into the holiday decorating, I was just pretending to look busy by holding the camera, lol.

Multicoloured photographic confetti!
Brilliant idea, well taken advantage of.
Lighting in #2 and the look of #4 are great.
Well done.

thank you. my son was squeezing icing out onto his gingerbread house (#2) and was in deep concentration.

Very very nice.
How much was the lense?

very affordable and worth every penny, IMO. There are a couple in the marketplace right now, MikeH is selling one, I know. I don't have near enough fast 50's yet, so I am building my collection, lol.

[mikeSF]

At the risk of overdoing the effect, here are two more I forgot I had:

#5 Ceramic Tree


#6 Ceramic Church


yes, I am having fun playing with light circles!

Move away from the warm lights...


Wow you are having some fun... You make me want to get out my smc tak 50 1.4. Oh wait, I dont have my k20... nevermind

You can never have enough fast 50s... the world is your oyster. And russia and germany are calling.



Great shots of the kids, and the ornaments.


now slowly move away from the light

[mikeSF]

Move away from the warm lights...
Wow you are having some fun... You make me want to get out my smc tak 50 1.4. Oh wait, I dont have my k20... nevermind
You can never have enough fast 50s... the world is your oyster. And russia and germany are calling.
Great shots of the kids, and the ornaments.
now slowly move away from the light

thanks Gus...dude, when you gonna send in your camera for repair?
(i just wanna know how much longer I can keep your Viv Series 1 105mm Macro)

[Ash]

Ceramic church is beautifully captured.
Beautiful Mike.

[mikeSF]

Ceramic church is beautifully captured.
Beautiful Mike.

thanks Ash!

[Sailor]

I love 'em Mike - puts me in the Christmas spirit.

Jer

[the swede]

Realy nice! I currently in a rush with my 55mm f1,2 stuck to the camera. Think i will sell everything else

No...i wont.... but its realy fun and challanging to go manual and especially with a large aperture lens. If only there could be a 30mm 1,4 something

Or a Pentax FF with my 55mm 1,2 on it.........i'll have to keep dreaming about it.

Sorry for the Off Topic

[jsherman999]

I love these, Mike!

But Duh-Vinci's shots last year were taken with the Cosina 55 1.2 - you should throw that baby on and post some more lights shots in here to compare.

(In fact, Duh-Vinci's shots are what convinced me to get my 1st 55 1.2 in the first place also )

[mikeSF]

I love these, Mike!
But Duh-Vinci's shots last year were taken with the Cosina 55 1.2 - you should throw that baby on and post some more lights shots in here to compare.
(In fact, Duh-Vinci's shots are what convinced me to get my 1st 55 1.2 in the first place also )

thanks Jay. I was just saying i couldn't wait for the holidays so i could try out the OOF light effects, I wasn't being lens specific, but YES i do very much remember that Cosina thread and yes, his photos and YOURS were the reason I bought that wonderful little gem...from YOU...thanks again.

OK, and since you mentioned doing a comparison with the Cosina, well, that was the lens i had on the day the SuperTak50 arrived and i did switch back and forth a few times, but didn't keep track of what was what. Based on the series of raw shots, i am now almost certain the first shot in my series was taken with the Cosina, not the Tak. So sorry for the confusion everybody. I will shoot some more this weekend with both lenses and my M-50/1.7 to play with the effect some more.

[mikeSF]

Here is a quick and dirty comparison between the SupTak50/1.4 and the Cosina55/1.2, each wide open to demonstrate the bokeh highlights. Not a scientific comparison because they are framed a little differently but you can see the bright edge which appears to be characteristic of the Cosina highlights.

Super Takumar 50mm @1.4

Cosina 55mm @1.2