Claire Prouvost is a French graphic designer and illustrator living and working in Dublin.
She loves to paint women in a cubist inspired style, using gouaches for their vibrant colours. Her colourful work plays with shapes, contrast, and composition to show the simple beauty of things in our daily lives.
Today I used my Sony 85mm GM lens with the Sony FX30 so it was effectively a 127mm lens. This is supposed to be one of the best lens that I own and it has been described as the ultimate portrait prime. The perfect 85mm F1.4 portrait lens with outstanding sharpness dissolving to magnificent bokeh.
I obtained a copy on the day that it became available here in Ireland in advance of any genuine reviews. I immediately discovered that it made a horrible grating noise while focusing.
According to some reviews that I came across months later “The Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM lens has a focusing system that makes some noise. It sounds a little like metal scraping or a linear piezo motor even though it’s an SSM motor. It’s much quieter in video AF mode. Nearly silent.”.
I brought my copy back to the dealer and the told me that it would take a month or two to get a replacement so I decided to keep my copy on condition that I could replace it at some later date.
Here are some of the reviews of the Sony 85mm GM lens:
“The Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM is a superb lens that delivers outstanding image quality. It is sharp, contrasty, and has beautiful bokeh. The autofocus is fast and accurate, and the lens is weather-sealed. It is an excellent choice for portrait photographers.” – DPreview
“The Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM is a top-of-the-line portrait lens that offers excellent image quality and performance. It is sharp, has beautiful bokeh, and is weather-sealed. It is a bit on the expensive side, but it is worth the investment for serious portrait photographers.” – The Phoblographer
“The Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM is a fantastic lens that delivers excellent image quality in a variety of situations. It is sharp, has beautiful bokeh, and is weather-sealed. It is a bit on the large and heavy side, but it is still a great choice for portrait photographers.” – Cameralabs
Overall, the Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM is a highly rated lens that is well-suited for portrait photography. It is sharp, has beautiful bokeh, and is weather-sealed. However, it is also a bit on the expensive side.
I walked from Richmond Row, Portobello Quay River Walk (should it not be canal rather than river?) and then along Portobello Road as far Longwood Avenue.
Portobello (Irish: Cuan Aoibhinn, meaning ‘beautiful harbour’) is an area of Dublin, within the southern city centre and bounded to the south by the Grand Canal. It came into existence as a small suburb south of the city in the 18th century, centred on Richmond Street. During the following century it was completely developed, transforming an area of private estates and farmland into solid Victorian red-bricked living quarters for the middle classes on the larger streets, and terraced housing bordering the canal for the working classes.
As a fast-expanding suburb during the 19th century Portobello attracted many upwardly mobile families whose members went on to play important roles in politics, the arts and science. Towards the end of the century, many Ashkenazi Jews, fleeing pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe, settled in the area; this led to Portobello being known as Dublin’s “Little Jerusalem”.
The Grand Canal is the southernmost of a pair of canals that connect Dublin, in the east of Ireland, with the River Shannon in the west, via Tullamore and a number of other villages and towns, the two canals nearly encircling Dublin’s inner city. Its sister canal on the Northside of Dublin is the Royal Canal. The last working cargo barge passed through the Grand Canal in 1960.
You must be logged in to post a comment.