ChipMcD
Well-known
I received this lens today, having preordered it from B&H. The IQ is REALLY nice, but I may be sending it back. When my NEX-7 is set to AF, the lens hunts constantly, even when the shutter button is not partially depressed. The AF also seems quite slow in comparison to the Sony and Sigma lenses. I think I'll contact Zeiss. It seems like they should have gotten this right.
Monochrom
Well-known
Hi, very iteresting your experience, please tell us more about the touit lens which i find promising!
ChipMcD
Well-known
First, after posting the above rant, I sent an inquiry to Zeiss, and I heard back from a rep in the old country within a few hours-- by about 6:00 a.m. my time. He explained that the NEX-7 autofocus system always hunts focus; it is designed that way. He ascribed my noticing it with the Touit to the louder DC motor in the lens for AF. Apparently Sony and Sigma use a motor type that is quieter. In the quiet of the early morning, I tested this with my Sigma 19mm, and the Zeiss rep was right. It too hunts focus constantly when the shutter button is not depressed. I hadn't noticed it before, because the motor in the Sigma lens is whisper quiet.
So we know now that the Zeiss AF motor is considerably noisier than the motors used in other lenses, and that this is a design feature. The link here will tell you about as much about the Zeiss Touit construction as you want to know: http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2013/06/really-getting-in-touit.
The Zeiss rep suggested that, if this behavior is too annoying, one should set the camera for MF and use the AF/MF button in either "press" or "toggle" mode to activate AF when desired. I will be playing around with that this weekend. I tried it briefly before work this a.m., and it seems workable, or about as workable as using the AF Lock button on Nikon D series cameras to autofocus, rather than the shutter button. I never got used to that, but then I didn't have a motive to.
I plan on trying to use the lens a lot this weekend, but so far, it seems to have the Zeiss IQ that I expected. If you scroll down on the lensrentals.com blog, one of the owners has a "first impression" review and MTF charts. If I can get used to the noise, the lens is a definite keeper.
So we know now that the Zeiss AF motor is considerably noisier than the motors used in other lenses, and that this is a design feature. The link here will tell you about as much about the Zeiss Touit construction as you want to know: http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2013/06/really-getting-in-touit.
The Zeiss rep suggested that, if this behavior is too annoying, one should set the camera for MF and use the AF/MF button in either "press" or "toggle" mode to activate AF when desired. I will be playing around with that this weekend. I tried it briefly before work this a.m., and it seems workable, or about as workable as using the AF Lock button on Nikon D series cameras to autofocus, rather than the shutter button. I never got used to that, but then I didn't have a motive to.
I plan on trying to use the lens a lot this weekend, but so far, it seems to have the Zeiss IQ that I expected. If you scroll down on the lensrentals.com blog, one of the owners has a "first impression" review and MTF charts. If I can get used to the noise, the lens is a definite keeper.
awilder
Alan Wilder
I have the lens in Fuji's X mount. It's very quiet and focus speed is at least as fast as the Fujinon 35/1.4. It's very high IQ however is not evident in LR 4 because it's default distortion correction that can't be disabled for Touit lenses. Opening up the same image with a raw converter like AccuRaw does not use any distortion correction and Touit's sharpness is amazing. Distortion of the Touit to my eye is of little to no consequence in normal shooting and only becomes a lttle noticeable if doing very critical architectural work.
ChipMcD
Well-known
E-Mount Samples
E-Mount Samples
Here's a link to a few shots with the Touit 32mm on the NEX-7. These were converted with DxO, which doesn't have a lens profile for the Touit yet. No other processing. All were shot at f5.6, except the flowers at f1.8.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eselsbruecke/sets/72157634156776085/
E-Mount Samples
Here's a link to a few shots with the Touit 32mm on the NEX-7. These were converted with DxO, which doesn't have a lens profile for the Touit yet. No other processing. All were shot at f5.6, except the flowers at f1.8.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eselsbruecke/sets/72157634156776085/
ampguy
Veteran
It could be that the AF was designed to the original NEX AF specs, while some of the newer NEX bodies with selected lens and firmware, have a hybrid AF that is faster, when used with a compatible lens.
However the images look very nice. I'd probably use this lens in MF mode anyways.
However the images look very nice. I'd probably use this lens in MF mode anyways.