Zeiss ZE lens Recommendations?

I think what I am going to do is rent lenses from Adorama, starting with the 35mmL and the 24mmL. I don't think they are renting any of the Zeiss lenses yet, but given the recommendations here, I at least need to know for myself how these lenses shoot before I totally discount them.

Buying Leica lenses was sort of like Nascar - buy a Summicron and turn it to the right.

But Canon AF lenses often seem to have sample irregularities. The first 17-40mm lens I got had to be returned because the left 1/4 of the image degraded the closer the focus got to infinity. Thus the Zeiss recommendation.

In the Zeiss, the consensus seems to be (from a night's worth of reading Fred Miranda) people really like the Makro-Planars (100mm and 50mm) and the 21mm f2.8 Distagon. The other lenses have pluses and minuses, but all of them get an enthusiastic thumbs-up on the rendering of color and detail, with an emphasis on 3-D-like image quality. So I will take that under advisement. :)

Thanks for the advice here!
 
I hear you. The photos that started this journey of mine long ago (back when there was just a Canon 5D and no mkII) are from one of my Flickr contacts who pretty much uses a 5D and a 35mm f1.4L lens exclusively during his travels. And boy does he travel! Quite a torture test for man and equipment it seems. So on that visual recommendation I thought hmm, maybe I could deal with a digital camera.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nygus/

And thus began the circular hand-wringing on lenses, which is not usually what I like to spend a lot of time doing (I'd rather take photos.) So at some point I will just walk in and put my money on the table and walk out with a box of some sort and that will be it.:)
 
I've had ~40 lenses for my Nikon D700. The Zeiss 35/2 Distagon ZF is THE best of them, in my opinion. The ZE is identical optically. The only real drawback is its size and a bit of barrel distortion.
 
Makten - thanks! From the photo samples I've seen, I like that lens. I am torn between the 35mm and the 28mm, the latter being what I use most with my Leica. But I think I might eventually get the 21mm lens, so the 35mm makes a lot more sense in terms of focal length. All three seem like great lenses.

In case anyone is interested in this ongoing sense-making I am stumbling through, I rented a 24-105mm f4.0L IS USM (represented to me as one of the sharpest landscape/travel zooms Canon makes) and a 35mm f1.4L USM (the lens I originally intended to get before I got sidetracked into second-guessing-land) and I shot a bunch of test shots alongside my 17-40mm f4.0L here.
 
Bump for more lenses!

Bump for more lenses!

I rented a 28mm f2.0 T* ZE and a 35mm f2.0 T* ZE from Adorama, and I added them to the comparison. The images from these two lenses begin here on Flickr. I also added a Nikkor-S 55mm f1.2 w/adapter, just for fun. Limited adjustments, sharpening, etc.

28mm @ f22
4385008149_efcbd7db60_b.jpg


35mm @ f22
4385014915_e4deea326b_b.jpg


55mm @ f16
4385023553_f69a053454_b.jpg
 
I can tell you from experience that the ZE line is phenomenol. I own the 50 f/1.4 and the 85 f/1.4 and they have a signature all their own. If you can live with manual focus they beat the "L" line of primes in my opinion. They are built very well and the focus ring is so smooth you won't believe it. I am currently using them on a 1DMKII with an EC-S focus screen. This is a 1.3 crop body but I have used these on the FF 5d as well. Using these lenses really becomes easier with practice just don't plan on shooting fast moving action with them. Haoda also makes a focus screen that will work with your camera, I used the 5D-A on a 5dMKI and it worked great.

Here is the link for the screen:
http://haodascreen.com/Canon5D.aspx

Good luck with your decision, for what it is worth they give me the satisfaction of money well spent.
 
I did shots at a range of apertures. All seemed better than anything I have tried from Canon.

28mm @ f5.6

4385767980_8547859401_b.jpg


35mm @ f5.6

4385011831_c67ce043b7_b.jpg


Focusing for street work is frustrating though. Hyperfocal settings work well on the 28mm at f8 and f16, but on a dark day like today, I have to learn the balance of f-stop, shutter speed and ISO in order to manage depth of field & focus better, instead of just blasting away at f2. F2 isn't bad by any stretch, but focusing errors (i.e. me) are more frequent. Not sure if the S-screen will improve my average or if a Haoda screen would be better...or if I just need to practice practice practice. After years of using a Leica, I know what I can get away with. With this camera, I am much more unsure about where the focus is.

28mm @ f2.0

4388349052_a03ffcb279_b.jpg
 
Last edited:
I have a haoda screen for my 5d. I put it in for like 2 minutes and then took it out and put the ee-s back in. The haoda split screen thing basically does nothing.
 
Gavin - so perhaps you can answer my question. I've read several places where the S-screen is described as being darker at f4.0 and slower. Does that refer to lenses that require stop-down metering only or does it also mean that the S-screen would be darker with a 17-40mm f4 lens as that lens' widest aperture would obviously be f4?
 
jke said:
Gavin - so perhaps you can answer my question. I've read several places where the S-screen is described as being darker at f4.0 and slower. Does that refer to lenses that require stop-down metering only or does it also mean that the S-screen would be darker with a 17-40mm f4 lens as that lens' widest aperture would obviously be f4?
Click to expand...

Both - With (say) a 50mm 1.4 nikkor adapted to a 5d - if you set the aperture at f4 and tried to focus, it would be darker through the viewfinder than it normally would with the standard focussing screen.
I do use a 17-40mm f4L quite a bit, and it is also noticeably darker through the viewfinder with the ee-s screen than the standard one. it's still useable however, just not as pleasant. I want to upgrade to a 16-35mm f2.8 so it doesn't bother me too much.

In saying that though, the S screen is one of the best additions I've made to the camera - I can correctly manual focus my 35mm 1.4L or 85mm 1.8 about 90% of the time, as opposed to something like 30-40% of the time with the standard screen. Well worth it.

The haoda screen is just an ee-s screen with a tiny little split line thing in the spot metering circle on the 5d. The problem is that the center AF point box cuts right through the middle of the split line, and therefore makes it nearly unusable for me, just adding more screen clutter.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom