Zeiss ZE lenses

swintonphoto

Anyone have experience with Zeiss ZE lenses? My brother (CSwinton on here) recently bought the 21mm and I got to try it on my 5Dmk2. I got to play with it this past week and it took me back to using my Hasselblad. The image quality, micro contrast, color reproduction, smooth manual focus ring, and sheer incredible build quality made me start feeling envious. I am thinking of saving up to get several of these. If any of you have used any of them on your Canon or Nikon camera, I would love to hear your experience. I know they are all manual focus, and I am ok with that. I am not a sports photographer and manual focus is something I use regularly anyway. Thanks!

ziggy53

I am not a user or owner of these Zeiss lenses but I recognize that they are very highly rated.

For a Canon 5D MKII I can also recommend some of the Pentax screwmount lenses. A simple M42-screw-mount/EOS adapter with chip can allow AF confirmation plus metering for these lenses, some of which can be excellent.

In particular look for:

Pentax SMC Takumar 28mm, f3.5

Pentax Super-Takumar 35mm, f2

Pentax SMC Takumar 35mm, f3.5

Pentax SMC Takumar 50mm, f1.4

Pentax SMC Takumar 85mm, f1.8

Pentax SMC Takumar 135mm, f3.5

Pentax SMC Takumar 200mm, f4

Matthew Saville

The Zeiss 21mm distagon is definitely a legend. Wide angles are already not Canon's greatest strength, and considering the Zeiss 21mm costs about the same as a Canon 16-35 mk2, I'd go for the Zeiss for sure. Zeiss also makes a great 18mm I believe, although it is less famous than the 21mm.

In general, at least as a Nikon user I hear that most of the other new Zeiss primes are just not all that amazing. Basically, they've made f/1.4 primes and then sacrificed bokeh for stopped down sharpness. So, I can really only recommend the Zeiss path to landscape photographers who are looking for flawless sharpness, and of course that all-metal construction and simply gorgeous craftsmanship all around.

=Matt=

swintonphoto

Thanks for the thought guys.

20DNoob

Here's a link to a thread discussing the 21 with plenty of shots to help you decide.