forget the 100/2 OM and get the 90/2 instead, IMO.
there are some great OM lenses; 18/3.5, 21/2, 21/3.5, 24/2, 24/2.8, 28/2, 50/1.2, 50/2, 50/3.5, 90/2, 180/2, 250/2. most of the rest are good, a handful are not so great. I bolded the three that for people who can afford Zeiss might consider as an alternative, in my opinion.
personally now that I do can make some nicer lenses happen, I chose to go with Zeiss ZM glass. I would not have bothered for ZF/ZE although I might have considered C/Y (I shoot film 95% of the time). I prefer to buy used when possible .
I don't know how well the 5n handles wides, I heard that the 5 wasn't so great. At any rate, I can wholeheartedly recommend the ZM 25/2.8 or 35/2.8 as lenses that are fantastic independent of any body. you say you appreciate sharp; I dont think either of those lenses would disappoint.
oh, Im not sure it's a given to go for the 45/2 G over a 50/2 ZM.
I will say that I believe that current Zeiss SLR offerings are, not without exception, superior to OM glass which is legacy glass if we're honest. I dont let that worry me too much when Im in the mood to use the OM-1.
John, I have a NEX 5N and a C/Y 35-70. The combination definitely works very well indeed. The very saturated colours and great contrast from the Zeiss suit the Sony. My problem is range. Because the Sony is a crop, the zoom equates to 52-105mm, which is rather long for my personal taste. And the zoom plus the adapter make the system larger and heavier than ideal.
For not much more money than a really good copy of the zoom, you could get a Contax G 28 and 45, or 28 and 90, or 45 and 90 (I have all three). The IQ is world-class, providing you like really sharp images and intense contrast. The focusing ring on the adapter (don't skimp!) is not very pleasant, but as accurate as one needs, and the physical package is very compact and light, in keeping with the NEX philosophy. What the two G lenses won't do for you is provide close-up capability, where the zoom really shines...
I regard my C/Y with NEX 5N/5N/3 a very good combination.Oly 35-70/3.4 that I used to have for some time was good but not the same league sharpness/contrast/colour-wise.
However,my set of choice for NEX that I carry everywhere is Distagon 28/2.8 C/Y,Planar 50/1.7 C/Y and Sonnar 85/2.8 C/Y.Small,lightweight,very well built,no corner smearing/colour shifting or focusing through adapter and can be used with Canon FF/DX SLRs as well.IQ - typical Zeiss - outstanding with pronounced 3D effect.
I would say on 5N this combo perform even better than on NEX 5 or 3 - seems to render a tad sharper image with superb colour/contrast (have 4 NEX bodies altogether,11 C/Y lenses and 9 Z lenses so some real life experience as a result).
Has anyone done a comparison of the C/Y 35-70mm 3.4 with the Contax G 35-70mm 3.5-56? While the G lens does not have the macro function and only works from around a meter, it is so much smaller than the CY 35-70.
I see comments on the G 35-70 being less sharp than the Contax G primes, but the MTF sheets of the G 35-70 do not look that far away from those of the C/Y 35-70. I might be missing something here. The lens data pages are available for viewing here: http://lenses.zeiss.com/photo/en_DE/service/download_center.html
Has anyone compared the two or know of anyone who has? Of course I suspect that it is only now possible to do this easily on the same camera with the MFT and Nex cameras.
John
philip_pj wrote:
The OM does better than I expected, and note the more defined, controlled bokeh, the Olympus is trying to both blur out and show some funky OOF shaping.
Did you mean to write OM or C/Y at the beginning of your sentence?
The Oly shows more blue fringing in the bokeh (typical of what I've seen of Oly).
Only 3 years out of date, but in case someone's asking the same question now.
Just compared my C/Y 35-70/3.4 with a Zuiko 35-70/3.6
Ergonomically it's a no contest to the Zuiko IMO. Constant focus, dual touch design, slightly smaller and lighter, non-rotating filter ring. Sounds ideal, but then of course there are the optics, or rather the results.
In terms of resolution, the Zuiko is no slouch, getting close to the C/Y at the 70mm end, but the Contax is sharper and "clearer" everywhere else....but not by miles!
