Zeiss' new high-end SLR lens family

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SKumar25
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p.1 #1 · Zeiss' new high-end SLR lens family

http://blogs.zeiss.com/photo/en/?p=2860

A blog post that provides some context to the new 55 1.4 distagon:

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1146507/0

Answers these questions that I'm sure you've been losing sleep over

:

What is meant by “high-end SLR lens family”?
Will it be a family or just a single lens?
What focal lengths will be available?
How much will the lenses cost?
For which bayonets will the lenses be available?
Where will the lenses be made?
What does “uncompromising image quality” mean?
How come 1.4/55 is considered a Distagon type despite its standard focal length?
When will the first lens come to market?

Personally I'm quite excited. May upgrade the Zeiss ZE 100 MP with high end version.

Sep 20, 2012 at 06:14 AM

Pixel Perfect
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p.1 #2 · Zeiss' new high-end SLR lens family

Quote from said blog

How much will the lenses cost?

Since the lenses are more demanding in terms of material selection and construction than our previous ZE and ZF.2 lenses, the price level will be higher. We are expecting prices around € 3,000.

Watch out you may get knocked over in the rush

Sep 20, 2012 at 06:57 AM

SKumar25
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p.1 #3 · Zeiss' new high-end SLR lens family

Pixel Perfect wrote:
Quote from said blog

How much will the lenses cost?

Since the lenses are more demanding in terms of material selection and construction than our previous ZE and ZF.2 lenses, the price level will be higher. We are expecting prices around € 3,000.

Watch out you may get knocked over in the rush

I reckon that equates to US $ 3000, Europeans are typically gouged. Bargain for a "no compromise" lens.

Sep 20, 2012 at 07:29 AM

dolina
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p.1 #4 · Zeiss' new high-end SLR lens family

SKumar25 wrote:
I reckon that equates to US $ 3000, Europeans are typically gouged. Bargain for a "no compromise" lens.

That has no focus motor?

Sep 20, 2012 at 07:32 AM

safcraft
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p.1 #5 · Zeiss' new high-end SLR lens family

I would say no AF is a big compromise...

Sep 20, 2012 at 07:33 AM

Lars Johnsson
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p.1 #6 · Zeiss' new high-end SLR lens family

safcraft wrote:
I would say no AF is a big compromise...

All the other Zeiss ZE lenses don't have any AF. And a lot of people buy or like those.

Do you also think no AF is a big compromise in the Canon lenses? Lenses like all the TS-E or some macro lenses.
You never hear anyone complain over the MF in those.

Sep 20, 2012 at 07:39 AM

Light_pilgrim
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p.1 #7 · Zeiss' new high-end SLR lens family

Lars Johnsson wrote:
safcraft wrote:
I would say no AF is a big compromise...

All the other Zeiss ZE lenses don't have any AF. And a lot of people buy or like those.

Do you also think no AF is a big compromise in the Canon lenses? Lenses like all the TS-E or some macro lenses.
You never hear anyone complain over the MF in those.

I think TS-E lenses are mainly for Landscape and Architecture and in this case you use tripod 99% of the time, so manual focus and live view is never a problem.

Lenses that you use for people photography is something different.

Sep 20, 2012 at 09:22 AM

safcraft
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p.1 #8 · Zeiss' new high-end SLR lens family

Lars Johnsson wrote:
safcraft wrote:
I would say no AF is a big compromise...

All the other Zeiss ZE lenses don't have any AF. And a lot of people buy or like those.

Do you also think no AF is a big compromise in the Canon lenses? Lenses like all the TS-E or some macro lenses.
You never hear anyone complain over the MF in those.

Yes. Big compromise. Wouldn't you prefer to have the same Zeiss lens with AF or the TS-E with AF ? I would.

Sep 20, 2012 at 09:37 AM

PetKal
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p.1 #9 · Zeiss' new high-end SLR lens family

SKumar25 wrote:
Pixel Perfect wrote:
Quote from said blog

How much will the lenses cost?

Since the lenses are more demanding in terms of material selection and construction than our previous ZE and ZF.2 lenses, the price level will be higher. We are expecting prices around € 3,000.

Watch out you may get knocked over in the rush

I reckon that equates to US $ 3000, Europeans are typically gouged. Bargain for a "no compromise" lens.

In a way, one could say that....because of a high grade performance and a high grade build.
Here's one example for price relativity: the other day I held and inspected the 8-15L lens in "my" camera store.
What a sadly unappealing and rickety little plastic gadget that is. And yet, they want $1,500 for it.

Sep 20, 2012 at 09:39 AM

Lars Johnsson
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p.1 #10 · Zeiss' new high-end SLR lens family

safcraft wrote:
Lars Johnsson wrote:
safcraft wrote:
I would say no AF is a big compromise...

All the other Zeiss ZE lenses don't have any AF. And a lot of people buy or like those.

Do you also think no AF is a big compromise in the Canon lenses? Lenses like all the TS-E or some macro lenses.
You never hear anyone complain over the MF in those.

Yes. Big compromise. Wouldn't you prefer to have the same Zeiss lens with AF or the TS-E with AF ? I would.

I wouldn't own seven Zeiss ZE lenses and both the 17 TS-E + 24 II TS-E if I didn't like them with MF

Would you prefer to pay a lot more also? And TS-E lenses are really for static subject and tripod use. Where live view MF gives you much better result than AF. Live view (MF) is also the way I use my ZE lenses most of the time (it's more accurate than AF). It's not lenses for sport or birding where AF is a huge advantage

Sep 20, 2012 at 09:51 AM

splathrop
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p.1 #11 · Zeiss' new high-end SLR lens family

Yes. Big compromise. Wouldn't you prefer to have the same Zeiss lens with AF or the TS-E with AF ? I would.

I second Lars on that. I would consider AF on my Zeiss lenses to be a step down. It is not possible, apparently, to deliver an AF lens with the finely adjustable focus that Zeiss precison MF affords. And AF doesn't help at all with fine focus decisions—it sort of takes them away from you. (I'm not talking about where in the frame to focus, but instead about aperture decisions, and fine shadings of focus from foreground to background, of the sort you do with live view.) AF also provides more to go wrong, putting long term reliability and serviceability in question.

AF is perfect for many things, especially moving targets. Lenses that have AF are better choices for those kinds of work, but not for everything.

Sep 20, 2012 at 10:24 AM

splathrop
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p.1 #12 · Zeiss' new high-end SLR lens family

By the way Lars, do you own the Zeiss 85mm f/1.4, and if you do, can you characterize the IQ it delivers stopped down, especially compared to the two MP lenses? I have been hoping for a 70mm MP from Zeiss, but doubt I am going to get it, so thinking about buying the 85mm. Contrast, color and resolution are the comparative axes I care about most.

Sep 20, 2012 at 10:33 AM

Lars Johnsson
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p.1 #13 · Zeiss' new high-end SLR lens family

splathrop wrote:
By the way Lars, do you own the Zeiss 85mm f/1.4, and if you do, can you characterize the IQ it delivers stopped down, especially compared to the two MP lenses? I have been hoping for a 70mm MP from Zeiss, but doubt I am going to get it, so thinking about buying the 85mm. Contrast, color and resolution are the comparative axes I care about most.

It's a very good lens when stopped down. Wide open it's not that good (IMO). It has the same great colors as the rest of the ZE line-up. Bokeh is really nice. I also think it's better at long distance than at close up distance. So I prefer it for landscape instead of portrait. The Canon 85L is better for portraits (IMO).
It does not have the same sharpness, contrast and punch as the 100MP lens

Sep 20, 2012 at 10:55 AM

jffielde
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p.1 #14 · Zeiss' new high-end SLR lens family

I would say that enormity of size and weight are compromises as well. To match a Leica's performance with 6X arger the volume wouldn't be a miracle in my book. Always glad to have excellent options, however. But Zeiss is starting to get out of control with their size adn weight for me.

Sep 20, 2012 at 11:34 AM

Lars Johnsson
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p.1 #15 · Zeiss' new high-end SLR lens family

jffielde wrote:
I would say that enormity of size and weight are compromises as well. To match a Leica's performance with 6X arger the volume wouldn't be a miracle in my book. Always glad to have excellent options, however. But Zeiss is starting to get out of control with their size adn weight for me.

How can they make lenses like the ZE made for Canon cameras, and still have the size & weight of the Leica lenses made for a very different camera?
Zeiss makes many small sized lenses for other camera systems also. Just look at the full Zeiss ZM line-up. Nearly every lens is about 200 gr and very small

Sep 20, 2012 at 11:38 AM

EB-1
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p.1 #16 · Zeiss' new high-end SLR lens family

Lack of AF really turns me off in fast lenses or lenses used at wide apertures. I can live with MF for deliberate, slow work in the TSE lenses and for macro/copy work where small apertures are used. However, I sure don't enjoy MF when shooting hand held.

My eyes are not always up to perfectly accurate focus at >30MP.

EBH

Sep 20, 2012 at 12:16 PM

splathrop
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p.1 #17 · Zeiss' new high-end SLR lens family

EB-1 makes another good point. In the old days before AF, shooting styles didn't tend toward tiny depth of field as much as they do now, and they probably couldn't have, given the MF lenses then available. Photographers were accustomed to picking apertures small enough to accommodate some focus error. AF now goes far to enable a completely different style of photography, for those who like it.

That said, I have been getting good keeper ratios using my Zeiss 35mm at f/1.4, and trusting the focus confirmation light on my 5D II. Much better than I expected based on experience with AF and the Canon 35L, which worked fine too, but did sometimes miss. Same experience with the Zeiss 100mm at f/2.0. I wonder if I would be as successful with a MF 85mm at f/1.4, however.

Edited on Sep 20, 2012 at 01:11 PM · View previous versions

Sep 20, 2012 at 12:51 PM

Lars Johnsson
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p.1 #18 · Zeiss' new high-end SLR lens family

EB-1 wrote:
Lack of AF really turns me off in fast lenses or lenses used at wide apertures. I can live with MF for deliberate, slow work in the TSE lenses and for macro/copy work where small apertures are used. However, I sure don't enjoy MF when shooting hand held.

My eyes are not always up to perfectly accurate focus at >30MP.

EBH

So what >30MP body do you use for those ZE lenses

Sep 20, 2012 at 12:57 PM

deepbluejh
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p.1 #19 · Zeiss' new high-end SLR lens family

ha ha

I'm guessing the same people buy these lenses as buy the new $6500 Hassleblad Lunar. A fool and his money...

Sep 20, 2012 at 01:41 PM

Mickey
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p.1 #20 · Zeiss' new high-end SLR lens family

I think to use the Canon TS-E lenses as the example of Canon's use of MF compared to Zeiss's is not an accurate comparison. When you consider the optical physics involved in the tilting/shifting of a lens you can understand why it would be MF. You can bet if it had been reasonably possible Canon would have made them AF. Image quality aside (we're talking AF) Sigma does it and Tamron does it. What is Zeiss's excuse?

Sep 20, 2012 at 01:47 PM

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