philip_pj Offline Upload & Sell: On
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Extremely well from all accounts thus far, PM.
And the above images plus the reviews seen do indicate that some photographers retain the mystical and almost mythical ability to focus a lens manually. I would never have thought that after reading the spirited defence of the venerable AF champion Canon L 135/2 off in the 'Latest News' forum thread running to 8 pages.
Posters raised several ojections besides the AF issue - of price difference and age of design. We had comments of 'you can fix the CA in post (LoCA incl), it works just as good' and 'it works for my large prints anyway', and my particular favourite, the stubborn perennial of 'they are both the same at f5.6'.
So it seems to be a bitter pill, as Zeiss simply came along and released - at the first attempt in seemingly decades - a 135mm lens that is so clearly and objectively superior to what many consider to be Canon's finest L lens for general photography.
Yes, more money. But almost certainly more durability, better assembly and build quality, value retention, owner satisfaction..together with copious IQ advantaqes esp in colour correction but also microcontrast, colour palette, clarity, wide open performance and consistency across aperture settings.
The Canon does not reach the CZ's f2 averaged performance until the wrong side of f4! (from Roger C's charts). Alarmingly, it is even worse at the edges. Oh.
Just take a look at the images of the two lenses shown side-by-side to see how badly finished the Canon actually is:
http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2013/04/zeiss-ze-135mm-f2-vs-canon-135mm-f2l
It might sound harsh, but it also looks like a child's toy in comparison, with lots of uneven surfaces and doodads. OK, one maker is an optics specialist company, the other makes a lot else besides lenses and cameras - but Canon sold their 90 millionth EF lens recently. I'll keep that thought in mind the next time I turn the fine gnurling on my my manual focus lenses. 90 million EF lenses...
Informative reading on the foibles of AF lenses and systems here:
http://lenses.zeiss.com/camera-lenses/en_de/website/photography/what_makes_the_difference/manual_focusing.html
[written before the release of Sony's EVF A-mount system by the look of it.]
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