melcat wrote:
Pixel Perfect wrote:
I'm actually a little disappointed seeing a rubber ring on a Zeiss, cheapens the look IMO.

I find the existing ZE-style non-rubberised ones quite unpleasant to use.


Same here... I'm not a fan of that cheap, tacky 1960's Pentax Takumar metal finish. Adding then rubber grip will make a huge improvement; hopefully they will update the rest of the Zeiss line to match.

Johnny B Goode wrote:
I hope it costs more than $2000 otherwise I'm gonna be kicking myself for ordering a 50 1.4 off the b&s.

Most of the predictions on the Alt Gear forum has the price up around $3000. Yikes!
If this is going to be for their "premium line" than it surely will be more expensive than there 21f2.8 and 35f1.4 which are over $1800.

Fred Miranda wrote:
"Thanks to a newly developed optical design, this lens is superior to conventional full-frame lenses, and it achieves with powerful full-frame, full-format cameras an image performance that until now has only been seen with medium-format systems."


It sounds like they are referring to high MP full frame cameras from more than one manufacturer. The only current camera that seems to fit the "powerful full-frame" and "medium-format" comparison is the Nikon D800. Maybe they know what Canon has in store for us? Just speculation I know.

Johnny B Goode wrote:
I hope it costs more than $2000 otherwise I'm gonna be kicking myself for ordering a 50 1.4 off the b&s.

You should be kicking yourself anyway as the Sigma 50 f1.4 is superb and AF is very accurate on the 5D III with spot AF.

Zeiss releasing a new line of very-high-end glass sounds to me totally logical. It is obvious to all Leica-watchers that demand to very-high-performance lenses has gone up, maybe in connection with newly-rich countries. So it only stands to reason that Zeiss would like a share of that pie, in a niche where today there are no players for DSLR, except maybe such rarties as the Coastal Optics 60mm. The fact that DSLRs, such as the D800 twins, are getting better at enjoying lens qualities ad at displaying their shortcomings only makes that case more compelling. With high-Mp count cameras differences wil show more clearly.

Zeiss makes a lot of lenses for different segments of the optics market. Zeiss has fir quite some tome made Cinema kenses. I don't imagine that they want to lose that market which has evolved into a multi standard Video panorama.

This new lens series could well be for video use (Canon DSLR video variations and such) or a sub model derived from a dedicated line of "Designed for Video" Lenses. Note the broad MF ring a primary requirement for Cine/Video (in the big time shows they have an "operator" to frame and a 1st Assistant Cameraman to "pull focus").

I don't know the difference between a 50mm Planar and a 50mm Distagon.

Man there's much more a following toanusl focus than I thought!

It seems no one talk about the new look of this Zeiss.
The look is modern, and so similiar to SONY ZA series.
Have you noticed that no grooves on focus ring?

phuang3 wrote:



Is seems no one talk about the new look of this Zeiss.
The look is modern, and so similiar to SONY ZA series.
Have you noticed that no grooves on focus ring?

The new 135 f/2 Sonnar APO still has the old look. Perhaps this look is for their premium range.

RobertLynn wrote:
Man there's much more a following toanusl focus than I thought!

What is toanusl?

Yes, what is "to anus l" focus? Does the l stand for luxury?

I'm sure he meant to type "to manual focus", but typing on a small electronic device isn't like using a full size keyboard. That's my guess.

dwweiche wrote:
I'm sure he meant to type "to manual focus", but typing on a small electronic device isn't like using a full size keyboard. That's my guess.
We have a winner.

The device was an iphone.

Snopchenko wrote:
It looks like a ZA lens to me, but MF
That's why I ignored this announcement initially... it looks like a Sony mount? Where is the nice all metal barrel? Too much plastic to my eyes not liking the new look I agree with another poster it looks cheap.

I think this lens is aimed more at videographers than still photographers. A Distagon design allows a longer back focus which will enable this lens unit to be mounted on almost any video camera with the right mount. Distagon designs now don't have the earlier problems with distortion and other aberrations; in fact, they can be corrected a lot better over the field and wide open than the double Gauss Planars.

They're just making it available in C & N mounts because a need for a really good 50 (or 55) has arisen because of the D800. This lens is likely to challenge the Leica Summilux ASPH as the best 50 or near 50 f/1.4, and it will likely challenge it in price as well. I think $3000 is optimistic.

3500..82mm filter jesus.

Are there any other distagons that aren't wide angles? I don't think I've ever seen a normal Distagon before, but maybe they've done them on medium format lenses.

Henning wrote:
I think $3000 is optimistic.


$3000 for a 55/1.4 distagon is too much. The 35/1.4 distagon is just 1900, and harder to design.

Jman13 wrote:
Are there any other distagons that aren't wide angles? I don't think I've ever seen a normal Distagon before, but maybe they've done them on medium format lenses.

Well, 55mm to cover a 6x6 image circle is wide angle, and is probably narrow enough that you'd need to go retrofocus. For example, the Hassy 903 SWC's 40mm and 38mm symmetrical Biogon required a fixed lens and a separate viewfinder since you couldn't get the lens element back there with a mirror, gliding or not.

See, e.g., the Rollei 40mm Distagon.

I've heard a hypothesis that this might be designed to compete with the Leica 50 APO-Summicron -- a balls-to-the-wall APO 50.

I don't know if the apochromat corrects better for lateral chromatic aberrations, but that would be well-received for high-MP sensors.