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nammusp
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Registered: Sep 20, 2011
Location: N/A
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Sep 20, 2011
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Beautiful, contrasty images. Very sharp. Vignetting not a problem a couple of stops down. Extremely well built.
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Cons:
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None
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After struggling with various mount adapters and focussing screens to use Contax Zeiss lenses on a Canon 5D2, this lens is great to use. Brought back everything I loved with Zeiss lens - high contrast, 3D and colour pop. Very different imaging characteristics to various fast prime Canon EFs I use. Focussing is fast and easy with confirmation in viewfinder. Handling the all-metal Zeiss is a very pleasant experience. This Zeiss, together with another fantastic manual focus lens - a Voigtlander 40mm f2 - are my most used lenses now.
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 Sep 20, 2011
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PratyushPandya
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Registered: Sep 28, 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 7
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Review Date: Apr 15, 2011
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $1,283.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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High resolution, excellent micro-contrast, compact size, typical “Zeiss” build and look
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Cons:
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Strong micro-contrast - can be negative for certain portraits
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This lens reminds me of the legendary 21/2.8. It has very similar qualities, albeit not as sharp as the 21/2.8. The resolution, however, is sufficiently good for FF sensor. It produces typical Zeiss 3D look - has excellent micro-contrast and wonderful colors. Love it for urban photography. Vignetting is strong wide open, but I happen to like vignetting. So, no complaints from me there.
Overall, an excellent piece of glass..! No regrets buying..!
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Apr 15, 2011
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markloy
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Registered: Apr 23, 2009
Location: Singapore
Posts: 1
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Review Date: Apr 9, 2011
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Build quality, extremely sharp even wide open, good color and contrast. Strong micro-contrast, high resolution.
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Cons:
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none
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To bring out the best in this lens, one needs to be creative - this is not a point and shoot lens. Photos produced can be very artistic in the right hand.
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Apr 9, 2011
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JORDI350D
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Registered: Dec 7, 2005
Location: Spain
Posts: 30
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Review Date: Sep 6, 2010
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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It works very well in FF and also in APS-C.
Incredible for landscape and also for portraits in 1.6.
Close up capacities.
Great if not the best "50" mm for APS-C.
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Cons:
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Not for the moment.
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Nothing to say about this lens. Just in line with 21 mm.
The lens is very compact, and their close up capacities with f2 aperture makes a very nice normal lens in 1.6 and spectacular wide angle in FF (very sharp arround the frame). It compares positively well with my sold Canon 35 1.4.
It is very dificult for me to appreciate the field curvature that some people comment.
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Sep 6, 2010
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philber
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Buy and Sell: On
Registered: May 20, 2008
Location: France
Posts: 6559
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Review Date: Aug 2, 2010
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Recommend? no |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 6
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Pros:
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Usual Zeiss build, balances nicely on my 5D II, sharp close up as well as at infinity, good 3D.
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Cons:
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Colour fringing is more than it ought to be or any other Zeiss lens I have. It is for me a difficult lens to get good results from. If no foreground is included, shots tend to be flat and dull, which rules it out for landscape, not a good feature for a 28mm FL.
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I bought this lens after my ZE35 was stolen, hoping it to be either a "wider 35", or a "narrower 21", both these lenses being, despite their differences, extremely pleasing to me. Well, the 28 is neither. Unless I work seriously hard at it, results tend to be "flat" and "boring" by comparison with other Zeiss lenses. It comes into its own when mixing foreground and some mid-distance background, which is good for cityscape, but not for landscape, a severe limitation for a 28mm lens IMHO.
From a more technical point of view, it is sharp from MFD (which is very close up) to infinity, so that is not an issue. Colours tend to be more "neutral" than from any of my other Zeiss, requiring more push in post. It also suffers from more colour fringing than one would like from a lens of this caliber.
In summary, while I have gotten nice shots form mine, I have yet to get a single "Wow!" shot, which I get/got lots of from my 21 and 35. If this had been my first Zeiss lens, I doubt that I would have converted all my lenses to Zeiss.
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Aug 2, 2010
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j.liam
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Registered: Dec 13, 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 1700
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Review Date: May 15, 2010
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Recommend? no |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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Typical Zeiss "look"; wonderful color and 3-D
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Cons:
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Field curvature, vignetting, heavy
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I have to be the contrarian voice. Bought the ZF version on a lark when offered a great deal; I already owned the Nikkor 28/2. I was aware of the Zeiss' strong vignetting (f/2-2.8), color fringing (easily correctible PP) and field curvature but after extensive shooting, its central sharpness was just not overwhelming compared to the Nikkor 28/2. The latter is smaller, more gentle on skin tones and while probably not as sharp in the center wide-open when pixel-peeping, it is the match of the Zeiss by f/5.6. It's also considerably less expensive than the Zeiss. The singular advantage of the ZF.2 is of course the chip; Nikon bodies can then utilize 3D matrix metering.
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May 15, 2010
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burningheart
Online
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Registered: Mar 20, 2005
Location: Canada
Posts: 2106
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Review Date: Apr 16, 2010
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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Close focusing corner sharpness, color, contrast, edge to edge central sharpness, build, little to no CA
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Cons:
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Vignetting wide open, light loss on edges
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Light loss wide open is most pronounced at F2 especially with scenics during daylight. Vignettes at F2 , F2.8 gone by F4.
When shooting MFD the corners have excellent sharpness wide open but this softens as you shoot further out.
The central areas very sharp edge to edge, colours have traditional Zeiss coloring, terrific contrast
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Apr 16, 2010
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Mirek Elsner
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Registered: Oct 2, 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 834
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Review Date: Apr 10, 2010
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Very sharp on both ends, great color and contrast.
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Cons:
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In extreme conditions exhibits bothersome purple fringing.
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Plenty sharp for current 21/24MP cameras. Very good contrast and color. Better in that respect than any Canon L primes I have owned and comparable to Zeiss Z* 21 and 100mm lenses. This lens has very good separation of photographed subjects from each other and from the background (which I believe some people call "3D effect"). This lens has very good flare control. I haven't seen any veiling flare so far and if you shoot directly to the sun, the reflections are minimal or none.
The only negative comment I have about optical quality of this lens is tendency to show purple fringing. I saw it mostly in initial testing in harsh light at f/2, but I have it in some real life pictures as well. Most raw converters will remove it automatically, if you turn this feature on.
The lens has minimal focusing distance of 24cm/10", which gives interesting creative possibilities. The lens has floating design and retains good sharpness at both ends of the focusing scale.
The build quality seems excellent and focusing is very smooth. I think the anodized finish is less forgiving than rubber and polycarbonate of professional lenses from Nikon and Canon and will scratch easily. The time will tell.
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Apr 10, 2010
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Reviews
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Views
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Date of last review
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8
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16845
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Sep 20, 2011
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Recommended By
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Average Price
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75% of reviewers
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$1,283.00
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Build Quality Rating
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Price Rating
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Overall Rating
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10.00
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8.86
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9.0
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