Jon Shafer

After reading the reviews here on FM I decided that I needed to own a piece of Zeiss glass to go with my collection of Canon lenses. At first I bought a 50mm Makro Planar which I played with for a week or so. Even though the IQ was fabulous I wasn't so impressed with the macro shots, and because I already own a Canon 50mm 1.4, I couldn't see tying up $1,200 plus for a redundant focal length. I returned the lens and studied the reviews for a few days until I decided to give the 35mm f/2 a try. It seemed like of all of the Zeiss offerings, if there was one single lens that people were truly stoked about it was this one. I have a Canon 24-70 and shoot with both a 1D Mk III and a 7D and I though the 35mm would fill a niche. I bought a 35mm and tried it the first time and was disappointed with the results due to out of focus shots. I have serious vision problems so lack of AF is a real challenge for me. Trying Live View to focus solved the problem, but I really wanted to be able to shoot on the fly, so I ordered a EC-s focus screen. Once I installed that, I was totally blown away with the results. I can't wait to get more opportunities to shoot surfing with this lens.

Here are a couple of sample test images:

http://santabarbarasurfer.com/images/J0NS7012-1024.jpg

http://santabarbarasurfer.com/images/J0NS7043.jpg

http://santabarbarasurfer.com/images/J0NS6773.jpg

http://santabarbarasurfer.com/images/J0NS6784.jpg

Buy this lens, it is a sure bet. Good as gold!!

Aloha Nui Loa,
Jon