I haven't tried it personally, but I understand that it is quite similar to the ZF/ZE50/1.4, meaning that it isn't very strong close up, but at medium to large distances, it can have beautiful rendering, and a surprising amount of 3D. Stopped down it is a weapon.
Greg -- Congrats on the lens! I'm sure you'll love it.
The Zeiss Contax 50/1.4 (newer version, like you have) is my favorite 50. It is very sharp and clean, and my favorite lens/focal length for panorama stitching. I like to use it mainly from f/4 to f/11 for maximum sharpness and detail. It does not have focus shift like the ZE 50/1.4. I returned a ZE, and got this lens used on eBay for just over $200, an incredible bargain in comparison to the ZE.
***********
Sometimes, when testing new gear, I forget how terrific the ZE 21/2.8 really is. This is from a test today of 1Ds3 from CPS. Subject-wise, this is nothing special, but the lens takes "nothing" to a special level, if you get what I mean. Literally, each blade of cut grass is razor sharp, in focus.
Greg -- Congrats on the lens! I'm sure you'll love it. The Zeiss Contax 50/1.4 (newer version, like you have) is my favorite 50. It is very sharp and clean, and my favorite lens/focal length for panorama stitching. I like to use it mainly from f/4 to f/11 for maximum sharpness and detail. It does not have focus shift like the ZE 50/1.4. I returned a ZE, and got this lens used on eBay for just over $200, an incredible bargain in comparison to the ZE.
Thank you. It's not in my hands just yet...will be shortly, I imagine. I'm in the process of comparing a few 50's(50L, Rokkor 58 1.2, and then this C/Y 50 1.4 MMJ). I'm really liking the Rokkor right now, although it's no match for my L at 1.2! But, at f2 and smaller, if I nail focus, it's very, very nice! And sharp, too! I really like the size on my 1D4, also...not like my ZE 35 1.4(read brick!!)!!
Once the C/Y arrives, I'll make a decision as to which will be my 50 to go to. Which to be honest, I really don't use it all that much anymore(50L)...ever since I got the ZE 35 1.4(it rarely leaves my camera!). So, in all honesty, I will still probably get rid of the L, and keep either the Rokkor or the C/Y...just to have that focal length covered...just in case!
The 2 lenses I'm really using right now are the ZE, and my new fav...the Rokinon 85 1.4...I really love this lens. Pretty sharp wide open, small, and good contrast and colors that only get better stopped down!
Anyways, I digress...will keep everyone posted when I receive it. BTW, do you have samples of the C/Y I could look at??
Gregg
Greg -- I'm looking forward to you posting about your comparisons. The Rokkor 58/1.2 get quite a bit of praise, so we'll see how it compares. I had the Canon 50/1.4 and sold it to help finance that ZE 50/1.4 -- I still miss it with its nice IQ and AF. That's the only real problem with the Alt 50s, not having AF when you need it. I have the 50/2.5 macro for the time being, but it's not an action lens by any means.
Mike -- Wonderful color on your shots in the link. Good selling point for Zeiss lenses.
100MP@f/5.6, 16 shots. Hmm, as I post it, I see some flaws. I was shooting through a cast iron gate, which made it a bit tricky to align the images correctly. I will try to re-optimize it.
Forgive me for asking this but snap in the preceding post, by Carsten, seems to me to be beyond pointless - so why post it? What is it supposed to illustrate? I do quite a lot of stitching myself and would immediately reject it - assuming I could see any point in making this image in the first place, which I can't - containing as it does, even at a glance, many very bad stitches.
I'm always interested to look at examples from lenses I don't own but this one just baffles me.
Roy
I'm kind of intrigued by the gradual focus transition in that shot (with the scaffolding), so it's not entirely pointless to me, but the stitching errors are not hard to find. Did you use PS for these panos, Carsten?
RoySussex wrote:
Forgive me for asking this but snap in the preceding post, by Carsten, seems to me to be beyond pointless - so why post it? What is it supposed to illustrate? I do quite a lot of stitching myself and would immediately reject it - assuming I could see any point in making this image in the first place, which I can't - containing as it does, even at a glance, many very bad stitches.
I'm always interested to look at examples from lenses I don't own but this one just baffles me.
Roy
Why ask the question after I have already answered it? I saw the flaws after my post, and added the statement afterwards. I like the shot, and will fix the errors. I have to look at the individual shots closer to see why there is an error at all.
The stitching was done in AutopanoPro, and I think the problem might be that some shots are on a slight angle. APP seems to make a lot more mistakes when the shots are not perfectly aligned to the same axis, and so I will have to spend some time adding manual control points. As mentioned, I was sticking the lens through the bars of a gate, which made it hard to get good clean shots.
There is something really weird going on in Autopano Pro right now. Here are two shots from another shot I am working on. The first screenshot is from the edit window in APP, the second is the rendered image. Note the many new flaws in the arch, the step in the skateboard cage, and the uneven bottom edge, and this is after cropping:
I will have to go back and reshoot everything with my heavy tripod and pano head. Something about these scenes or Zeiss boke is not working at all with APP tonight. This is while showing me a perfectly reasonable preview, btw.
APPv 2.6 beta won't even install on my Lion box. Leopard and Snow leopard-only installer, apparently.
I guess my hand-held panoramas were just a little too loose, but what I don't understand is that APP shows me a good preview (at high resolution), but then generates total junk upon rendering.
Fine, I will go back and redo the ones I really liked, such as the two above, and a couple of others I also like.
Carsten - Very freaky situation with your stitching sofware. Thank you for following up with your report, and praise your tenacity. Last shot works for me very well Love the gradual transition of focused to OOF.
Thanks Luka! I might try again at f/4 and see how it goes. I am not sure which I will prefer.
I realize it isn't a beautiful or exciting shot, but I am currently working on a project where I am trying to conserve the feeling of everyday urban spaces and passages, while adding in a side-project of gentle DoF falloff, and this is the kind of thing it will produce
Carsten, I disagree. Beautiful or exciting is very subjective. Symmetry, lighting, amount of detail and the space suggested but I can't see beyond makes this shot attractive and exciting for me. Your scaffolding shot was quite dynamic and beautiful in that regard.
And some urban shots with CY50. I am quite in love with this little lense. Only problem I see so far is that it may not be reaching infinity quite. It is almost there, but just a tiny bit shy of.
Akul...great shots with the CY 50,,,wide open even!! I just got mine today, and plan to take it to work with me tomorrow and compare it against teh Rokkor 58 1.2 I picked up 2 weeks ago. I have to admit, I'm really diggin' the Rokkor right now! Can't hold its own at 1.2 against my 50L, but at f2 and smaller...well, it's dead sharp. Curious to see how the CY50 holds up??!!
Do you have more shots with the CY50?
Thanks,
Gregg
Love the gradual transition of focused to OOF.
