Helimat, AhamB & photoe: thanks a lot for sharing the info and photo comparison. it's very helpful. I love this great forum!
Well, my friend said why you bother with AE, MM or ZE/ZM. All are great lenses and more than enough to take great pictures. My answer is, everybody has different goal and passion. Exploring, being curious and to find out the character of other lenses is my passion right now
Photoe...
Finally had a chance to check out the pics on the monitor back home...I def think the MMJ version is excellent. A tad sharper than the AEG, and sharper wide open than the ZF, but I think the ZF has the f5.6 shot, albeit, not by much!! Thank you for your contributions. I should have my CY 85 MMJ in my hands nearly next week!!
Akul...great shots with the CY 50! I can't believe how sharp your copy is wide open!!?? The pic of the logs really shines, and wide open, too!! The tree shots are fantastic. I still have mine, and have been playing around with it for awhile...will post a couple here shortly! Unfortunately, I am in the midst of again trying a Rokinon 35 1.4 against my ZE 35 1.4...a very tough call, as I love my ZE, but the Rok is a very heavy contender, and just might outshine the ZE, if only by a smidge! But I sure would love to have that $1800 back in my pocketbook??!! We'll see...
Great shots everyone!!
Gregg
absolutely wonderful photos! you know I think I have all the lenses i need but I need alot more work on post processing. or maybe its because i don't have a ff camera.
Greggf wrote:
How is your copy of CY 85 wide open? How about the ZE wide open? I rented the ZE last year along with the Siggy 85 1.4, and was much more impressed with the wide open performance of the Sigma vs the ZE!
While I have not tried Sigma 85 yet, I am saying this based on my experience with the 50mm. Both the Sigma and the CY are different. The Sigma is wonderful if you focus near wide open to get a pleasing bokeh. The CY is more of a distance lens excel f2 and stopped down. While the Sigma gives you soft creamy bokeh, everything about the CY speaks sharp, high contrast, 3D pop.
Wow, 1000 posts and over 50000 views in just 4 months, many with great photos! I wouldn't have thought it would have been so popular, I just wanted a place where I didn't have to care if my Zeiss lenses were Contax or ZF.
Here's a virtual toast to everyone who participated and everyone who will in the future!
AhamB wrote:
Some factual differences:
- The ZF(.2) will have some focus shift on a Nikon body, the Contax will not if you focus stopped down.
- The ZF has 9 aperture blades, which is beneficial for bokeh and diffraction stars. Contax has 8, giving more geometric bokeh and only 8 pointed diffraction stars instead of 18.
+1.
And the CY85 MMG has a purplish MC while the MMJ is greenish. The MMG also feels slightly heavier though I have not measured the weight difference. I will keep the MMG anytime since they are more limited and for the CY85, represents the last lot manufactured in Germany before being outsourced to Japan.
Greggf, you are right. At f5.6 is the Planar 85 ZF version a tad sharper, as the MM version is a tad better at f1.4.
I'm in the process of selling the Planar 85 AE version. When my ZE version is back from Zeiss maintenance and calibration I had to make some new tests, hopefully in favour of the ZE lens.
Otherwise the MM is a real keeper.
nixland, all these lenses are really good. The problem is to pick one.
Greggf wrote:
Photoe...
Finally had a chance to check out the pics on the monitor back home...I def think the MMJ version is excellent. A tad sharper than the AEG, and sharper wide open than the ZF, but I think the ZF has the f5.6 shot, albeit, not by much!!
I can't agree with that. I have the shots from all 3 open in separate tabs and when I go back and forth between them, I see these differences:
For f/1.4:
- almost no difference between AE and MM, except the AE is focused a bit more to the back.
- ZF is a sharper and contrastier/has less glow.
- ZF has smoother bokeh -- this is the biggest difference that I can see in the f/1.4 pictures.
For f/5.6:
- AE is least sharp but also has noticeably less DOF than both others.
- MM has tiny bit less DOF than ZF.
- MM and ZF look equally sharp to me.
Helimat...your bio says Canada, but I see a lot of shots in and around SF!! I'm in Santa Cruz, btw....great shots again. Love the Golden Gate pic.
Gregg
Superb to see so many 85's samples. These are looking so good. I have been toying with the idea of getting Nikkor AFS 85, but these are certainly making it more complicated. Hellimat, between the two shots, I like the ZE shot better for the color rendition, but that can simply be WB.
Gregg - EXIF is not recorded correctly as I did not get one with chip. They are in various aperture. House shot is 1.4, the others are not. I wish my CY was that sharp wide open Regardless, I am really enjoying this lens. I am sensing that you may be leaning toward keeping this ? Love your series. Color rendition of your shots are amazing. Portrait is spot on. Very well done. Boat shot has very strong three dimensionality. From the secon series, B/W stood out to me. Very nice composition too. And in the most recent series. That bench shot is great. And the very last shot, congrats ? Wonderful, powerful shot. Love it.
prosep - Wow your first shot is simply amazing. It looks like a painting. Great color.
Carsten - Congrats on the 1000 posts. You have been quite an inspiration for me. Thank you for this thread. I also felt I did not have place to put Z shots and Cy shots together. And, love that iron gate. Love that texture
feto - Beautiful capture Makes me want to go to Italy now !!
Thanks Luka and Carsten!
@Luka, Very nice greens captured in your tree shots, like the logs abstract shot too!
Lot's of very nice 85mm shots here.
@Greg, Good luck with the wife's delivery!
@Burningheart, Love the Hartblei fall color shots! Do you have any more shots you could post with those lenses? I still lust after their T/S 40 & 80. Do you have any T/S 40 portrait orientation landscapes?
Is the 40 as sharp as a ZE 50MP? Is a landscape shot comprised of two stitched shots with the Hartblei 40 with +- left/right max shift while in portrait orientation and with some tilt to get nice sharpness front to back, similar to a medium format landscape shot?
