Samuli Vahonen
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My evaluation of FE Sonnar T* 2.8/35:
+ what is inside DOF is quite sharp and has good contrast and colors
+ small size and weight
+ autofocus is fast(relatively) and accurate
+ resistance against veiling flare (which affects to whole image/large part of image)
- bokeh quality with medium distance subject is bad (might be usable on easy urban surroundings)
- bokeh highlights shape and light concentration worst I have seen
- much bigger flare than ZE/ZF-family of lenses, locally around the "hotspot"
As far as I see this lens should cost max 150EUR, not over 700EUR! Having Zeiss badge on this kind of crap is very misleading, this far Sony/Zeiss lenses have been high quality.
Haven't studied myself, but according to some reviews and blogs this lens has been designed so that it needs software corrections (vignetting, CA, color shifts) in order to make it small. Too small lens barrels typically causes bokeh quality issues, and there is no software correction for that even other issues could be corrected.
Read for example:
http://tashley1.zenfolio.com/blog/2013/12/sony-fe-35mm-f2-8-za-on-the-a7r-the-bisto-lens
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Took FE Sonnar T* 2.8/35 to forest to see how it performs in my usual surroundings.
1. This kind of rendering I expected to get (f/2.8)...
...all the time, but this was only frame in which the rendering was like expected and I liked end results.
2a. Major issue for me is the bokeh, specially in corners. This lens has one of the ugliest "medium distance subject, far distance background"-bokeh I have seen. Bokeh seems OK on "flower"-bokeh (subject close and background quite far away). Example of super horrible bokeh, f/2.8 first full frame:
2b. And here is 100% from top left corner:
The part of image what is "in focus" has nice rendering, thou nothing special. Some samples:
3. f/2.8
4. f/2.8
5. f/11
6. f/4
7. f/11
8. f/8
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Other shoot I did was shooting city before work and after work = pretty dark conditions, since we have just few hours daylight here at this time of year. Comparing to Zeiss ZE-lenses, with which I have mainly shoot past years, there were few areas I found problematic:
- highlights on "nightshots" flare locally really strong, not sure this lens deserves "T*" mentioned in the name
- bokeh highlight shapes indicates that lens barrel is really WAY TOO SMALL for the lens
- light distribution on highlights is just weird, heavy edges and some stuff inside the circles as well
Examples of flaring - the main difference to SLR-lenses is that they have issues on opposite site of lens if there are issues at all. For example if there is strong light source on top right corner there might be reflection on bottom left corner. In any of the 2.8/35 photos I took, I could not find this kind of reflection, but lens&camera seemed to have lots of reflections locally close to light sources.
9. f/2.8 (ISO 1000) - around the lamps there are colorful flares, none on opposite side of len's center axis
10a. top of tower has multiple reflections
10b. crop of the top of tower
11. Not directly relevant, but noticed that the hood is excellent from coverage point of view - when I tried to put my hand between light on top right, it was not possible to shade the lens without having fingers in the photo. Interesting flare thou, haven't seen this kind very often, and this was not one time wonder, I have exact same flare on other exposure I took - had to take another because I assumed it was some sensor bug or something...
12a. f/2.8 - Bokeh highlight shape and light concentration - awful!
12b. crop of above - notice also reflections of the big tower and light source in it's right side
Not relevant to issues mentioned, just posting as lens rendering samples. A7 sensor obviously has lots to offer, my hands are itching to get the Metabones so I can start shooting ZE-lenses with A7.
13. f/8, 20s
14. f/7.1, 30s
15. f/8, 13s
16. f/2.8, 15s
17. f/11, 30s, ISO 400
Samuli
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Nice work.
