Yep, fully agreed. The ZA seems to be a new design and the wide open performance is definitely better than the Contax. Hope to be able to post something in the coming few days.
wayne seltzer wrote:
The specs for the # of elements is 8 elements in 7 groups for the ZA 85 and the zf 85 is listed as having 6 elements in 5 groups.
I am guessing the extra two elements are helping the lens in the wide open end.
For those that can't read French just use google translate on those pages.
Excellent DXO testing done on the 16-35 with sharpness, distortion, CA test results posted.
Wow, this review has Zone A and C crops for a building scene for f2.8 and f8 for 16,,24, and 35mm.
Distortion is barrel and high at 16mm and then goes down at 24 and then crosses over and becomes pin-cushion and rises till 35mm.
CA looks like a problem more at the wide end.
Their verdict:
Strengths:
Excellent center and central 3rd of the image at all focal lengths
Beautiful contrast and color saturation
Built with high-end case and metal lens shade.
Quiet and quick ultra-sonic AF
Weaknesses:
weak in the corners of the image with large apertures
Lotusm50, I agree about the need for a ZA 50. That being said, I use the Sony 50mm in conjunction with the ZA 85 and 24-70, and it handles itself better than I expected. I was planning on doing the easy leica conversion on a 50 summicron, but the Sony 50 has kept me from it for now. Also, the AF Minolta 35 f2 is supposed to be wonderful (the 35 1.4 isn't all that great.)
I find the Sony/Minolta 50 2.8 Macro pretty darn good. My copy is among the sharpest lenses I have used on the a900 with a very Zeiss like high contrast(which I don't like all the time). Between that lens, an exceptional copy of the Super Multi Coated Tak 50 1.4 and the Minolta 58 1.2, I pretty much have the 50 range covered depending on whatever imaging characteristics/drawing style I'm after. The gap, as always, are good primes under 35mm.
Looking at the Photozone results for the Sony/Minolta 50 2.8 Macro, it looks to be as sharp as the ZF 50 f2 Makro but has more CA, vignettes at f2.8 instead of f2 and of course is one stop slower.
Since Sony mount register length differs from Canon mount by only ~.5mm it should be feasible for someone to fabricate an F-mount to Sony mount adapter as well as a Leica-Sony adapter. Looks like an opportunity for someone to come up with one.
Then Sony A900 users could use lenses like Nikon 14-24G, ZF 21, 25,28,35,50, and 100 along with their better ZA 85 1.4 and ZA 135 f1.8. We will see if Nikon comes out with a 700x, otherwise Sony A900 with this adapter would be the cheaper way to go. Or of course 5d2 and ZE lenses.
Till someone makes an adapter you would have to remove the ZF mount plate and drill holes in a Sony/Minolta mount plate which line up with the ZF mounts mount holes and add some kind of spacer in between. You would have to use the lens in stop-down metering mode of course.
SK Grimes in Boston could do the permanent mount conversions for you and I think their lens conversion prices range anywhere up to $300, I think.
wayne seltzer wrote:
Looking at the Photozone results for the Sony/Minolta 50 2.8 Macro, it looks to be as sharp as the ZF 50 f2 Makro but has more CA, vignettes at f2.8 instead of f2 and of course is one stop slower.
Since Sony mount register length differs from Canon mount by only ~.5mm it should be feasible for someone to fabricate an F-mount to Sony mount adapter as well as a Leica-Sony adapter. Looks like an opportunity for someone to come up with one.
Then Sony A900 users could use lenses like Nikon 14-24G, ZF 21, 25,28,35,50, and 100 along with their better ZA 85 1.4 and ZA 135 f1.8. We will see if Nikon comes out with a 700x, otherwise Sony A900 with this adapter would be the cheaper way to go. Or of course 5d2 and ZE lenses.
Till someone makes an adapter you would have to remove the ZF mount plate and drill holes in a Sony/Minolta mount plate which line up with the ZF mounts mount holes and add some kind of spacer in between. You would have to use the lens in stop-down metering mode of course.
SK Grimes in Boston could do the permanent mount conversions for you and I think their lens conversion prices range anywhere up to $300, I think....Show more →
Because A mount is much smaller in diameter than EF mount, the adaptors (F or R) are not possible inf you want optics-free infinity focus since there's not enough room to get the adaptor and the lens bayonet both inside the A mount. So mount conversions are the only real option aside from M42 for A mount alt glass.
you2 wrote:
Weight is also one of my sore points. The original reason I chose contax is that you could find high quality (relative) light weight lenses (ala 25f2.8, 28f2.8, 35-70f3.4, 100f3.5, ...).
I do wish sony or canon would produce some high quality primes/zooms that would weigh a bit less.
I miss the old Contax days... I would pay more for significantly lighter lenses, I bought the 400 DO for this very reason, and the 70-200/F4 is a great lens that would only be better if it was black, could be shorter too.
What I would really like is a 24-85mm F/2.0 IS and a 100-150mm F/2.0 IS. Yes they would be heavy, but it would be lighter/faster than what I carry now (primes/zoom combo). I sometimes look at the Zuiko 35-100mm F/2.0, yes it is 4/3rds but it shows that 24-85mm is do-able and the 100-150mm would probably weigh less than the current 70-200mm/2.8. It would also be a great 120-210mm with 1.4.
Mawz,
Thanks for the info, I didn't think about the ZA's smaller opening.
So could one sell a special A-mount plate which could replace the original ZF mount plate on the lens?Which would make conversions very simple.
wayne seltzer wrote:
Mawz,
Thanks for the info, I didn't think about the ZA's smaller opening.
So could one sell a special A-mount plate which could replace the original ZF mount plate on the lens?Which would make conversions very simple.
Yes.
In fact I'm given to understand that many R conversions can use A mounts scavenged off of cheap minolta lenses as the two bolt patterns are compatible. Contax or Nikon would need a Leitax.com style conversion but that should be quite doable.
Interestingly, the writer says, "Unlike some have speculated, Carl Zeiss Planar T* 85 F1.4 SAL-85F14CZ is a whole new lens made for alpha system (and the only Zeiss 85mm AF lens to date) and different from Planar T* 85/1.4 ZF and Planar T* 85/1.4 ContaxN Zeiss lenses. http://www.dyxum.com/columns/articles/lenses/SAL-85F14CZ/Planar.gif Planar T* 85/1.4 ZF (left) uses 6 elements in 5 groups. Minolta 85/1.4 G (middle) use 7 elements in 6 groups. Carl Zeiss Planar T* 85 F1.4 SAL-85F14CZ uses 8 elements in 7 groups (right)."
But it is obvious the designs are related. The ZF pictures is nearly identical to the Zeiss Contax c/y design, and is a classic Zeiss design. Clearly the Minolta lens and the subsequent ZA lens are clearly variations on the same design. I suspect that the extra rear elements in the ZA design are there to make the transmitted light more telecentric to the sensor. Further, even though the author mentions the AF Zeiss N 84/1.4 (and therefore is aware of it's existence), he still makes the gross mistake of saying the the Sony-Zeiss SAL 85/1.4 is "the only Zeiss 85mm AF lens to date" As at least some of you know, the Zeiss N 85mm is indeed AF exists and was available 6 years before the SAL 85mm. Including the Contax N 85, the N 85mm (10 elements in 9 groups) is the most different of the four 85mm lenses. For comparison: http://boncratious.com/images/Zeiss-N-85.jpg
Wayne,
Having recently purchased an A900 body at a bargain price, I asked SK Grimes abouta Nikon F to Sony Alpha mount conversion for my ZF 100/2 macro Planar. This would be a new project for them, and they quoted me an estimate of $250-$400. An adapter won't work as the diameter of the F mount is too wide. This is also the case with Leica R lenses. The flange to focal plane distance will work, but the diameter of the mount necesitates a mount conversion.
The good thing about Leica R lenses on Sony is some of the holes for the mounts are in the same place, so you can just take off the Leica mount and screw a Monolta mount onto it without drilling
Thanks for the lens design diagrams from the Dyxum website. Maybe the extra two elements help the peformance in the corners wide open and reduce the CA some as I look at the differences between the results of both lenses in their photozone reviews.
Surfotog,
Yeah, I was hoping for the ZF mount to be the universal mount which could be easily adapted to Canon and Sony Alpha via adapters and used natively on a Nikon.
Oh, well.
SK Grimes said they can mill me a special mount plate for my ZA 135 f1.8 to work with my 1ds3 and look into what they could do about controlling the manual aperture lever. My temporary mount plate which I made from a modified Nikon-EOS adapter works fine but is not that robust and professional looking and I really want them to see if they can add the aperture control somehow.
Somehow I will have to get myself to send this to them and be without it for awhile and go through serious withdrawal.
This lens seems to so far be my favorite fast lens.
