I got the lens today and drove quickly to try it out.
I'm not easily amazed, I own or owned some of the best Canon glass -
35L, 85L II, 135L and so on. Well, to be brief - my jaw is still on the floor!
This lens is everything I was hoping for, I've been waiting for this lens for 10 years,
since I first heard of it and since I hated the adaptors and weird metering
I gave up on it. Well now I can finally have it here mounted on my 5D MkII.
First, it looks and feels amazing. It's a very high quality product and my wife
noticed that right away, it's all metal, perfect finish. The manual focus works great!
But where it shines is the quality of images it produces.
Here you have one example wide open:
can you see some problems? Chroma aberration? anything?
This is wide open.
I also got another new lens today, Canon 24 f1.4L II. To get to that quality
I have to close it down to f5.6-8. Not kidding. Of course, it's pure magic wide open,
there is nothing else out there which would give me that quality of bg bokeh,
colors and contrast. It's my 2nd copy of 24L II and although CA is only slightly better,
I decided to keep it for all those qualities I mentioned.
But for any critical landscape work, I'm gonna use my new Zeiss 21.
My first "more serious" shot, quickly done, not perfect, I know:
It would be interesting to see how this lens compares against the new canon 24TS-EII. 16:9 did a review of the 14-24 nikon, 21mm Zeiss, and Canon 24f1.4I all on a canon 5D and seemed to draw the conclusion that the nikon edged out the zeiss and walked all over the canon. I know we're talking about a 21mm vs a 24mm but I think from a use, price, and features standpoint, the Zeiss 21mm vs the Canon 24TS-EII would be a great comparison.
so what exactly are you saying. get the zeiss 21 or the canon 24II? and if the canon can match the zeiss at f5.6-8 would it be the most versatile buy? the zeiss should be around $1540 and the canon around $1700.
philber wrote:
Well done, Snowboarder! Now I know that not only my ZE 21 is a good copy... And you seaside shot is lovely!
you're right Phil! And it's just such a nice object, so much nicer than my Canon lenses.
The quality and smoothness of operation is out of this world.
I'd love to get another Zeiss, but don't want to disappointed after this one.
What else out there is great? maybe 100 f2 macro?
inthemoment wrote:
so what exactly are you saying. get the zeiss 21 or the canon 24II? and if the canon can match the zeiss at f5.6-8 would it be the most versatile buy? the zeiss should be around $1540 and the canon around $1700.
they are completely different. For wide open candid city scenes, 24L II can't be touched
by anything. Imagine a little Italian coffee shop, this kind of things. The creamy bg
at f1.4, the colors and contrast are absolutely flawless. But to get to the 21's sharpness
and mostly, chroma aberration control, you need to close it down.
21 is sharp wide open and it's also much wider. My favorite landscape lens.
I'm going to Italy soon and I'm taking both
For quite a while I've been looking to stir things up on the wide end. I current shoot everything wide with my 16-35 2.8L Mark 1. While the lens is fine, at times I wish for that for that pow that I get from my other L primes. I did a bit of research of my average focal length used and it came in right around 21mm. So the ZE 21 would be great for my scenic, travel, interior and tourism stuff. I also used to shoot Zeiss lenses in the Contax film days so I knows its good stuff. However I also shoot weddings so low light ability and AF pulls me in the direction of the EF 24 1.4L II. This test is very welcome and I will looking for those shots from Italy. Thanks for posting this and lets see some more ZE 21 shots soon
It will be interersting to see this new version compared with the old C/Y mount w/ adapter 21mm distagon. I can't say I'm happy about the new glass in lieu of the $3 grand I spent on a C/Y version distagon two years ago. I hope my old version is at least as good. That would reduce the financial pain I am experiencing right now...
The lens looks great, I can't believe they actually released it in 2009. I've got to sit tight with my 16-35L II for now, but I can't wait to get to B&H in NYC next month and take a look at the EOS mount distagon up close.
