DavidBM: Those australian shots are superb, specially the famous mountain (wasn't it called Ayer's Rock?)...
banpreso wrote:
i love carrying this lens when traveling. it's so versitile
haha, versatile is the last thing I would call it: one has to manually focus, manually set the aperture & the focal setting in the IBIS of the a7rII, the wider apertures have soft corners and vignetting, and it is only a 2x zoom with a not very wide short end. So in my book this runs for a quite unflexible lens :-)
However: It is clearly my most used lens on the a7rII. Ha! Once stopped down it simply delivers the contrasty Zeiss look with biting sharpness. Not sure about the 55/1,8, but no other lens I tried on this camera delivers such results. Therefore I don't enjoy using it, but inside it's limits (of use and function) it is simply outstanding! Specially seen the modest price it runs for...
Many positive yet uncommon attributes: vibrant yet realistic colour palette accompanied by near perfect yet creamy neutral tones, classy under terrible light conditions, ethereal highlight control, fine tone separation in flat light. 'Walk in to the frame' sense of image depth. Soft retention of context detail in OOF. CA close to non-existent. Excellent bokeh at 70mm (~no astigmatism). Close to no curvature of field. Best used as a 40-70mm lens, Carl Zeiss optimised for longer end. Soft acutance with high microcontrast lets the image motifs sit in their own longitudinal space, but with fine drawing and detail. The very antithesis of the modern zoom paradigm = digital cartoon coloration, unevenness and edginess. Use at low ISO on broad DR camera for best results.
Finally, after a gap of almost 1.5 years, got around to using this lens.
On a Sony a7R, the level of detail it resolves is simple outstanding.
A few taken over the weekend near my wife's office.
It's actually very hard to find a modern mid zoom from anyone (Nikon, Canon, Sony, Leica) that does not lean heavily on asph elements. Most have three, some use five. The suspicious thing is that this pattern of design extends from base grade, entry level 4-5x zooms out to the fancy f2.8 24-70 efforts.
Zeiss were never big asph fans back in the day, true especially in the CY era; even the D21mm has none.
Alas, most new zooms are beset with optical unevenness. The faster better ones often are losing central performance after f4 even as their outer frames struggle to rise to the challenge. The 10/10 CY 35-70 is simply sound design, so you see this organic, balanced look to the images produced. Drawing is very much 'Carl Zeiss house', similar even to new Loxia 85mm, clean and transparent. The zoom maxes at f8, with very even IQ across the frame.
I've heard great things about this lens for ages, but have never tried it. Nice examples here, needless to say.
It's not like I need anything else in this focal length range, but I'm curious about possible differences in rendering from what I have. What differences might I see in stopped-down landscape use from, say, Loxia 35/50/85, ZE 35/1.4, ZE 50 Planar or makro-planar, etc., all of which I already have?
Spend weekend with Contax zooms 35-70 and 80-200 few weeks ago. 35-70 would be optimal lens for landscapes with two changes:
1) no rotating front thread.
2) EXIF information (I use folder to identify zoom position and ISO to identify aperture, and when I skrew-up I have memo in my phone for photos I did forget to change folder or ISO...bad habit of wanting to get perfect EXIF even shooting with fully manual lenses)
I also like the lens for my usual forest shooting, thou I have to adjust my style as I'm used to f/2 and faster lenses.
Few morning landscapes:
Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 3.4/35-70 CY @ f/11.0 & 35mm, HDR, A7(Kolari v2) @ ISO 125, Rodenstock Circular Pol 67mm
Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 3.4/35-70 CY @ f/11.0 & 35mm, HDR, A7(Kolari v2) @ ISO 125, Rodenstock Circular Pol 67mm
Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 3.4/35-70 CY @ f/5.6 & 50mm, 1/50s, A7(Kolari v2) @ ISO 320, Rodenstock Circular Pol 67mm
Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 3.4/35-70 CY @ f/8.0 & 50mm, 1/50s, A7(Kolari v2) @ ISO 100, Rodenstock Circular Pol 67mm
Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 3.4/35-70 CY @ f/11.0 & 40mm, 25s, A7(Kolari v2) @ ISO 50, Rodenstock Circular Pol 67mm + Hoya HMC 82mm NDX400
Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 3.4/35-70 CY @ f/11.0 & 35mm, 37s, A7(Kolari v2) @ ISO 50, Rodenstock Circular Pol 67mm + Hoya HMC 82mm NDX400
High tide at Bondi, TT, looks great, high impact. The rocks are razor sharp.
A couple more; this zoom has one of the highest quality levels of any lens, out of camera.
_ISO125_A7-HDR.20_0.15_Lanczos2_1280_0.3_1.0.jpg "2026 © Samuli Vahonen")
_ISO125_A7-HDR.20_0.15_Lanczos2_1280_0.3_1.0.jpg "2026 © Samuli Vahonen")
_ISO100_A7.20_0.15_Lanczos2_1280_0.3_1.0.jpg "2026 © Samuli Vahonen")
_ISO100_A7.20_0.15_Lanczos2_1280_0.3_1.0.jpg "2026 © Samuli Vahonen")
_ISO100_A7.20_0.15_Lanczos2_1280_0.3_1.0.jpg "2026 © Samuli Vahonen")
_ISO100_A7.20_0.15_Lanczos2_1280_0.3_1.0.jpg "2026 © Samuli Vahonen"){kind=small}
_ISO160_A7.20_0.15_Lanczos2_1280_0.3_1.0.jpg "2026 © Samuli Vahonen")
