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 Re: Zeiss 35mm 1.4 ZM Tests | |
Just to mention a few things. I know some of these points were mentioned but many pages back:
- wide open sharpness is really nice to have with a 35mm imo.
- but double lines in the bokeh can be sometimes be annoying (sometimes VERY), need to be a little careful with the background to make sure it's not too messy ... so you get tempted to put them a little closer to be safe, but not too close that the sharpness makes it unflattering 
- if I don't have a central subject when shooting wide-open I go to f1.6 to reduce the center brightness and keep the bokeh, but you can use a radial mask
- size is fine for me, and I basically only own compact lenses. Have a protective filter on but never even tried the hood.
- I really appreciate the colours but I want to compare with my sigma 35mm f2 to make sure it's not placebo (I've barely used that lens and tbh quite tempted to sell the 35/50 f2 sigmas because I don't think they'll get much use - but I got pretty good deals on both so leaving them for now and I think they're actually really good lenses but I just seem to be preferring to manual focus for whatever reason). I expect it won't be placebo though.
- to the sides it's okay at f5.6, f8 if you want to zoom in, no pcx filter (don't know how to get one and hesitant to make it bigger). F4 can be passable but not always, not worth risking unless you don't have the light, then crop in a little if it didn't pass. I haven't done at infinity though but this seems to match up with what people were talking about. Though there was talk about a BSI (I think?) Sony sensor possibly giving a 1 stop advantage.
I went through quite few pages of the thread from like 9 years ago and saw the discussion about double line bokeh also. One person linked to a very nice review of someone who did brilliant tests and compared against quite a few lenses. The person who linked the review said the double lined bokeh doesnt happen on an m sensor. But the review never showed that, only the sharpness was tested against an m-sensor.
The bokeh comparison was done between CV 35mm f1.2 nokton and a couple of others all on Sony, so I'm not sure if the double-lined bokeh appears on m too.
I liked the distagon more in the bokeh test. But, with a messy background, unless rather close to subject I'd want to be careful. And if close, prepare to do some skin retouching.
When it's not a bad background, I think it does a brilliant job.
I'm pretty sure I've seen the double lines on bokeh in images online with the Zeiss 50mm f1.5 sonar too.
Looking forward to one day using this with a film camera. Maybe in a couple of years. I'll play around with the Nikon fm2n in the mean time, get a handle on scanning etc.
Quick snapshot from the first day before I did testing with it:
Lens correction on, crop from the bottom only, highlights down in the top-right, didn't touch anything else.
I don't remember the exact aperture unfortunately.. Can see some funkyness on the right side, tree tops. 1/100s iso100. I think it's f4, maybe a little bigger (like f3.6) but smaller than f2.8. Also looking at sunstars on philipreeve site review, though I'm not an expert at that, just heard people trying based on sunstars. Angle lines up a bit more with f4 than f2.8, if that's what you're supposed to look at.
But just straight out of camera colours are lovely - vibrant but natural (at least on my monitor), effortlessly.
I think this is the F8 version:
Even at ff5.6, I wouldn't zoom-in to the edges if it's on a similar plane.
I'll take this out and share some more, just been a bit busy. Also, testing the CV 40mm f2 ultron sIIn (F-mount), which I have to say I don't love so far though I know it's very popular for the small size and sharpness. Images feels a bit less transparent. But I got that for film and maybe it will be okay there, not too many options for compact 40mm f-mount nikon film lenses.
I'm sure I'll run into more issues using this lens vs alternatives, with double-line bokeh and needing to stop down for side-to-side. But... I really like the images when it works, and how little I need to do.
I probably need longer than the 1 month return period to fully evaluate if this is the trade off I want to pick.
I thought so at first, I'm a little less certain after I took a portrait pic in a kitchen with some chaotic, high-contrast marble and was horrified, but that was a bad one. I think it's still the right call since I have the 40mm nokton as the more regular everyday type lenses and this more of a special one. Or maybe it's possible to learn what would cause issues and it gets equal use, because it does make you want to use it.
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