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Author
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Daryl
New Member
Registered: December 2008
Posts: 1
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Review Date: Wed December 10, 2008
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $985.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Contrast is beautiful, much better than Nikon 1.4AF
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Cons:
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Would like AF operation similar to Contax N or Sony Alpha
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When tested against the Nikon 85mm F1.4AF it handled contrast so well, beautiful highlights and shadows, the Nikkor had garish highlights that were not pleasing especially with portraits. The construction and materials on this lens are superb, the focus is slightly stiff. This type of quality is rarely if ever seen on Japanese lenses, maybe the Nikkors from the 1960's or the Zeiss lenses for the manual focus Contax SLR's of Kyocera.
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Lucispictor
Member
Registered: December 2008
Location: Germany, Hesse
Posts: 6
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Review Date: Wed December 10, 2008
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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optical performance, built, handling
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Cons:
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price
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Carl Zeiss Planar T* 1.4/85 ZE (Canon EOS version)
First impressions:
This lens does not only look beautiful, it is heavy and "feels" great in your hand.
The manufacturing quality is nothing but excellent, you could not wish for a better one.
The focus ring turns with just the right level of resistance which again adds to the sensation of high-end quality.
This lens mounts to an EOS cam with a deep and almost lucious "click" that entails a complete trust in this connection.
Even the lens hood mounts so securely - you turn and suddenly there is a tangible "click" - that it is a pleasure to attach and remove.
Again you never get the impression that you could ever lose this hood by coincidence.
Manufacturing Quality: A+
Optical performance:
OK, let's talk about aberrations. Aberrations? What aberrations?
Distortion? Nope. Chromatic aberrations? Nope. Coma? I can't see any.
Actually, it is virtually impossible to spot any kind of spherical, chromatic or geometrical aberration unless you examine the lens in lab conditions.
Since this is a "field report", I have to assert that this lens is quasi faultless. It seems that any flaw you find in your photo was caused by the photographer and not by the lens. Hence this is a dangerous lens for all photographers who like to blame their equipment for any mistake they made. To those I need to shout: Do not buy this lens!
For every other, talented photographer willing to learn, this Planar 1.4/85 is the perfect short tele lens! Save your money and order one as soon as you can!!
Optical performance: A
Handling:
As I have already stated, this lens delivers a rare feeling of quality that is out of reach for most lens manufacturers. Zeiss has found a great cooperation partner and must be enforcing a top-level quality control.
Every mechanical part offers a smooth and velvety as well as secure impression. There is just one little thing that I like to complain about: If the hood is attached to the lens, it is difficult to remove the front lens cap and even harder to put it back on, since your fingertips easily slip from the central knobs that can be pressed together to release the cap lock.
It would be a great idea to use a non-slip surface there.
Handling: A-
Usage:
If you have a lens that looks gorgeous, feels great and delivers a fantastic image quality, you want to use it all the time.
You have to consider that a manual 85mm lens that fast (f1.4!) is not easy to use wide open unless you have some really good focus aid.
Well, the EOS AF modus is activated by the lens chip (which by the way works together execellently with the EOS chips) but the AF system is not precise enough to guarantee a spot-on focus with an f1.4 lens. So you need to have good eyes to check the focus in the viewfinder, since the AF "beep" is sometimes tricking you. Now, focussing by sight is not easy if you only have the matte screen and no split image circle. Foucssing with my Canon EF-M for example was a pleasure, it was OK with my EOS 50e but very hard with my EOS 40D. It was alomst impossible with the EOS 350D and the standard viewfinder, with my maginfying eyepiece it became fine again. So, if you want to shoot with this Planar on your 40D often, I definitley recommend the special screen for manual focussing (EF-S). And I guess the same is true for the EOS 5D.
Anyway, this lens is a joy to use, and if you stop down a little the focus accuracy increases automatically.
Would I recommend this lens?
Absolutely!!
This lens seems to me 100% perfect for fullframe cams, no matter if film or sensor. I simply cannot imagine how a lens can be even better!
It also is 100% perfect for crop cams when shooting outdoors, for shooting with a crop cam indoors, I'd say that it might be a little too "long", perhaps the Carl Zeiss Planar T* 1.4/50 would be a more useful choice in this case.
To put it into a nutshell: Can you spend € 1000,- without living on bread and water for the next two months? Then go and buy this lens!
And perhaps it is even worth to accept such a meagre diet for quite a while in order to be able to afford this Zeiss Planar T* 1.4/85.
Final verdict: A
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philber
philber
Registered: October 2009
Location: Paris area
Posts: 10
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Review Date: Sun October 11, 2009
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $1,100.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Image quality, build quality
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Cons:
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heavy and expensive lens, not suitable for cameras with small/dark viewfinders, not perfectly sharp wide open at minimum focusing distance
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The ZE 85 is a class act. It looks like one, feels like one, costs like one, and delivers like one.
Still, it is not for everyone. Lack of autofocus means one has to be willing to focus manually, with the help of autofocus. That pretty much precludes shooting moving targets (kids at play, animals...). It also requires a camera with a large, bright viewfinder, and exchanging the standard focusing screen for one suited to MF really helps. Finally, if someone wants the f:1.4 to shoot wide open all the time, and preferably at the minimal focusing distance, this lens in not suitable IMHO, as it is less than razor sharp under these conditions.
Now before you think that I am negative on this lens, look at the rating I give: 9 out of 10. This means that, as long as you avoid what I have written above, the ZE 85 will never cease to amaze and delight you. IQ is absolutely fantastic. In particular, contrast, whether micro or macro, colours, volumes are rendered exceptionnally well. And, of course, it gives the inimitable "3D" effect for which Zeiss is justly world-famous.
I can't wait for Zeiss to release more ZE glass so that I can be 100% ZE...
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