Zeiss 55 f/1.4 Distagon Availability Coming in the Next 24 Hours? [CR2]

[mb66energy]

I think this lens is far from a no compromise lens:
* LARGE
* HEAVY
* VERY EXPENSIVE
but ... different needs = different style of compromise(s). In some situations a 1 kg perfect lens IS MUCH MORE APPROPRIATE than a 300 g standard "equivalent"!

I am looking forward to test the chrome ring FD 1.4 / 50 which is small, light and waiting to be reused since 2000 with my EOS M which I bought today. "Digital" will show its weaknesses (optically) and I see low contrast/a slight halo + longitudinal CAs. My need: low DOF photography and/or low light photography - so these weaknesses might be negligible.

 

[Axilrod]

Why is everyone so upset about the price of this lens? Don't buy it if you think it's too much. Price aside I'm sure it performs like a dream, I've never been disappointed by Zeiss glass.

 

[RobertG.]

Hi, I'm really happy about this lens anouncement There was no really good 50mm lens available yet. For landscape photography in this focus length I used so far an old medium format tilt-shift lens or the TS-E 45mm. Both are mediocre but you can't shoot every scene with a TS-E 24 L II or a TS-E 90mm. The tilt-shift design offered at least proper corner sharpness and less hassle than an ordinary 50mm lens on a panorama head.

I don't really mind the size or the weight of this lens. To have AF would be a bonus but I don't really care! It takes me normally several minutes to set up my equipment for a landscape shot, so I do have time to manually focus in live view. And for street photography, events etc. I prefer the EF 35L yet. For such occassions Sigma will hopefully update soon their 50mm lens.

The only negative aspect is the price. 2500-3000 EUR would be great. Now it will take a few more months of saving.

 

[RGomezPhotos]

I really don't think Canon has been waiting for Zeiss to release the 55 so we
Have something to use with a high mp camera. And I don't think Zeiss knows what canon are releasing before it's released, they assume. That being said it's highly likely a few more high mp cameras will come. Not that I in any way think this lens is at all wasted on a 5d2 or 1dx.

No. You have it backwards. Zeiss has been waiting for Canon. And manufacturers work very closely together. Zeiss works with Sony and Fuji after all. Sandisk has been working closely with Canon with the new CFast 2.0 CF card standard. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the big MP Canon used this new card standard. 450MB/s: PERFECT for a fast, big MP camera.

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

For $4000, I expect the lens to have fastest & accurate AF

+1

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

Here's the video:

Well it does seem to be pretty amazing in that it looks to be more or less APO and to also have zero hazing and full contrast and detail at f/1.4 under any lighting AND even into FF corners is pretty nuts.

Man $4000 though is still rough. At $2500 they may have sold some good number, $4000 will cuts sales a lot since that is just too much for many for such a lens no matter how amazing. Still it will get some sales since the performance does seem way better than any other current 50mm (I've never really had a look at the Leica stuff though, which have been said to have been the best up to this point.)

OTOH Canon managed to make a complex 24-70 2.8 more or less APO so you wonder if they couldn't match this and with AF for say $2600??

It makes the 1.2L optical performance look like a total joke, same for the sigma 1.4 and all the older types of course too.

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

Expect the Zeis to be manual focus and to deliver outstanding image quality. If you think the Zeis lenses are too highly priced then they're simply not for you.

Pre-release review:
http://diglloyd.com/articles/ZeissZ/ZeissZ-Otus-55f1_4.html

It really does seem to be awfully amazing at f/1.4. It's really a shame it doesn't have AF. You almost have to use liveview since VF MF is so awful these days with many cameras (especially with 5D3 which has the dumb smart VF that is utterly useless for MF).

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

I have had an opportunity to play with it for a while and it worth every penny..

https://www.flickr.com/photos/janpolacek/8682080182/in/set-72157633336606129

sorry but what exactly in this images justifies the price?
i see nothing you could not do with a cheaper 50mm 1.4.

maybe it´s because you resized the images and in the originals the quality is more prominent.

i do believe the zeiss is great .. just not 4000$ great.

How about absolute color purity? A regular 50 1.4 would be tossing green hazes over everthing behind the exact plane of focus and purple in front and would be blurry near the edges and under some of those lighting conditions you'd get some bad halation effects. Remember those are all f/1.4, many under very nasty lighting (for a 1.4 lens).

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

I´m not the expert on MTF charts, but I was expecting something a bit more impressive than what Zeiss has published for this lens, ref:
http://lenses.zeiss.com/content/dam/Photography/new/pdf/en/downloadcenter/datasheets_otus/otus_1455.pdf
I´m sure a lot of you guys are more qualified than me in interpreting this than me, but my expectations were higher. What resolution, contrast, distortion, bokeh etc. can we expect here? The image examples I have seen did not make me very wise.

On the other hand. In every discipline in the world, someone is pushing the envelope. If this lens delivers the quality Zeiss claims, and to be honest, they do have some credit to their name, it´s only natural that they charge us for it. Hifi, flyfishing gear, bicycles, watches, pens ... you name it. Enough people are more than willing to pay for the extra micro dB, milli miles/hour, nano gram saving, having something exclusive ... And the 55/1.4 will be able to trigger most of those urges with the photographiles. Am I one ... eehhh ... probably, so I´d better never read a review or (worse) try one

well compare to the canon 50 1.4:
http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/cameras/ef_lens_lineup/ef_50mm_f_1_4_usm

note that you need to look at the f/1.4 zeiss chart and compare the top zeiss line to the top thick BLACK canon line and the bottom BLACK Canon line to what would be a line somewhere half-way between the two lower zeiss lines. Looks better now no?

Also I think zeiss MTF are measured on an optical bench from a real lens while the canon chart is from an ideal lens copy computer simulation.

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

Is there a technical reason why it is 55mm and not 50mm? Is it not possible to design a fast (i.e. f/1.2-f/1.4) lens with a double gauss design? Is it why the 55 is a reverse-telephoto design?

they didn't want to use a simple double gauss design again anyway, yeah those are cheap and produce amazing result stopped down but we have tons of those with the current non-L canons and regular nikons and so on

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

not having AF though, not joking this time, does hurt it, 4k is a lot and without AF its usage is more limited (especially considering how miserable most modern DSLR are for through the VF AF, it's not like old pre-AF days where you at least had a chance to MF)

 

[Policar]

Performance looks unreal. Great that they're taking apochromatic performance seriously as it makes a huge difference. These photos look incredible.

 

[ME]

I like Zeiss and have several already. This looks to be a really good lens, but @$4000 it is too much for my budget. I might would pay ~$2500, but after reading the diglloyd review, my 5dII would not be good enough for this lens and I would have to buy a D800 camera:"The 55/1.4 Distagon is the ideal lens for a camera having a sensor with very wide dynamic range, such as the Nikon D800/D800E". Where is ankorwhats his name. Just kidding!! ??? : ;D

 

[tnargs]

I cannot see how this price can be correct. Truly dumbfounding. I think Sigma is going to embarrass the S___ out of Zeiss when they update their 50mm f/1.4.

Too true!

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I'm surprised at the feelings that the price is too high. $50,000 and up is common for high quality Cinema lenses, and some are so expensive that they won't sell them, just lease them.

$4,000 is chicken feed as far as high end lenses go.
Of course, the spy agencies have been known to invest hundreds of millions.

 

[ME]

I'm surprised at the feelings that the price is too high. $50,000 and up is common for high quality Cinema lenses, and some are so expensive that they won't sell them, just lease them.

$4,000 is chicken feed as far as high end lenses go.
Of course, the spy agencies have been known to invest hundreds of millions.

I'm not saying it is too high. It is too high for my budget. I would also like to have the Zeiss 15/f2.8, but my budget wont allow it at this time. The Zeiss 35/1.4, 135/f2 are also in my sights. I have the 50/1.4, the 21/f2.8, and 100/f2 mp. Can only afford so many Zeiss's at a time, unless you would consider a no-interest loan over a 10yr span ;D. I wonder if I could borrow the Hubble for a while. After all, my tax dollars paid for a few molecules of it.

 

[bleephotography]

Here's a lengthy interview/preview by B&H: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DILwPyQKDA

Personally, if it had AF I'd be willing to fork out $4k, which is not to say it isn't worth the money; it just isn't worth my money.

 

[Eldar]

There are endless threads on this forum about the slow AF of the 85 1.2L II. This Zeiss lens have 248 deg rotation angle of focusing ring and I assume it carries (at least) as much glass. For you who understand this better than me, wouldn´t that end up being a very slow AF?

 

[duydaniel]

Here's a lengthy interview/preview by B&H: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DILwPyQKDA

Personally, if it had AF I'd be willing to fork out $4k, which is not to say it isn't worth the money; it just isn't worth my money.

Thanks
After watching, I have more respect for Zeiss

 

[dgatwood]

From what's reported so far, the big advantage of Zeiss 55 will be corner sharpness wide open. For those who need that, well price could be no object.

It's mentioned that mere mortal lenses can be similarly sharp in the center wide open and when stopped down. Early users are also reporting the Zeiss is perhaps too sharp for portraits, calling it "Portrait for perfect skin" lens, so for non-model adults I shoot, I would be stuck with less post-processing time with my L primes.

Yeah, that's another reason I don't get this lens. What's the target audience?

Corner sharpness in a portrait lens just isn't that important, typically. If anything, it is undesirable; many of the lenses that I've seen folks rate as being the best for portraits are some of the softest at the corners, because corner softness puts emphasis on the subject, who is typically at the center.

And for landscapes, 55mm is typically too narrow by a factor of two-ish, so I can't imagine that they intended those folks to buy it, either.

And no AF means that you won't realistically want to use it as your walking-around lens (not to mention that 55mm is a bit tight for that—IMO the sweet spot is somewhere in the 30-40mm range).

*shrugs* I guess they think somebody is looking for this lens. I just wish I understood who.

There are endless threads on this forum about the slow AF of the 85 1.2L II. This Zeiss lens have 248 deg rotation angle of focusing ring and I assume it carries (at least) as much glass. For you who understand this better than me, wouldn´t that end up being a very slow AF?

Probably, yes. They presumably built it the way they did so that it would be easier to manually focus accurately. Precise manual focus and autofocus speed are basically at odds with one another.