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Zeiss 50mm f14 MM for Canon dSLR

albert4321

Well-Known Member
Does anyone have any experience with this lens? I am thinking to get this lens for low light event shooting. Or should I get the Canon 50mm f/1.4 instead??

Any suggestion?
 
Well, I have experience with C-Y 50 1.7 on Canon 10D. I also brought Canon 50 2.5 macro for my 10D. C-Y 50 1.7 is marginally better than C-Y 50 1.4 and Canon 50 2.5 has the same performance with Canon 50 1.4. All together I use 9 C-Y lenses, 3 Leica R lenses and one Canon lens on my 10D. Zeiss 50 mm lens is better than Canon 50 in terms of resolution,flare control,large scale contrast and colour fidelity. Managing Zeiss lens on a 10D means you stop down to focus and turn the aperture ring for the right aperture while looking at the viewfinder. To me,the gain in image quality from Canon to Zeiss is well worth it. You only use Canon lenses if rapid focusing is required in certain situations.
 
Albert,

I recently tested a C/Y 50mm F1.4 against my Canon 50mm F1.8 Mk1 lens. The C/Y was sharper across all apertures. I subsequently sold the Canon lens and kept the C/Y. Testing was done on a 1Ds Mk2.

Andy
 
Thanks Andy,

It is good to know that this lens is sharper, with better contrast, color, and flare control. It is time to hit eBay. :)

Albert.
 
I have a CZ 28/2.8 and 85/1.4. I had the 50/1.4 when I was using a Contax film camera, but not anymore.

Anyway, I am currently using a Canon 50/2.5 macro and I think this lens is really awesome - very sharp even at f2.5 with very nice color and contrast.

So, in my opinion, it's not worth the hassle of having to manually focus and set the aperture, with the CZ 50/1.4. Here's a shot I made with the 50/2.5 with my old 10D.

323844.jpg
 
Thanks Albert! Yes, it does remind me of the good old Velvia film. I made a 13 x 19" print of this image and I was totally blown away by the clarity/sharpness and color/contrast. This lens is as good as the best L-series lenses from Canon, and this is no exaggeration.

Aside from a relatively noisy focussing motor (this is a non-USM lens) everyone who has ever used this lens rave about the sharpness, even wide open - unlike the softness of the 50/1.4 wide open.

You can read the user reviews in the FM forum pages here:

http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=45&sort=7&cat=2&page=3
 
Nice photo Bobby,but it could be even better if you shoot it with C-Y 50 1.4 or 1.7. Of course 50/1.4 is soft wide open,it is because it is 1.4. Do you think it is fair to compare Zeiss at 1.4 with Canon at 2.5 ? Have you compare them at equal aperture ?
It is easy to test the lens performance of lenses with Canon digital body. If you compare Canon 50 2.5 and Zeiss 50,you will find Zeiss outperform Canon at every aperture.
Canon made many good lenses such as 85 1.2 and 200 1.8. One important feature that Canon has still not reached the standard of Zeiss is the ability to reproduce colour and hence the reproduction of colour contrast. To me,the ability to reproduce colour contrast is of diagnostic importance. Zeiss's fidelity to reproduce colour has not been matched by any others including Leica,Canon and Nikon.
 
Albert, all of Las Vegas looks like Velvia ; -)

Wang, color reproduction is a matter of opinion, not fact. Either you like a certain look or not. For ex&le, in my opinion Leica glass is equal or superior to Zeiss because it looks a little more natural.
 
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