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Wide & Super Wide Angle Lens on Digital Sensor Belong to Zeiss

Thanks! Nothing like good light through good glass on a good sensor. BTW, there's a nice thread (educational and entertaining as the discussions heat up
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) on the Adobe Camera Raw forum on exposing with digital sensors:

Exposure to the right and tone placement
 
The one shot by 717 is straight from the camera, I am so poor in photoshop that I rarely processed the image. The 717 image is being shot in exactly the same condition as the Leica 60 shot.
Zeiss 100 2.8 and Canon body produces nice soft skin tone. Leica 60 and Canon body produced a greyish skin tone. Zeiss lens with Sony sensor produces a better result than the previous two. It is closest to reality. This is why I kept my 717 and sold my Canon 10D. I have no intention to upgrade to 20D. 1DsII to me is the best choice, but I would rather divert my budget to 85 1.2. I shot film at leisure, digital at work.
 
To Paul, I quite agree with you that the exposure between Leica 60 and 717 are slightly different and that Leica shot is flatter. The jaw also look different, she had a jaw operation.

My 717 has superior results to my 10D+Zeiss 100 2.8 or Zeiss 100 2. No matter what lens you use, the skin tone in 10 D is always paler and has less colour contrast. Its images also look less "3D". 717 images is definitely more contrasty but it has noise artefact. The fine details in 717 is also better.

However, although my 717 beats the great lenses with 10D, 717 is never as good as these lenses with film.
 
Tom, I cannot agree with you more. Most Asian folks skin have a slight dark and yellowish look thus they do not like the warmer looks of the lens and prefer the cooler looks. On the other hand folks with light skin likes to have their skin looks warm in pictures.

DJ, yes different folks likes different looks and we as photographers our job is not to stuck with what we like but to deliver the taste of our diverse clients. It is important that we as photograhers have a diverse backgrounds thus we know which lens to use for the right occasion. For ex&le, as great of the Leica APO-Summicron-R 90mm F2.0 lens I would never use it in the close up shot due to the knowledge that I have from testing the lens and understand its weakness.

We should know our cameras and lens and use them appropriately when the task call for them. There is no such thing as overlap focal length. Simply each lens has their own signatures and the more we are familiar with our lens the better we use them.

Now as part of the ojective thoughts here I have to say that Zeiss lens render the color more true than Leica. However, the beauty of Leica lens is the beautiful colors that it render. Thus, both are great lens. My original post is more intended to show us how great the Zeiss Distagon Wide angle lens really are compared to other brand even including Leica lens.

DJ, the images are spectacular. What impress me about your 21-35 zoom is that not only it control the flares well but the lens also controlled the Chromatic Aberration (CA) very well as well. This is the first Leica Zoom and wide lens that I seen the CA is under controlled.

-Son
 
Apo R90 2 costed a lot more than apo M90 2, although they are optically the same. One of the reason behind this is the R one can focus down to 0.7m and M one can only do 1m. Lots of things can happen between 0.7 and 1m. Some models have great eyes and skin and you might not wish to miss that in close ups. What weakness apo R 90 2 has ?
 
Chi Yuan Joseph and members,
I tested the Leica Apo-Summicron-R 90mm F2.0 versus my Contax Carl Zeiss 85mm F1.2 60th and 50th Anniversary and I have to say for the first time I see a lens that can compete with the Zeiss Planar 85mm F1.2 Anniversary. There are two areas that the Zeiss is superior to the Leica Apo-Summicron-R 90mm F2.0:

1) Due to the absent of the floating element on the Leica when in close up the lens aberration is noticeable particularly the distortion is very high; specifically the pin cushion distortion. The Zeiss Planar T* 85mm F1.2 Anniversary has built in floating element thus it correct aberration better in close up. My first test showed that the Zeiss is a sharper lens in close up as well. Thus, I believe it when folks like Marc Williams reporting how great his Zeiss Planar 85mm F1.2 Anniversary. I am planing to do more testing on these lens including the Zeiss Planar T* 85mm F1.2 Anniversary, Planar T* 100mm F2.0, Makro-Planar T* 100mm F2.8, Leica Apo-Summicron-R 90mm F2.0 in a couple of weeks. I always like to test lens for a few times and in different situations. I also like to challenge them as well. After several run and even sometimes I get lucky I have more than one lens per type to test to see s&le variance as well. There are a few Zeiss lens that have high s&le variance and other are low from my observations.

2) The Contrast of the Zeiss lens yield black letters black while the Leica yield a more lighter and slight greenish black color.

-Son
 
Son,

The 21-35 Asph has a bit of red CA in high-contrast backlit edges toward the corners which I easily corrected in Adobe Camera Raw without affecting the rest of the image. Not perfect off the sensor, but as this is easily and quickly corrected, I'm a happy man. The flare control and nice contrast and color made me very happy.
 
Hi Son,

Could you test 85 1.2 and see if there is any difference between the 50 and 60 Aniversary versions ?

My gut feeling suggest there is none, but I might be wrong.

Chi
 
The other thing that Zeiss 85 1.2 could be better is the bokeh. At 2, Zeiss has better bokeh than Apo Leica. Leica's bokeh improves at 2.8.
At 2, Zeiss should have a better skin tone as well.

I quite agree with you about the colour aberration of Leica. The colour behavior of Leica lens is not as favourable as that of 85 1.2 and 100 2.

The less favourable colour behavior from Leica earn them an important lead in black and white photography. I do believe that the improved dimensional feel of Leica is due the aberrated colour behaviour.Their pioneering performance at large apertures could also be a result of this altered colour behaviour.

The other important aspect is the effect of astigmatism on skin tone. When I look at portraits from 85 1.4, 50 1.7 or 50 1.4, the skin tone is not as favourable as those from 85 1.2, 100 2, Contax 60 2.8. I believe it is due to the astigmatism. Also, Leica in general has more astigmatism.

Testing lenses is easy when you have Canon's body, I have sold it recently.
 
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