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Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 ZF (ZE) (on Canon EOS) - Lab Test / Review |
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Lens Reviews -
Canon EOS (Full Format)
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Page 1 of 2
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published July 2010
Lens kindly provided for testing purposes by Markus Stamm!
Introduction
Carl-Zeiss is one of the legendary brands in the business thanks to a history
dating back to the very beginnings of the optical industry. Regarding the number
the key designs it can almost be described as its cradle (established in 1846).
The company was a major player in the photography market till the late 1970s when
the well-known Japanese competition started to introduce AF SLRs and
Contax (Zeiss supplied the system lenses) didn´t follow. Zeiss remained active and successful
in other optical markets (inc. medium format lenses) but fell asleep regarding
its consumer (35mm) photography business till a new prince (Sony) kissed snow-white
(Zeiss). Thereafter it made Boooom and we´re now seeing several new products from
Zeiss for Sony (ZA) but some of the all-time classics were adapted to
Nikon (ZF), Pentax (ZK) and EOS (ZE) users (plus a few M42 variants). These classic
lenses are designed in Germany but made by Cosina in Japan under Zeiss quality control.
In the scope of this review we will have a look at
the Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4, a manual focus standard lens. The original symmetrical
Planar design was invented in 1896(!) but its various incarnations survived
the storms of time. In fact it is the most successful and most copied design
in the business. "Planar" originates in the German word plan ("plane"
in English) and refers to the flat reproduction characteristic (minimal field
curvature). The lens is available for EOS as well but we used the Nikon version
via adapter.
By today´s standards the Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 is a bit of weirdo - it is
a brand new lens yet it doesn´t feature AF. The focus confirmation in the
viewfinder remains active though and you can naturally use Live-View for
focus fine-tuning. The build quality of the full-metal Zeiss (brass with
chromium-plated brass front bayonet) just screams quality. The fluted focus
ring feels exceptionally well damped. The lens does extend marginally when
focusing towards close distances. The front element does not rotate.
| Specifications |
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| Optical construction | 7 elements in 6 groups |
| Number of aperture blades | 9 |
| min. focus distance | 0.45 m (max. magnification ratio 1:6.7) |
| Dimensions | 66 x 45 mm |
| Weight | 330 g |
| Filter size | 58 mm (non-rotating) |
| Hood | Included, barrel shaped (snap-on) |
| Other features | - |
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