New Carl Zeiss lenses coming for Canon EF mount

[budjames]

I was at the PhotoPlus Expo in NYC yesterday and I saw 2 new lenses for Canon mounts. The 50 f1.4 on display was a non-working prototype. The other was an 85 f1.2 (I think it was 85). They can use the Canon metering system but focus is strictly manual.

After playing with them for while, the Canon 24-105 on my 40D that I was carrying around the show seemed crude in operation. The Zeiss lenses are all very silky smooth to focus. The weight was not bad either.

I think if I was in the market for a fixed focal length 50mm, the Zeiss at $650 would be a serious contender.

They make a whole series for Nikon mount already. Does anyone reading this care to share their experiences with the 50mm?

Cheers.
Bud James

[dchew]

After playing with them for while, the Canon 24-105 on my 40D that I was carrying around the show seemed crude in operation. The Zeiss lenses are all very silky smooth to focus. The weight was not bad either.

Bud,
Unfortunately I have no experience with either, but you bring up something that has bothered me for years.  Short-throw ultra-fast autofocusing lenses are great for fast autofocus, but I find them just above miserable for slow, manual foucsing.  I use the 24TS L probably more than I should because I love the manual focus experience compared to other Canon wides.  

Zeiss is also releasing a 24mm for the EOS mount, which I'm very curious about for the same reason you list above.  Accurate focus, especially with wide angles is a big struggle for me.

Dave Chew

[jeffreybehr]

dchew: "Accurate focus, especially with wide angles is a big struggle for me."

Yup, for me too and especially when those short, wide lenses seem to focus 'beyond' infinity.  When my alleged mind thinks of it, I use the Canon 90-degree, magnifying viewer on its 2.5X setting to focus.  That really helps.

I'm excited about the Zeiss 21.  In my 1Ds years (that ended a couple years ago), I had 2 Zeiss Contax Distagon T* 28s--an F2.8 briefly; it was too 'little'--and then an F2 for quite a while.  I LOVED the results of the latter.  I now have 17-40, 24-105, and 70-200 (F4/IS) Canon zooms, but the gadgetfreak in me yearns for the Zeiss 21.  The 21mm Z/C Distagon T*s sure are expensive at over U$2K, so I suppose the new (ZE?) Canon-EOS-mount series also will be.

[David Anderson]

I think a lot of the manual focus feel is given away in the interest of speed in the AF, though I think newer lenses like the 50 1.2 and 200 f2 feel better than some of the older models like the 85 1.2 L MK. I.

All the TS lenses have nice manual focus feel IMHO.

[Craig Arnold]

I also find this quite exciting.

With a nice screen MF is fine, but the AF lenses' gearing is too short for me to beat AF reliably. And of course with Live View on the 5DII things will be very interesting.

I am very partial to the rendering of the Zeiss lenses. (Not a resolution thing.)

It gives L prime quality at only half the price if you don't need the AF.

In particular the two lenses that I am looking forward to are the 50mm f2 Planar Macro and the 28mm f2 Distagon.

50mm @f2 on FF is a sweet spot for my eye, and the tests over at slrgear.com suggest that the Planar Macro is just superb at that aperture, combined with a nice fast 28mm and I'm pretty much all done for lenses.

[MarkL]

It's hard to find comparisons between the zeiss ZF line of lenses and their nikon equivalents but from reading around the performance of the 50mm does not seem to warrent the very high price. The 50mm f/2 macro may be worth it to some for the wide open performance however.

For the time being I'll stick with my 50mm f/1.8 AIS which was £40 off ebay. The zeiss build quality and feel would be nice to have though.