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Author Topic: Canon Zeiss  (Read 8154 times)

dabreeze

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Canon Zeiss
« on: January 19, 2006, 04:23:18 am »

canon's wide angle offerings leave so much to desire, i finally sprung for a couple of exotics to use on my 1Ds M2.

yes, i suppose one can hope the rumors of new sharp canon wide angle primes come true next month or at photokina . . . but pigs may fly too some day!

after much research (bleeding eyeballs, i mean how many 100% f/8 corner crops can one look at before madness ensues!), i decided on a couple of highly commended zooms in the wide end: the f.2.8 AF 17-35mm nikkor (heavy, expensive, w/ a whole of autofocus stuff that will never be used!); and the zeiss 35-70 f/3.4 vario-sonnar T (small, compact, not one bit bigger than it needs to be--a true manual lens w/o any of the stuff on the nikkor that will never be used on my canon).

both these lenses compare very favorably against some of the very best primes (zeiss 21 distagon, nikkor 24/28, etc.) and for me, zooms are a must.

that said, with cameraquest adaptors firmly in place, i finally got out to shoot some today. first time out with the whole manual focus, stop-down metering, manual aperture control deal and i was quite pleased with the results. evaluative metering worked fine in aperture priority with the usual minor tweaks with exposure compensation & histogram. i can see i would do well with a focusing screen changeover to something more manual focus friendly (brightscreen microprism!).

but even with the standard screen, i managed to capture focus and came home with some of the sharpest, most highly resolved images i've ever shot. i mean scanning around the image in capture one, 100% focus mag and i'm just blown away by the detail. as a friend said tonight, almost 3D.

see for yourself. these have been sharpened and processed for the web as i always do. same workflow, incredibly sharp results:


four shot vertical stitched pano, canon eos 1Ds M2; zeiss 35-70 @ 40mm, f/8, 1/125s, iso 100



nikkor 17-35 @ 30mm, f/8, 1/25s, iso 100



zeiss 35-70 @ 35mm, f/8, 1/8s, iso 100

i can't wait to do some printing!!
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pcox

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« Reply #1 on: January 19, 2006, 05:15:00 am »

dabreeze -
I've been toying with a similar plan myself, glad to see you're so happy with your results. I can deal with the manual-everything lenses (I also use a Mamiya C220 TLR), although I'd worry about my ability to get critical sharpness when manually focusing on such a small screen (even a nice full-frame screen like the 5D or the 1DsmII. I wonder if the angle finder might be a good addition to the arsenal at that point...

I'm terrible at making exposure notes. I'd miss the automatic recording of that stuff in the exif information. I suppose you can put the camera in full manual mode and just turn the dials to match the lens?

Mind if I ask how much you paid for your lenses and adapters?

Cheers,
Peter
« Last Edit: January 19, 2006, 05:15:17 am by pcox »
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BernardLanguillier

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« Reply #2 on: January 19, 2006, 05:49:51 am »

Wouldn't the most amazing set up be a Nikon d2x body with Nikon lenses though?

You get to use these 20th century functions like AF, metrix metering... and a great image quality in the whole of the image.

Just pulling your leg, very nice images you got here.

Cheers,
Bernard

dabreeze

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« Reply #3 on: January 19, 2006, 10:16:30 am »

[I'm terrible at making exposure notes. I'd miss the automatic recording of that stuff in the exif information. I suppose you can put the camera in full manual mode and just turn the dials to match the lens?

Mind if I ask how much you paid for your lenses and adapters?]


pcox: yes it is a bit strange at first when the exif info comes back so, well, sparse. field notebook possibly. perhaps simply record the information to each image but i'm not sure i can get playback anywhere but canon's raw converter. that would be a real drag on workflow as i work in C1 or ACR and it would add another unwanted step just to get the info.

we'll see; very much a work still in progress . . .

as to price: 2 cameraquest adaptors (contax-eos; nikon-eos) - $358.

stephan gandy turned them around in five days from order. well made (better be), easy to install. lots of cheaper stuff on ebay but from the problems i read about in various forums, i'm thinking you get what you pay for and i don't need infinity focus probs, etc. to add to an already technically more challenging situation. eliminate equipment error, i always say, and that way you can only blame the pilot!!

nikon 17-35 @ B & H: $1484 (w/ $100 nikon rebate) = $1384 (ouch!!)

zeiss 35-70 @ B & H: $ 859
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bob mccarthy

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« Reply #4 on: January 19, 2006, 04:42:36 pm »

Quote
canon's wide angle offerings leave so much to desire, i finally sprung for a couple of exotics to use on my 1Ds M2.

yes, i suppose one can hope the rumors of new sharp canon wide angle primes come true next month or at photokina . . . but pigs may fly too some day!

after much research (bleeding eyeballs, i mean how many 100% f/8 corner crops can one look at before madness ensues!), i decided on a couple of highly commended zooms in the wide end: the f.2.8 AF 17-35mm nikkor (heavy, expensive, w/ a whole of autofocus stuff that will never be used!); and the zeiss 35-70 f/3.4 vario-sonnar T (small, compact, not one bit bigger than it needs to be--a true manual lens w/o any of the stuff on the nikkor that will never be used on my canon).

both these lenses compare very favorably against some of the very best primes (zeiss 21 distagon, nikkor 24/28, etc.) and for me, zooms are a must.

that said, with cameraquest adaptors firmly in place, i finally got out to shoot some today. first time out with the whole manual focus, stop-down metering, manual aperture control deal and i was quite pleased with the results. evaluative metering worked fine in aperture priority with the usual minor tweaks with exposure compensation & histogram. i can see i would do well with a focusing screen changeover to something more manual focus friendly (brightscreen microprism!).

but even with the standard screen, i managed to capture focus and came home with some of the sharpest, most highly resolved images i've ever shot. i mean scanning around the image in capture one, 100% focus mag and i'm just blown away by the detail. as a friend said tonight, almost 3D.

see for yourself. these have been sharpened and processed for the web as i always do. same workflow, incredibly sharp results:


four shot vertical stitched pano, canon eos 1Ds M2; zeiss 35-70 @ 40mm, f/8, 1/125s, iso 100

nikkor 17-35 @ 30mm, f/8, 1/25s, iso 100

zeiss 35-70 @ 35mm, f/8, 1/8s, iso 100

i can't wait to do some printing!!
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=56282\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Is that banding I see <G>

Nice light

bob
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dabreeze

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« Reply #5 on: January 19, 2006, 08:11:26 pm »

Quote
Is that banding I see <G>

bob,

yes, now that you mention it, i think i see some banding in the stitched image in the gray clouds center/top. is this what you're referring to? probably a stitching/post-processing deal as i threw 'em together pretty quickly.
thanks for mentioning it.

i can't see anything in the other two but i didn't see it in this one without your mentioning it. if you see anything else, enlighten me obi-wan!!

seriously, thanks!
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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« Reply #6 on: January 19, 2006, 11:58:26 pm »

Quote
bob,

yes, now that you mention it, i think i see some banding in the stitched image in the gray clouds center/top. is this what you're referring to? probably a stitching/post-processing deal as i threw 'em together pretty quickly.
thanks for mentioning it.

i can't see anything in the other two but i didn't see it in this one without your mentioning it. if you see anything else, enlighten me obi-wan!!

seriously, thanks!
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=56359\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
I thought Bob was (jokingly) referring to the rock stratification as "banding".
Gorgeous light and photos, Dabreeze.

Eric
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dabreeze

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« Reply #7 on: January 20, 2006, 03:33:17 am »

now that you point it out, eric, of course it was said jokingly.  i forgot that <G> was 'net slang for "grin." but if you look at it, there is some banding/posterization in the stitched image in the gray clouds! i swear it!!!
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Ray

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« Reply #8 on: January 20, 2006, 04:37:29 am »

But these are just rocks, aren't they   . I think I might be at risk of a great deal of pillory and unpopulraity, but what the heck! It's one of a milliom 'Grand Canyon' type shots isn't it?

All you can do with this is marvel at the amount of detail. 8x10 fim format might trump you with this shot.  
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bob mccarthy

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« Reply #9 on: January 20, 2006, 10:58:16 am »

oohh,

I was joking. banding is the latest "hot" topic for the Nikon folks with the new D200 exhibiting this flaw in a few of the released cameras. But to see it you have to be a pixel peeper.

I was refering to the rock stratification and at the same time poking fun at my fellow Nikon associates.

So that anyone Nikon biased doesn't take offence, please be aware I am in the Nikon camp also. Trolls need not apply.



I do see subtle differences in contrast between the images. The Zeiss is certainly less contrasty than the Nikon above it.

What do you think,  lens or PP??

Bob
« Last Edit: January 20, 2006, 11:06:15 am by bob mccarthy »
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Gordon Buck

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« Reply #10 on: January 20, 2006, 12:56:00 pm »

Is an extremely high quality wide angle lens so necessary when the final image is stitched?
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dabreeze

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« Reply #11 on: January 20, 2006, 09:39:55 pm »

gordon,

although the final image is equivalent to about a 26mm angle of view, the stitch was taken with the zeiss at 40mm which isn't considered a wide angle, really more of a 'normal' focal length.

it was also just a test to see how the lens and the RRS pano setup would work, as, both are new to me.

and while the stitch is pretty much a standard 2:3 aspect ratiom, where a single capture would be 95 megapixels in 16 bit, about 11x16.5 at 300 dpi, the stitch creates an over 200 megapixel, 16 bit capture, coming in at 16.5 x 25 (300dpi) before any interpolation.

For very large gallery prints, this is very desirable.

and while not inexpensive ($884), compared to most pro level lenses, it's really quite reasonable, especially given its wonderful optical qualities.
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