[Leica] OT - Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 ZE Planar T* lens

[freakscene at weirdness.com (Marty Deveney)]

>Has anyone had an opportunity to use this lens on a Canon digital  
>body?  I was hoping for a hands on review (particularly as is compares  
>to Canon's own f/1.4 50mm lens).

I've tried it.  The ZE lens is the same design as the old Zeiss 50/1.4 
Planar for the Contax SLRs.  It resolves more and has higher contrast wide 
open than the Canon 50/1.4 and resists flare better.  The Canon has vastly 
better out-of-focus rendition.  The 50/1.2 L lens is much better (even 
taking into consideration that lens' now notorious focus shift issues) than 
both.

Both the Zeiss and Canon are now more than a generation behind.  This 
doesn't make them bad lenses, it just means that better ones exist.  The 
newest (60mm filter) Leica R 50/1.4 is about the best 50 for SLRs using 
spherical elements.  The Canon 50/1.2 uses an aspherical element to address 
a number of issues with spherical types, mainly diminished close-focus 
performance.  They are all behind the Leica M 50/1.4 asph, which has the 
aspherical element and a floating element, so it focus close with a flat 
field and displays negligible focus shift, all with a maximum aperture of 
1.4.

>I think the lens is pretty new.  Dpreview doesn't have a review up  
>either.  Supposedly it has electrical contacts that preserve pretty  
>much every function the Canon digital bodies have, except autofocus.   

It worked fine on the 5D I tried it on - and yes, it did everything apart 
from AF.

>Just wondering if it was worth the $600.

Seriously?? In my opinion, no.  If you want a really nice fast lens for an 
EF camera get the 50/1.2 L and learn to deal with the focus shift, which in 
practice means figuring out where depth of field catches the shift and using 
the lens either wide open or after the DoF has caught the shift.

Marty


Gallery: http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/freakscene


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