What better way to start off a fresh blog page than by writing about one of the best prime lenses ever made. The Carl Zeiss 100mm f2 makro! Yes, this is my very first post and coincidentally, my very first Zeiss lens!
I've owned quite a few nikkors, and other third party lenses throughout my young career as a photographer but, none have put a smile on my face after a shot like this zeiss does. It's so good, that I had no problems selling off my 105mm f2.8 micro VRII AND the cream machine 85mm 1.4 AF-D to get the zeiss. I'd sell off my 17-35 f2.8 as well so I could get the 50mm f2 makro. Zeiss glass is that good. The makro line at least, and some other wide primes.
Just like nikon, canon and other third party glass makers, they have the higher tier, geared towards professionals and they got the crappy lenses geared towards consumers. There are a few mediocre pro grade zeiss lenses, especially ones competing with nikon offerings. Such as the 50 f1.4 and 85 f1.4, there are little to no advantages in having those over the nikon 50 f1.4G AFS and 85 f1.4 AFD except, a higher price tag and build quality. However, the 50 and 100 f2 makro lenses are in a class of their own. Truly special lenses. I'm sure the wide angle primes are great too but, I haven't had the opportunity to test them. Seeing how I already own a nikon 24-70, and most of my work is portraiture and events, those wide primes are less appealing to me.
On with the Zeiss 100 f2! I bought this lens at a bargain, from a seller off craigslist! It was two weeks old, and the guy doesn't like manual focus lenses! Win for me!
On the D3X, this combo was made for each other. Not only does the zeiss have tremendous resolving power at f2, manual focusing on this lens is incredibly smooth and easy. You will miss a few before you get it right, in the beginning. After spending a day with it, I can manually focus my kids, who love to move around a lot. This will never replace the speed and accuracy of an AFS motor when you shoot events but, for close ups and portraits, its pretty difficult to miss. Another note was I shot this lens entirely at f2.0 for the entire day since I got it. Shooting at f2 is very tricky, since the focal plane is so thin. Stopping down, you will hardly miss getting subjects in focus.
Zeiss 100mm f2 makro with d3x @f2 (click on image for full jpeg):
Back to the resolving power of the lens. Most lenses I wouldn't dare shoot wide open, especially when it matters like, shooting for a paying client. It would be ok if shot with a 12mp dslr but, not at 24mp. The D3X has a tendency to render most of your lenses useless when toying with wide open apertures. There are only a few out there (mostly primes) with enough resolving power to have the guts to shoot wide open with sharp results. Lots of people don't understand this since, lots of them don't peep pixels like I do. So far in my collection, this zeiss, the nikon 24-70 and 70-200 vrII have that wide open sharpness I need and want. Forget about the 17-35, that lens is crap wide open, and more suitable for landscape, tripod work.
Zeiss 100mm f2 makro with d3x @f2 (click on image for full jpeg):
Zeiss 100mm f2 makro with d3x @f2 (click on image for full jpeg):
Build quality is very very solid. It's a tank all around that screams metal. Very refined, no loose sounding parts. Somewhat like how a new luxury german car is, no rattles, just very solid.
I do have two minor complaint, it's a non cpu lens. Meaning, the camera won't recognize what kind of lens is on the camera unless you specify in non cpu lens data. Anything less than a d200 will not have this feature. No EXIF data either so, it will show up as 0 for aperture and focal length. The new ZF .2 lenses have cpu data but, goes for several hundred more. I don't mind either way.
Another issue is the lens cap and hood. When you attach the hood to the lens, it's incredibly difficult to drop a cap in it. So leaving the hood on there is fine without the cap on, you just have to make sure to take a bulb blower to it before shooting, in the event that dust got on the glass.
Other than that, the lens is absolutely perfect. I shoot on standard and it's got great colors. Very good skin tone rendering, the bokeh is excellent. Like I said earlier, it puts a smile on my face after each and every shot, even the terrible misfires towards the ground, I even enjoy looking at the blur!
This is one lens I can't imagine ever selling. The women will always have jewelry to pass down to their kids, I will have this zeiss to pass down to mine. I can't say the same for most nikon lenses out there.
Compared to 105mm f2.8 vrii: The nikkor has AFS and 1:1 ratio, allowing for closer focus of smaller things. When you focus that close, autofocus is rendered useless and manual focus would have to come into play anyway. The zeiss just has better colors and is sharper by several stops.
Compared to 105mm f2 DC: We have this lens in the office, I borrowed it several times and shot portraits with it. Nice skin tones though, not as impressive as the zeiss. Also not as sharp wide open. It is a very good lens, and the best choice for full frame portraits... if the zeiss 100 f2 didn't exist.
Compared to 85mm 1.4 AF-D: I fell in love with this lens when I purchased it not even a year ago. Wide open results were ok with the d300 and d700 but, once I jumped into 24mp zone, I could no longer shoot this lens wide open. I just love the creamy and dreamy look except, my focused points were way too soft. After multiple istock rejections of all images taken with the 85mm at f1.4, I had to move on. This lens was relegated to just fun walkaround pictures, events, and at times, portraits taken at f5.6-f8 (which were then, incredibly sharp) The close focus distance of 3 feet really bothered me. It was fine on the d300's cropped sensor but, not so good on full frame.
The zeiss essentially takes all of the best parts of all of the lenses I mentioned above and multiplies it by 3 times over. It's that awesome. I swear this lens has some personality and a soul within its' metal body.
Help me make a little money by purchasing this lens through the amazon link:Carl ZEISS Makro-Planar T* - Macro lens - 100 mm - f/2.0 ZF - Nikon F
visit link for more pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/38437144@N07/sets/72157623143531269/
7 comments:
Couldn't agree more with your assessment of the ZF 100mm F2 Makro; I just bought one myself. Great blog. Good luck and enjoy using it. Jon
http://polemics-poems-pictures.blogspot.com/
...a degree 'or two' of emotional bias but owning this lens I understand your joy using the 100/2. There is a lot of disagreement with your opinion amongst one-eyed Nikon users and I see their ignorance as punishment enough. Not making a living for my pics means that I dont have the restrictions and have replaced all my AF lenses with ZF. I can assure you, the 21,28,35,50/2 are as much fun as the 100/2.
I think of myself as an all-around photographer. I use it as income as well as an expensive hobby. I keep around some AF-S lenses (only the really good ones) for event work. I have yet to try Zeiss lenses in events but will definitely give it a try.
And trust me, my zeiss lust doesn't end with the 100/2. I got my sights set on a 50/2 >.<. The good news is I recently sold my 17-35/2.8. Which in my opinion is a pretty lousy lens on the D3x. It's soft and mushy till f4, but needs more stopping down to get the corners sharp by f8.
The 24-70 that I own is in no way as sharp as any of the wide angle zeiss primes but, it's value lies greatly in its' versatility and autofocus for events.
I've used the 100/2 on the D700 and also on my F6 and It certainly is an amazing lens.
I've also owned the 50/2 Makro and now own the 50/1.4 ZF.2 Planar.
The 50 Makro is a wonderful lens but I didn’t fall in love with it because of the ergonomics and I needed a faster lens.
I do disagree a bit on the assessment 50/1.4 Planar, it is a better lens than the Nikkor.
I shoot both of those lenses and the Nikkor is fine for me when I shoot fast moving low light concerts but if you’re shooting people and landscapes you can tell the difference.
The color on the Zeiss is better, it's sharper and has better micro contrast and I prefer the way it renders an image especially on a wonderful film like Velvia.
Not much needs to be said about the 100/2 Makro anyone who uses this lens falls in love, but I think the Planar is very underrated.
I agree colors are better on the zeiss, however the resolution and sharpness isn't better. Color is something I don't mind adjusting in post. The two reasons I got my zeiss lenses are mainly resolving power/sharpness and resolution. It is king wide open, though only applies to the makro's. Those 1.4 I really saw no difference.
Agree with OneANT's commentary, above.
BUT, you've got to add the f2/35 Distagon to your CZ bounty, also. It's a wonderful, wonderful, lens.
I'm just about there with owning the f2/100 Makro. Thanks Hewlbane.
Absolutely agree with Anonymous - the f/2 35 Distagon is superlative and in fact I would probably choose it over the 100 f/2 Makro Planar if I could only have one lens. However, the 100 f/2 MP is magnificent and I use almost every day. I want a f/2.8 21 Distagon - one of these days. Might sell my Nikon 24-70 to get it.
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