ShunCheung Posted November 8, 2007 Share Posted November 8, 2007 http://www.dpreview.com/news/0711/07110802zeisszfi.asp Unfortunately, the I in ZF-I stands for industrial instead of internal AF motor. It looks like ZF-I lenses still have no CPU or AF motor inside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric friedemann Posted November 8, 2007 Share Posted November 8, 2007 I guess if Zeiss calls the lenses "Industrial," it makes it less absurd to pay outlandish prices for a lens without at least a CPU. Shun, would you guess the two screws at in the aperture ring of the lens pictured come out to allow installation of an IC prong? You wouldn't need two screws just to lock the aperture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vivek iyer Posted November 8, 2007 Share Posted November 8, 2007 There have been posts here from time to time from people using Nikon lenses for machine vision and such uses. Manual focus lenses with a real manual aperture is still useful for such applications. Matrix chips are of no use there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harvey_edelstein1 Posted November 8, 2007 Share Posted November 8, 2007 Ais mount? set it for hyperfocal, CW meter AP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akira Posted November 8, 2007 Share Posted November 8, 2007 Nikon F mount is standard mount for the factory automation cameras using line sensors. That's one of the reasons for the re-release of UV 105. Even Pentax makes F mount 35mm and 50mm lenses for this use. Carl Zeiss seems to be interested in the same field. Interestingly, the aperture locking screw seems to utilize the very threads for the Ai prong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthuryeo Posted November 8, 2007 Share Posted November 8, 2007 When you consider that we are living in the 21st century, a chipless and manual focus lens manufactured for a super AF body seemed like a person who is boxing in the dark. Is this the last few kicks before the patient's heart stops? :) C'mon Zeiss ... you can do better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erling Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 On the Zeiss website, there is also a second press release issued on the same day (Nov 6th). It announces lenses for near-IR photography. "The ZF-IR lenses were developed for special applications in the near infrared range. The Planar T* 1,4/85 ZF-IR and Distagon T* 2,8/25 ZF-IR are the first products in this special series of the familiar ZF lenses. [...] A special coating which is transmissible for wavelengths up to 1,100 nanometers is applied to enable photos in the near infrared range. Of course, the focusing scale has also been matched to this wavelength range." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilkka_nissila Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 What is it about the chip in the lens that makes it so desirable? I think a lens which has a solid and precise manual focusing action and doesn't wobble is much more valuable than a chip in a poorly constructed lens. Zeiss isn't going to put the chips in the lenses because this would render them potentionally unusable with a future Nikon body, should Nikon want to get rid of the competition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShunCheung Posted November 9, 2007 Author Share Posted November 9, 2007 <I>What is it about the chip in the lens that makes it so desirable?</I> <P> The ability to have metering with the majority of Nikon DSLR bodies currently in production, in terms of number of of units manufactured, seems to be a pretty good reason. :-) <P> After I mount a lens onto a body, I would like to be able to start shooting. We are in the 21st century now. Lens info should be transmitted automatically from lens to body and recorded into the EXIF data. It is silly that one needs to enter/select lens info every time after a lens change. It wastes time and is error prone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vivek iyer Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 Akira nailed it. Industrial Nikkors (in F mount too) are issued through Tochigi (http://www.tochigi-nikon.co.jp/). Since Nikon came up with the 'UV-105' just recently, they are quite aware of the new millennium. :) The ZF-I lenses appear to have a focus lock screw as well. Very useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric friedemann Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 "I think a lens which has a solid and precise manual focusing action and doesn't wobble is much more valuable than a chip in a poorly constructed lens." Vivek, the Nikon 24mm f/2.8 AFD lens retails at B&H for $328 with lens hood. The Zeiss 25mm f/2.8 ZF lens retails for $787 with hood. For almost two and a half times the price Zeiss could easily produce a solid and precise manual focusing lens WITH a chip. Cosina will apparently be able to make two Nikon-mount lenses of reasonable quality with CPUs to retail at around $450 U.S.: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0711/07110201voigtlander.asp But you say its harder to make a 25mm lens than a 40mm or 58mm lens. Fair enough; the Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 ZF lens retails for $492. Again, Zeiss wouldn't loose money spending a few dollars, or even a few dozen dollars, on a CPU. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vivek iyer Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 Eric, These lenses (ZF-I, Tochigi UV-105 and the like) are not made for the DX DSLR users. Hence no chip. You are responding to something OT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oskar_ojala Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 This is very cool, Zeiss is taking the lead in areas which Nikon has been neglecting for many years. Particularly a wide-angle IR lens would be very welcome. A couple of days ago, I handled the vanilla ZF lenses and the quality was what one can expect. The IQ was excellent. Here in Finland, the price difference compared to regular Nikkors is not huge, so the ZF lenses are a good alternative. A 25/2.8 IR lens is something totally new...luckily the local camera dealer has closed for the day :) BTW, I use a D70 and several MF lenses and also medium and large format and don't see chiplessness as a big problem for many applications. I'm still waiting to see a large format lens with a chip in it ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keith_b1 Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 The ZF(and the old Ai Nikon lenses) focus and meter just fine with the D2 series, D200, and the near future D3 and D300 Nikon cameras. I, and many, do not depend on or need AF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjørn rørslett Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 Putting a chip into a manual-focusing lens is simple and other producers begin to follow up this by now. Since the chip provides the exit pupil distance, metering accuracy is improved compared to other approaches. The benefits of the chip are several, besides the obvious one of giving metering with all cameras. When the chip is present, you can't forget to set up the camera for a given lens (as can happen with AI/AIS lenses on D2- or D3-cseries cameras). People doing difficult areas of photography that needs careful notes for the work to be repeatable, will appreciate that the Camera/lens does the book-keeping of settings into the EXIF instead of having to write notes on paper :) The actual cost of having a chip inside a lens already in the production stage is just a few dollars. So I can't see any good arguments against the chip. If you feel the chip is a threat for your use of the gear, ignore it. No big deal. I'm actively putting chips into as many as possible of my MF lenses, bellows units, extension tubes and so on. So far, about 60 different units with about 20 more to go. (not all candidate lenses are eligible). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric friedemann Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 Bjorn, out of curiousity, do you do the chipping, cleaning and repair work on your own lenses? Looking at your website, you must own over a hundred Nikkor lenses- I doubt I could afford to keep that many lenses in working order if I had to pay a repair service to maintain them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjørn rørslett Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 I own over 200 lenses (stopped counting at 170 or so). I do the maintenance chores myself (chipping etc.). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DB_Gallery Posted August 27, 2008 Share Posted August 27, 2008 OK... Now that the D90 is out of the bag, I can say it: The Zeiss ZF line was introduced to be a precision manual focus, multi-platform lens for both still and cine use in the Nikon F mount. In short order, one of the reasons Nikon has been rather quiet at times is that the film industry has been having a hard time converting to digital. The Nikon F mount manual focus lenses such as the legendary 300/2 have already been in use by film makers for decades........ The rest will be history. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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