anyone using Zeiss lenses out there for wedding photography?

[fotografz]

"Do any of your clients notice the difference?"

 

That is a good question Nadine. In fact, do clients mention the difference between lenses

that we know are different? No. Do they mention any difference about any lens used. No.

They either have a visceral reaction to an image or they do not. We are in charge of

creating that reaction by any means we personally deem necessary. So, you are right ... we

have to WANT to do that.

 

Some wide angle lenses are better corrected ... both Zeiss and Leica are famous for their

wides and Canon is not due to pronounced barrel distortion and soft edges.

 

Some lenses feature more Chromatic Aberrations than others ... which produce horrible

looking edging between darks and brights ... many Zeiss lenses are famous for their

control of CA.

 

Some lenses flair like crazy when faced with backlighting, many Zeiss T* coated lenses are

legendary for their control of flair.

 

Companies like Zeiss, Schneider and Leica are optics companies and make lenses for

critical scientific applications, the military, the movie industry, and even NASA.

 

Remember, the immortal images made by astronauts where from Hasselblad EL cameras

equipped with Zeiss optics made to stringent spec's concerning radial and tangential

distortion and flair control.

[mike_pallas]

It should of course be noted that most Zeiss lenses are now manufactured in Japan. The design will be German in most cases but I believe Cosina are making the new Zeiss lenses.

 

My Sony R1 has a Zeiss 24-120 lens but again, made in Japan. Bloody good lens though.

 

As for AF, I have AF lenses I prefer to manual focus due to backfocus issues or tendency to hunt in low light.

[fotografz]

" ...most Zeiss lenses are now manufactured in Japan."

 

Not really new news. All the excellent Zeiss lenses made for the Kyocera Contax 645 and

Contax N camera were made in Japan through QC of the Zeiss Institute there ... as were a

number of now discontinued C/Y lenses.

 

The current crop of Zeiss M mount optics are Japanese made, except for a few key ones

like the 85/1.4 and 15/2.8.

 

As far as I know most, if not all, Zeiss MF lenses are made in Germany.

[christiaan_phleger___honol]

Yes, several, in many different formats/cameras, modern/vintage, no digital.

 

Oh yeah, Zeiss glass (not plastic!) in all three sets of eyeglasses, one everyday, one critical

use and one set sunglasses, I use those ALL the time at weddings, but as anyone will tell you,

that Zeiss glass is only as good as the eye behind it....

[ilkka_nissila]

I don't shoot weddings professionally but I'll just comment on this since it's close to my heart.

 

There is a distinct difference in sharpness when shooting wide open. CA is nreally low in those ZF lenses I have tried. A problem with shooting wide open is of course that the focus needs to be very accurate. Most ZF lenses are much easier to manual focus than most AF Nikkors.

 

I think DSLR manual focusing using any mid or high end DSLR viewfinder is essentially just as easy as with a film camera, provided that you use a focusing screen intended for manual focusing. Luckily almost all DSLRs can use 3rd party split image screens which make a big difference in accuracy and manual focus speed. I think for people photography at wide apertures, manual focus works better than autofocus since you can focus on any part of the frame. AF is quick but you can not always easily autofocus specifically on the eye of a subject. -- Note that some low-end DSLRs have such bad viewfinders that even using a good screen doesn't guarantee accurate focusing.

 

I resent people suggesting that using Zeiss or Leica lenses is a "cult" thing. If cheaper lenses do the job, that's of course the first choice of any sane person. Only when there is a real practical problem with standard camera maker lenses would one choose a manual focus lens from someone else.

[www.withheart.ca]

3rd party manual focusing screens!!?! Really cool! Can you let us know where to find those? What company does a good job installing them? I be more interested in using manual lenses if I could install a manual focusing screen as my eyes aren't as sharp as they were when I was younger.

 

Thanks!

[fotografz]

Michelle:

 

 

www.brightscreen.com

[savagesax]

I've kept quiet for a while to see all of the comments! I have a complete line of hasselblads. Lenses from the 40mm to 500mm. They are in several cases at the moment. I totally agree about the lens flair, but I prefer Canons for weddings. I'm looking forward to the 1ds mark3 at 21mps. Already paid for, just waiting for the shipment to come in. I can afford just about any camera with in reason but I see no sense in buying the top of the line Hasselblad digital back, or even the bottom of the line for weddings. Top of the line I think is about $30,000 or more and bottom of the line is $9000.

 

I thought a lot about this, Hassy VS Canon, and decided to stay with Canon because 21 megapixels is really close to the Hasselblad 16 megapixel back. The Blads I have don't autofocus. Therefore, right or wrong, I'm looking forward to the new Canon for weddings and use film with the Blads for nature.

[mister_lane]

I am glad that many readers here have found a way to tell the difference between Monster Cables and other premium cables. You should know that you have a million dollars waiting for you!<br>

<br>

<a href="http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2007/10/01/james-randi-calls-ou.html">http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2007/10/01/james-randi-calls-ou.html</a><br>

<br>

James Randi is ready to pay up if you can demonstrate the ability to consistently hear the difference in a double blind test. So far hundreds have tried and failed.<br>

<br>

Regarding glass, I am probably not going to be the first one to point this out, but lenses designed for digital sensors have immensely better performance on a DSLR than glass designed for film, especially at wide angle, for technical reasons - namely the light path needs to be as close to perpendicular as possible when shooting against a CMOS sensor, see here:

<br>

<a href="http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?9,1237619">http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?9,1237619</a><br>

<br>

You are free to believe that there is a piece of Zeiss glass that can measurably outperform the Canon EF f1.2 85mm prime on a DSLR body, but please add me to the list of folks who disagree. If I had a million bucks to throw around, I'd put it out there as an open challenge on the topic.<br>

<br>

Interesting thread!

[fotografz]

"Regarding glass, I am probably not going to be the first one to point this out, but lenses

designed for digital sensors have immensely better performance on a DSLR than glass

designed for film."

 

Immensely better performance? Prove it. Name a "digital" lens.

 

In counter, I name the Leica 100/2.8 APO Macro and challenge you to name a "digital

macro" that can even come close to it's resolving power, CA correction and lack of

distortion.

 

If the challenge is to find a lens that can outperform the Canon 85/1.2 prime... why that

lens? It is NOT a lens designed specifically for digital. It works well with digital because it

has a an ASPH element and floating lens design to better correct Spherical Aberration

which has nothing to do with what media is being used to capture the image ... it has to do

with lens design.

 

So called "digital lenses" that bring light to the sensor as close to perpendicular is a persistent urban myth. The only "digital" lenses are those with a smaller image circle for

crop frame sensors that can't be used on a film camera ... thus digital only ... and most of

the popular "digital lenses" are plagued with SA, CA and distortion.

 

What digital sensors do demand for really critical work are things like Apochromatically

corrected lenses ( those that focus blue, red and green light waves into a single plane) ... due to the tendency of digital sensors to exaggerate color fringing on hard edges. However, APO corrected optics were available for film cameras well before digital arrived.