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ZF 2/28 first shots

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MorningWalk

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I got my ZF 2/28 a few days ago and tried it for a close-up shot. I've been ill and couldn't test it outside.

The lens feels like the other Zeiss ZF's: solid and reliable. The focus ring turns slightly more than 90° from 24cm to infinity, smooth as butter. The aperture ring feels slightly different than the 2,8/25, somewhat smoother.

While focusing the image 'pops' into/out of focus like the ZF 2/100. This lens looks like a keeper.

The image quality seems to be really excellent at close range.

at f/2:



100% crop:



at f/6.3:



100% crop:



--
HansV
http://www.schoendoos.be
 
Congratulations. Looks definitely more contrasty than 28/2 @ F2. I'd be interested to learn of the portrait distance, outdoors infinity distance performance and CA (from seeing samples some Zeiss lenses seem to lean towards sharpness at the compromise of CA).

What would you say about the colours of the lens?

Best regards
 
Duckie said:
Congratulations. Looks definitely more contrasty than 28/2 @ F2. I'd
be interested to learn of the portrait distance, outdoors infinity
distance performance and CA (from seeing samples some Zeiss lenses
seem to lean towards sharpness at the compromise of CA).
Click to expand...
I can't wait to try it outside. But I leave before light and come home after dark every day, so no luck. The weather is bad too: gray skies and rain. Maybe I'll have more luck this weekend.

Up to now I didn't notice the CA as reported by some people.Some time ago I tried a shot of trees against the sky with the 1,4/50: no CA at all. I'm not sure about this 'CA-problem'. The Internet is not always the best source of unbiased information, I prefer to try and see for myself. If possible I'll try some shots that show CA performance of the 2/28 this weekend.
Duckie said:
What would you say about the colours of the lens?
Click to expand...
Difficult to say: it was a quick shot with flash and I was thirsty ;-)

Kind regards

--
HansV
http://www.schoendoos.be
 
Looks almost as good as my AIS Nikkor 2/28mm that I bought for 200.-€.
Never worth the money.

I will never understand why anybody buys these cheap made Japanese lenses and thinks they are "German technology".
ZF is only sucessfull in Japan and Amerika. Nobody in Germany buys them.
These lenses have nothing to do with leses made by Carl Zeiss.

--
nimix
 
B&H only accepts order for it. Definitely look for more report about its performance. I don't care much about sharpness. It will be superb for sure. I care more about its bokeh, will it be more like ZF25 or ZF35. I think ZF35 has excellent bokeh.
 
nimix said:
Looks almost as good as my AIS Nikkor 2/28mm that I bought for 200.-€.
Never worth the money.
I will never understand why anybody buys these cheap made Japanese
lenses and thinks they are "German technology".
ZF is only sucessfull in Japan and Amerika. Nobody in Germany buys
them.
These lenses have nothing to do with leses made by Carl Zeiss.

--
nimix
Click to expand...
Just because you don't buy any, does not mean other people don't.

Btw: http://www.zeiss.com/photo

They are all listed there... I guess the hackers from Cosina p0wned the Zeiss web page.

Bad Cosina.
 
Based on the screen rendering, truly remarkable. The second 100% crop, the f/6.3... What is the colour on the white portion of the label? (under the writing on the bottom left) It looks like a few redish pixels... Or is it the label itself?

--
Lito
D80 ~ 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ~ 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 VR ~ 50mm f/1.4 ~ SB-26 ~ :)

 
nimix said:
Looks almost as good as my AIS Nikkor 2/28mm that I bought for 200.-€.
Never worth the money.
I will never understand why anybody buys these cheap made Japanese
lenses and thinks they are "German technology".
ZF is only sucessfull in Japan and Amerika. Nobody in Germany buys
them.
These lenses have nothing to do with leses made by Carl Zeiss.

--
nimix
Click to expand...
My main camera for many years was a Hasselblad 500cm with its complement of Zeiss lenses. They were wonderful. Then, when I went to 4x5 I missed having a more mobile camera. I bought a Leica rangefinder but never really liked it.

Then, later, I bought a Contaxt G2 with it's amazing lenses. I had heard people describe the results from them as having a particularly strong 3-D presence but, until that day, I thought such talk was all Internet b.s. They were amazing lenses (I still dream of a digital G2).

Over the past few weeks I've been buying Zeiss ZFs. I have the 50 1.4 and the 25 and am about to order the 100.

I am very happy with them and due to their existence I am rethinking my entire lens line up--selling off almost all of my Nikkor primes and buying Zeiss primes and adding a layer of zoom coverage for those times when I need the zooms.

I don't particularly care which country they are made in...these are lenses to be used, not tourist trinkets to remind one of fine bygone days.

--Darin

--
Darin Boville
http://www.darinboville.com
 
nimix said:
Looks almost as good as my AIS Nikkor 2/28mm that I bought for 200.-€.
Never worth the money.
Click to expand...
You are comparing prices for a new AIS 2/28 with a new ZF 2/28 aren't you?
nimix said:
I will never understand why anybody buys these cheap made Japanese
lenses and thinks they are "German technology".
Click to expand...
Where was your expensive AIS lens made?
nimix said:
ZF is only sucessfull in Japan and Amerika. Nobody in Germany buys
them.
Click to expand...
That is a very good criterion for selecting lenses. You better only buy lenses that are successful in Germany.
nimix said:
These lenses have nothing to do with leses made by Carl Zeiss.
Click to expand...
You must be right. My lens is on ebay right now but nobody is interested.

--
HansV
http://www.schoendoos.be
 
nimix said:
I will never understand why anybody buys these cheap made Japanese
lenses and thinks they are "German technology".
ZF is only sucessfull in Japan and Amerika.
Click to expand...
Following that point, Zeiss is a unsuccessful company that cannot made ZF lenses themselves.

Ho
 
LitoD80 said:
Based on the screen rendering, truly remarkable. The second 100%
crop, the f/6.3... What is the colour on the white portion of the
label? (under the writing on the bottom left) It looks like a few
redish pixels... Or is it the label itself?
Click to expand...
It should be white. I sometimes get color artifacts on highlights in Bibble when converting my files. I didn't really take time to do it decently.

--
HansV
http://www.schoendoos.be
 
hans, best wishes for a speedy recovery. appreciated your original post - one of the first zf 28 shots i have seen.

i am a zeiss fan - just picked up my 2nd (50mm macro) used (described as new) off B&H for $200 off normal price. couldn't resist.

have the 35 and thinking about your lens.

they say that beer has great restorative properties.......:)

anyway, hope you get well soon.

mark
 
I own and use a mint Nikon 28/2, and I've used many examples of that great lens over the years. The Zeiss ZF 35/2, 25/2.8, 50/2 Makro and 100/2 Makro all put that little Nikkor AIS in its proper place- a really excellent pro level lens without the truly amazing 'snap' of many of the Zeiss ZF lenses. The Zeiss ZF 50 1.4 and the ZF 85 1.4, both of which I also own (along with the AIS and AF versions of their Nikkor counterparts), are not in the same league, IMO, with the rest of the presently ZF line. Whether the ZF 28/2 is as good as the best ZFs already out there remains to be seen.

The Nikkor's a nice lens, and I'm keeping it when I receive my pre-ordered Zeiss 28/2 ZF from B&H. That said, the rendering, contrast, sharpness, and tonal rendition on the above Zeiss samples that I already own and use reveal the wishful thinking and childlike ignorance of your post.

There is no way you can tell from the posted 28/2 Zeiss pics whether it's better than your precious 'lil Nikkor 28/2 AIS. On the other hand, I use the 35/2, 100/2, 50/2 and 25/2.8 Zeiss lenses above back-to-back with my Nikkor 28/2 on my D2X all the time; NEFS from all of them wind up on my calibrated screen and pop out the Epson 3800 for clients daily.

You do not have any idea how good Cosina/Japan/Zeiss optics really are.

But you DO know that your Nikkor is better, right?

Why lets the facts get in the way of your 'argument'?
 
CRH said:
I own and use a mint Nikon 28/2, and I've used many examples of that
great lens over the years. The Zeiss ZF 35/2, 25/2.8, 50/2 Makro and
100/2 Makro all put that little Nikkor AIS in its proper place- a
really excellent pro level lens without the truly amazing 'snap' of
many of the Zeiss ZF lenses. The Zeiss ZF 50 1.4 and the ZF 85 1.4,
both of which I also own (along with the AIS and AF versions of their
Nikkor counterparts), are not in the same league, IMO, with the rest
of the presently ZF line. Whether the ZF 28/2 is as good as the best
ZFs already out there remains to be seen.

The Nikkor's a nice lens, and I'm keeping it when I receive my
pre-ordered Zeiss 28/2 ZF from B&H. That said, the rendering,
contrast, sharpness, and tonal rendition on the above Zeiss samples
that I already own and use reveal the wishful thinking and childlike
ignorance of your post.

There is no way you can tell from the posted 28/2 Zeiss pics whether
it's better than your precious 'lil Nikkor 28/2 AIS. On the other
hand, I use the 35/2, 100/2, 50/2 and 25/2.8 Zeiss lenses above
back-to-back with my Nikkor 28/2 on my D2X all the time; NEFS from
all of them wind up on my calibrated screen and pop out the Epson
3800 for clients daily.

You do not have any idea how good Cosina/Japan/Zeiss optics really are.

But you DO know that your Nikkor is better, right?

Why lets the facts get in the way of your 'argument'?
Click to expand...
CRH can you give me/us a little more of your ZF experience, especially the 25 zf and 35 zf ?
Thank you very much
 
nimix said:
Looks almost as good as my AIS Nikkor 2/28mm that I bought for 200.-€.
Never worth the money.
I will never understand why anybody buys these cheap made Japanese
lenses and thinks they are "German technology".
ZF is only sucessfull in Japan and Amerika. Nobody in Germany buys
them.
These lenses have nothing to do with leses made by Carl Zeiss.

--
nimix
Click to expand...
I doubt that nobody buys them in Germany. However, if that were true, what of it. I would imagine that more lenses are sold in either Japan or America than Germany.
--
Respond to rudeness with civility, it really annoys them.

Regards,

JR
 
Hi,

I got the 25/2.8 last week and I can honestly say that it's worth every penny, even with no sharpening in camera it's almost impossible to tell that a 100% crop is a crop, it's amazingly sharp.

I would actually say that I prefer it to my 105VR but it might jsut be because it's newer, it's defintely at least that level of IQ though and really easy to focus on my D200.

Here's one at f8 just messing around (it focuses really closely too, that object way back in the distance is my laptop screen, the figure is sat on the wrist rest area.



Here's another of the same figure at f2.8 (I was trying to see how shallow the DOF was at closest focus (the answer is very!)



and just for luck here's my son (he's 2 and doesn't stand still for long!) at f2.8



Like I said I've only jsut got it so they are test shots, feel free to look at the 100% shots on my flickr.

I hope that this helps!

--
James
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamestux
 
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