Scrollop
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Contributing Member
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Posts: 844
Re: QC control on new units of 35/1.4
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The lens was released a few years ago. I tried 4 lenses (three new and one second hand) a couple of months ago and they were all soft on the right side. The lens is made in Thailand or somewhre (not Japan). I don't think Sony is going to improve QC.
What were you hoping to hear from such a question, though?
At most, 10 people might respond stating that they recently bought the lens (in the last few months). That's not going to give you a true indication of sample variance. Lensrentals did a sample variance MTF for a few lenses including that one, though that must have been over a year ago.
I'd also be interested to see if more are of better QC. On the other hand, It's not as the sharp as the Sigma and Canon. A lot of people will say it's "sharp enough" which is fine, and if you're mainly using it for portraits (and don't mind mainly shooting them in the centre of the frame if you have a wonky lens) then fine, as the rendering of the lens is quite special. That's enough for many.
Others will say, they paid $1500 for a lens that is difficult to find not-decentred and is less sharp than the sigma, almost half it's price. As it's not as sharp, you might be less inclined to use it in other situations.
This is interesting:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/lenses/sony/fe-35mm-f1.4-za-zeiss-distagon-t-sel35f14z/blur/sony-a7r/
At f5.6 it's pretty damn sharp across the frame, except they found that at f5.6 sharpness is still uneven. Less likey to use as a landscape lens?
Wait for an FE sigma 35mm 1.4, or Batis 35mm f2?
EDIT:
Oops: The link above is for hte lens on a nex7 (why that camera, who knows).
Here it is on the a7r, and it's less sharp, and still uneven:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/lenses/sony/fe-35mm-f1.4-za-zeiss-distagon-t-sel35f14z/blur/sony-nex-7/
Here's the sigma and canon:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/lenses/sigma/35mm-f1.4-dg-hsm-a/blur/canon-7d/
http://www.imaging-resource.com/lenses/canon/ef-35mm-f1.4l-ii-usm/blur/results:-full-frame/
Of course, they're all tested on different cameras (and the sony not even on the a7r2, though perhaps the a7r is a better camera to use to compare the others to) so we can't compare them without issues.
The canon lens looks pretty bloody amazing.
Not sure you'll receive satisfactory replies to answer your question, but good luck!