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The sharpest Lenses on earth FE 55 f1.8 and
- Thread starter Mark K
- Start date
jlindstrom
Member
Yes, the fe 55 is excellent. But the story isn't exactly in the numbers, the text part explains it better.. the otus still has a clear upper hand. On the same note, price vs. performance, I'm not buying the otus 
Guy Mancuso
Administrator, Instructor
This begs for a test
Guy Mancuso
Administrator, Instructor
Without the test I would say maybe the sharpest lens around in its focal length under a 1000 dollars. That's a bold statement. I'm going to run it against my ZA 85 and my Z135 and find out. I just got it yesterday and it's really sharp wide open . Actually surprised me. Rare moment
Between 5% and 10% better on D800e.
DxO figures are a simplification.
MTF curves tell us that the FE at f1.4 is actually in the center BETTER (!!) than the Otus, especially at 40lp/mm.
Otherwise it seems to be a draw at f1.4 (cursory look at MTF's...).
The other graph is f4 for the Otus and f8 for FE, so cannot really be compared.
Sony Global - Digital Imaging - ? Lenses - Sonnar T* FE 55mm F1.8 ZA
http://lenses.zeiss.com/content/dam.../downloadcenter/datasheets_otus/otus_1455.pdf
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At f1.4 the Otus has better corner MTFs.
At f8 the FE is near....perfect. Only some astigmatism at 40lp/mm, but all contrasts above 80%!
And 10lp/mm and 20lp/mm contrasts near 100% with astigmatism-free flat overlapping lines.How did they do it?
Those are the characteristics of a 15,000$ cinematography lens like Zeiss UltraPrime.
And those cover a S35 frame which is close to APS-C.
I am waiting for the FE 55mm and will be able to compare it to a 50mm/T1.9 UltraPrime.
At f8 the FE is near....perfect. Only some astigmatism at 40lp/mm, but all contrasts above 80%!
And 10lp/mm and 20lp/mm contrasts near 100% with astigmatism-free flat overlapping lines.How did they do it?
Those are the characteristics of a 15,000$ cinematography lens like Zeiss UltraPrime.
And those cover a S35 frame which is close to APS-C.
I am waiting for the FE 55mm and will be able to compare it to a 50mm/T1.9 UltraPrime.
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It would likely be more that. Here are the results for one of the few lenses DxO has tested on both a D800 and D800E:
Tamron SP AF 70-200mm F/2.8 Di LD (IF) MACRO
D800: 15 P-Mpix
D800E: 21 P-Mpix
It is not really clear how the 'perceptual mpix' metric is constructed.
I would think that D800E delivers 5-10% more resolution in terms of line pairs/mm. Then most of the D800 'loss' can be made up with sharpening.
Guy Mancuso
Administrator, Instructor
Im running out and going to test it against some other lenses. I like real images . LOL
jlindstrom
Member
run Guy, run!
Agreed, it's a black box so the results aren't very meaningful. But the results indicate their black box is highly sensitive to AA filters, probably because they don't use any sharpening for images they feed into the box.
I'm sure Sony is cooking the RAW file with the FE, so the OTUS performance will likely to be more consistent across platforms, while the FE is only on A7/A7R. Of course in practical terms, you would not use the FE on another platform anyway.
Having said that, who cares if they cook RAW files!!! If the "system" can provide the near-equivalent a lens costing 4x, in a package 4x smaller, with AF, then PLEASE Cook on....
or, and while you're at it, please get us FE models in 24/2.8, 85/1.8 and 135/2. You can worry about a nice 14/4 and 200/2.8 and a 120/Macro later
Having said that, who cares if they cook RAW files!!! If the "system" can provide the near-equivalent a lens costing 4x, in a package 4x smaller, with AF, then PLEASE Cook on....
or, and while you're at it, please get us FE models in 24/2.8, 85/1.8 and 135/2. You can worry about a nice 14/4 and 200/2.8 and a 120/Macro later
Guy Mancuso
Administrator, Instructor
Holy ****. Okay just looking at 100 percent in C1 the Zeiss 135 vs 55mm the 55mm at 1.8 is better than the 135 F2 at F2 by a small margin. Its already a win and on the 85 ZA I have to get to at least F2.35 call it. Folks its a winner and i don't care how you measure the damn thing. LOL
Anything that gets close to the Zeiss 135 is smoking hot. I have to process this all out and make sure but its damn good if not great. Go buy it
Anything that gets close to the Zeiss 135 is smoking hot. I have to process this all out and make sure but its damn good if not great. Go buy it
Thanks, Guy. I bought three of them to evaluate!
Guy Mancuso
Administrator, Instructor
This is nuts . I am seeing no raw sharpness increase stopping down but obviously you see the DOF come in. Now that my friends is hot stuff. Its a rare moment when a lens performs this good wide open usually its a half a stop down or so. Like the ZA 85mm for instance its a nice lens wide open and full of aberrations but at F2 its a great lens. Not here on the 55mm it is solid at 1.8
Guy Mancuso
Administrator, Instructor
BTW the bokeh looks very nice too. Okay I need to process this stuff, you folks must think I went off the deep end. Im in shock
jonoslack
Active member
Shhhhhhhhh
It's okay though, I realise it'd be wasted on my humble A7:facesmack::chug: