charlesphoto
New member
I've been asked to show some images and out forth my feelings on the Zeiss ZF 25. The breakdancing images were taken with a D3 with an SB800 flash, all at iso 400 at f8. As you can see they are razor sharp and real even edge to edge with little barrel distortion. Even in a fast moving situation such as this i found it really easy to focus fast, and sometimes it was easier to nail the focus than with my 17-35. The focus action is very smooth yet firm with these lenses making it very easy to "snap" it into place.
The pic of my dog is at f2.8 at iso 1600. I find wide open the lens to be very sharp on the center and soft on the edges, much like just about every slr 24 on the market. Stopping down to f4 increases the sharpness greatly and by 5.6 it's good to go across the frame. Great close up ability though I might have foregone getting so close for better performance on the edges.
The dynamic range and color is really good - these photos haven't been touched except for a bit of "landscape sharpening" default in LR. There is a richness and saturation that was lacking from the 17-35 shots I also took that evening.
Overall I highly recommend the Zeiss lenses, not only for the build quality (closest to shooting an R you can get) but also for the image quality. I'm sure the Nikon zooms are up there but with the drawback of size and barrel distortion. Anyway, I'll try and do a side by side at some point later this summer.
The pic of my dog is at f2.8 at iso 1600. I find wide open the lens to be very sharp on the center and soft on the edges, much like just about every slr 24 on the market. Stopping down to f4 increases the sharpness greatly and by 5.6 it's good to go across the frame. Great close up ability though I might have foregone getting so close for better performance on the edges.
The dynamic range and color is really good - these photos haven't been touched except for a bit of "landscape sharpening" default in LR. There is a richness and saturation that was lacking from the 17-35 shots I also took that evening.
Overall I highly recommend the Zeiss lenses, not only for the build quality (closest to shooting an R you can get) but also for the image quality. I'm sure the Nikon zooms are up there but with the drawback of size and barrel distortion. Anyway, I'll try and do a side by side at some point later this summer.