The GetDPI Photography Forum

Great to see you here. Join our insightful photographic forum today and start tapping into a huge wealth of photographic knowledge. Completing our simple registration process will allow you to gain access to exclusive content, add your own topics and posts, share your work and connect with other members through your own private inbox! And don’t forget to say hi!

Loxia 35mm VS 16-35 at 35mm test

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
5.6 the zoom still does not jump up much. But the Loxia at 5.6 is right at its optimum if not even F4



 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Here is a interesting comparison side by side lets take the Loxia at 2.8 against the zoom at F8.





Im afraid to say it but even a 3 stop swing the Loxia still smokes it. Honestly even the Loxia wide open looks better than the zoom at F8.


I will leave you all with that conclusion but here is my take the Loxia is very very nice but the zoom is just no match for it at 35mm.

Now lets move forward to just the Loxia in better light and a lot at F2
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Okay lets take a overall image at F8 with both lenses at a nice distance





Here are the focus area and crops



 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
I shoot this scene a lot with a ton of lenses and have to say the Loxia is really quite good here even against a lot of heavy weight lenses that have shot this scene like tech cams and MF world. Very nice showing here
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
The good news here if no one has noticed i could shoot the zoom say at 21mm and another image on the Loxia and the color looks pretty much identical. They are Zeiss designed lenses for sure.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Show some wide shots here. I purposely tried to get busy backgrounds on some of the images just to see how the booked looks in bad situations.

 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Now here where I am seriously impressed where a F2 shot looks like a 5.6 in the central zone.





Now check out the crops the first one is F2 and second one says 5.6 on it



 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Now the 5.6 shot is at its optimum no doubt but at F2 i am impressed how well F2 is really rendering. Yes maybe slightly less contrast but still plenty sharp with no known visible aberrations. I consider this alone a winning sign. Don't let the DOF fool you either here I am focused on that crack to the right of the bottom E letter. Sure contrast does make it look sharper and it is for sure but wide open is a different world.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Let me ask myself a question:

So Guy how do you get the F2 image to have the same look as the 5.6 outside DOF. Same look and character lets say.

Easy add black and clarity.

F2 with adjustments

 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Now fair warning Arizona vegetation has serious nervous bokeh. I have no idea why that is but I believe it is because of close pattern effects of the plants so do look at different parts of a scene . But Im not hiding anything. Looks a touch nervous here and I am doing this on purpose. I have more that are smoother but I'm not buying this lens for it myself. I leave that mostly to the 85 1.4 but thats me.
 

Slingers

Active member
Thanks, the Loxia looks really good. If I wasn't happy with my FE 35 or didn't have it I would have gotten the Loxia. I can't wait to see what else they release in the Loxia range.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Thanks, the Loxia looks really good. If I wasn't happy with my FE 35 or didn't have it I would have gotten the Loxia. I can't wait to see what else they release in the Loxia range.
A lot of folks will go after the 35 2.8 because it does have AF and thats great. Im not a big fan of that lens but more important we have 3 Native lens choices in 35mm actually we have 5 with the 16-35 and 24-70. This is all good we want lots to chose from. Myself Im keeping it and going to add the 50 Loxia its working for my needs and I do like the feel of the lens.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
I was ready to buy the 35mm 1.4 had the money sitting in paypal for like two weeks. I thought long and hard about these two lenses the Loxia and the 35mm 1.4 at this point I have no regrets for getting it . I saved 400 dollars and size and weight to boot. Now if the 1.4 is much much better which i tend to doubt than I will consider it. Personally I expect similar performance from F2 down its the 1.4 setting that you get plus AF but in all honesty I would NEVER shoot a commercial gig at 1.4 there is just too much risk in blowing the job. Focus is so paper thin that on a Professional level its a high risk maneuver to use it. Thats my take on it some will differ of course.
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
Looks pretty good and the sharpness is better than I expected on center and throughout 75-80% of the frame. I don't care too much about the edges as street photography (what I'd use this lens for primarily if I bought it) will generally have me in the f/4-8 range during the daytime in the Southern or Equatorial sun. At night, dusk, or lowlight I'd be at f/2-2.5 (assuming this moves in 1/3 stops like other Zeiss lenses) and no one would care about the extreme corners.

My only potential hesitation (it was a concern as soon as I learned it was a Biogon design) is that the bokeh CAN get a bit nervous sometimes. I'm still on the fence about this and the more I see of the Distagon the more I lean that way honestly. This was an issue with the ZM f/2 version as well. The C-Biogon was a better all around lens (and had a lot more character than the f/2 version) but was missing the speed which as Guy said - when you need it then you need it.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Now I consider this a bad situation for trying to get nice bokeh as this is very busy in the background. Now you may or may not like it but what I like is the separation from the focus point. Honestly not sure i would shoot something like this for real as I would find a better angle.









The thing about bokeh is people have different reactions to it. If you primary goal is bokeh than look for 1.4 lenses in your glass. To me it is overused very much like a fisheye sometimes. If shooting portraits or 3/4 length shots of people just find a simple background and most lenses will handle that okay. When it gets busy back there or lots of patterns in the background than thats when the nervousness starts to show. Even here i find it pretty pleasing but I know I could shoot this scene better. I like to test ugly and see what is bad.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Here it is a little nicer as I eliminated a lot of background to more smoother areas of the background.

 
Top