Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/1.4 ZF.2 Lens - Professional ...

THE GOODS: PRO REVIEW
Zeiss not only lives up to expectations, it exceeds them.
BY STAN SHOLIK
As good as it gets
ZEISS DISTAGON T* 35MM F/1.4 ZF.2 LENS
For five years, Carl Zeiss has produced single
focal length, manual focus lenses for camera
bodies that accept Nikon, Canon, Sony, K-
mount, and M-42 screw-mount lenses. These
lenses are highly regarded by landscape, closeup
and portrait still photographers, for both
film and digital cameras. Videographers
have also become a major market.
The latest in the series is the Zeiss Distagon
T* 35mm f/1.4, presently available with
Nikon and Canon mounts. I tested the
Nikon ZF.2 model.
Zeiss incorporates an improved T* antireflection
coating and a nine-blade aperture
for a nearly circular diaphragm. If you’ve
ever wondered about the pleasing bokeh
effect, you’ll instantly know it when you
view images shot at f/1.4 with this lens.
The silky smooth focusing ring on the
35mm f/1.4 rotates through about 150 degrees
from minimum focusing distance to infinity,
for extremely accurate focusing. At an aper ture
of f/1.4, the image is four times brighter than
one shot with an f/2.8 lens, making focus ing
easy, even with the viewfinder screens in modern
digital SLR cameras. The focusing ring stops
when you turn it to infinity or the minimum
focusing distance, so you always know where
those points are. These attributes are what
endear Zeiss lenses to videographers.
The aperture ring includes half-stop
detents that click firmly into place between
the marked aperture settings. The extensive
use of metal in the lens construction gives it
the look, feel and weight of classic Nikkors.
The 35mm f/1.4 is a monster compared to
my 35mm f/1.4 Nikkor. The Zeiss weighs
more than twice as much, is twice the
length, and requires 72mm filters rather
than the Nikkor’s 52mm filters. Having
tested other Zeiss lenses, I wasn’t surprised
to find the 35mm f/1.4 superior to my old
Nikkor 35mm f/1.4, but it’s surprising how
far more superior it is.
Even at maximum aperture, the Zeiss
shows superb sharpness in the center of the
lens. Sharpness falls off somewhat to the
edges of the frame, if you ever place the
subject near the edge of the frame when
shooting wide open. By f/2, sharpness is
excellent everywhere. There’s a hint of barrel
distortion at f/1.4 on a full-frame camera,
but that too disappears by f/2. Distortion is
non-existent on a DX-format camera.
Vignetting is quite apparent at f/1.4 on a
full-frame camera and requires stopping
down two stops to eliminate it. I’m a little
surprised by this, given the size of the lens,
but I’m a fan of vignetting, so it doesn’t
All images ©Stan Sholik
The lens handles bold colors equally as well as
subtle ones. Even though the lens is manual
focus, the viewfinder is so bright that it is easy
to focus even on a banner blowing in the wind.
The stitching on the foreground flag is tack sharp.
70 • www.ppmag.com

other me. Vignetting was less apparent
with my old Nikkor, the only facet in which
the Nikkor beat out the Zeiss.
If the Zeiss lens has a weakness it’s the
way it controls chromatic aberration near
the edges of the image with a full-frame
digital camera. Chromatic aberration was
invisible on film, but more obvious than I
expected in images from a D3X. It’s easily
corrected in post, but I expected better.
Fast prime lenses open new possibilities
for all photographers. The low-light capability
enables photojournalists to capture images
in difficult available-light situations. The
beautiful quality of out-of-focus backgrounds
and the strong vignetting make the lens
useful for portrait and fashion shooters. The
astounding overall image quality when
stopped down by two stops, where f/2.8
zoom lenses suffer the worst image quality,
renders the lens appropriate for landscape
photographers as well. And even sports
photographers, if they can get close enough
to the action, would benefit from the ability
to increase shutter speed by two EV and
eliminate distracting backgrounds. The
Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 ZF.2 lens for Nikon and
its Canon equivalent are valuable additions
to the Zeiss line of ultra-fast lenses, joining
the 50mm f/1.4 and the 85mm f/1.4.
MSRP for the 35mm f/1.4 ZF.2 lens is
$2,395, with a street price of about $1,850.
See lenses.zeiss.com for more information
about the 35mm and the other Zeiss lenses
for Nikon, Canon, K-mount and M42
screw-mount bodies. n
Stan Sholik is a commercial/advertising
photographer in Santa Ana, Ca., specializing
in still life and macro photography. His fifth
book, “Nik HDR Efex Pro” (Wiley Publishing)
will be published next month. Find more
images at ppmag.com/current_issue.
Ultra-fast lenses aren’t only for shooting at maxi -
mum aperture in low light. Here I stopped the lens
down to increase the depth of field and increased
the ISO so I could hold the heavy lens steady in
the light at dusk. I was amazed that the lens was
able to accurately render all of the subtle tonal
variations I saw in the failing light at sunset.
ZF.2 OVERVIEW
The original series of Zeiss lenses for Nikon
was designated ZF. ZF lenses function with
all film and digital SLRs that are designed
for Nikon lenses, from the original Nikon F
to the latest D3 models, as well as Kodak
and Fuji digital SLRs. Not only are the
classic Nikon metering prong (which can be
easily removed if desired), auto-indexing
(AI) ring and tiny secondary aperture scale
included, but both the aperture and
focusing rings rotate in the same direction
as Nikon’s original lenses. Even the
markings are engraved and filled with white
paint—no silk-screening here.
While the ZF series is still available, the
newer ZF.2 lenses are enhanced versions of
the ZF lenses. They feature an electronic
interface (CPU). This CPU enables the ZF.2
lenses to support all-important operating
modes such as shutter priority, aperture
priority and programmed auto exposure or
manual exposure settings even on non-AIcompatible
camera housings. No longer is it
necessary to set the parameters in the
camera menu, as the lenses now transmit
standard data such as focal length, speed
and the aperture setting to the camera. This
data can then be viewed in the EXIF data of
each picture.
The metering prong is not available on
the ZF.2 lenses, so you cannot use light
metering on older cameras (F, F2, Nikkormat,
etc.). The ZF.2 lenses have a mechanical
lock on the aperture ring to lock it at the
lowest setting and prevent unintentional
adjustment while taking pictures. They
even have the engraved number
representing the smallest aperture filled
with orange paint, just as the Nikkor AI-P
lenses did.
While the mechanicals may seem retro,
the 35mm f/1.4 is thoroughly modern.
Technicians at the Carl Zeiss factory in
Oberkochen, Germany, create the optical
and mechanical specifications along with
quality targets for the ZF lenses. Production
is done at the Cosina factory in Japan under
the watchful eye of Carl Zeiss employees in
charge of quality assurance.
September 2011 • Professional Photographer • 71