carl zeiss showed some photos printed into 13x19 inches, not a huge size considering that they were using the d800e.
quote:
Also on the ‘start saving’ front…Zeiss has introduced the most unusual and interest lens of Photokina – a 55mm f1.4 the size of large squash. Seriously, this thing is the size of an average “H” mount lens from ‘Blad. Think Nikon 14-24, just bigger.
And what’s all that size about? Well it’s about $3,000 or so. For that, however,
Zeiss is promising that the heavens will part and pixelly goodness will rain from the heavens for frustrated high-end 35mm DSLR users who feel they just aren’t getting the most our of their camera with conventional glass.
Zeiss had some 13x19 sample prints on hand, comparing this behemoth to an ordinary (unnamed 50mm f1.4). I can attest from personal experience that my Nikon 50mm f1.4 is a total piece of shit (not all of them are, I know), so I have more than passing sympathy for the concept at play here.
The samples were tolerably impressive, until I was told they were shot at f1.4, at which point they became seriously impressive. Corner sharpness and contrast looked fantastic. The real question is why Zeiss didn’t have 5’ wide prints of this on the wall??
My uninformed guess here is that is that this is really a much-bigger than 35mm lens, with an aperture larger than f1.4. In other words, you fix the corners by making the image circle bigger and using only the centre, and stopping down a half stop, even wide-open. It’s just a guess, but it dovetails with the size and design brief.
Will people really pay $3000 for a fixed focal length 35mm lens? Time will tell. If it’s really that good, I suspect enough will to make the exercise worthwhile for Zeiss.
Again, the company hinted that more lenses of this sort could be on their way. This is a great development, though it does beg the question of what advantage there is to shooting a 35mm DSLR with a lens this size and price…..
A great show for Zeiss – look for those white boxes to proliferate on store shelves.
link