 An ideal lens for both indoor and outdoor portraits, this short, high speed lens was designed for challenging photography missions. The nine-blade diaphragm provides impressive bokeh, and distortion is practically nil. This superb Planar lens guarantees high-quality, colorful images even at full aperture. The ZF.2 designation adds a microchip to the lens that automatically lets the camera know time, aperture setting, and manual exposure settings, including those for cameras that are not AI-compatible. Since the lens now transmits the EXIF data photographers no longer need to set the parameters manually. Optically the ZF.2 lenses are identical to the original ZF lenses, so if these functions aren’t important to you you save some money by getting the original ZF mount. Roger’s take: Full disclosure: I love Zeiss glass. I used to shoot it on the 1DsII with an adapter and still shoot ZF lenses on Nikon bodies pretty frequently.  The 85 f/1.4 is not as sharp wide open as I’d hoped and I’d consider f/1.4 for emergency use only. By f/1.8 its sharp and at f/2.8 is wickedly sharp. As sharp as anything I’ve shot. My take is its sharpest in the mid range (from 7 to 50 feet) and not quite as sharp at infinity, which is what would be expected from a lens who’s primary use is protraiture and not landscape. Distortion is nil. The best part is it has that Zeiss ‘look’: great microcontrast, even when lighting conditions are harsh and contrast high. One other point that needs to be made: this lens does exhibit focus shift from f/1.4 to f/2 or so: in that aperture range it will tend to front focus, especially on objects fairly close to the camera. I know someone will ask this question, so no, its not ‘better’ than the Nikon 85 f/1.4. Its a slightly different look in contrast and color that I personally love, but probably not quite as sharp wide open and requires manual focus so its less convenient. Its an excellent lens, but not my favorite among the Zeiss primes. Zeiss Try and Buy: We are a registered Zeiss dealer and sell new in box, fully warrantied Zeiss ZF lenses. We offering a new service with ZF.2 lenses: rent any ZF.2 lens for 4 days. If you decide you want to buy it, we will apply your 4 day rental fee to the purchase of a brand new copy at our listed price. (Note: this is not your used rental copy, you will be buying a new lens.) If you’re interested in finding good reviews of the various ZF lenses, with in-depth analysis of their strengths and weaknesses, we recommend spending a few dollars and getting Lloyd Chambers online review of the ZF lineup Specs:
Links:MTF Chart:
The three sets of line pairs are for 10, 20, and 40mm with the lens at maximum aperture. The solid lines trace the radical S (sagittal) curve, while the broken lines trace the tangential M (meridional) curve. If you are bored and don’t understand MTF charts, you can read about them HERE Lens Diagram:
PricingLensRentals.com offers rentals of every length between 4 and 90 days. Some common selections are:
The shopping cart will automatically update the quoted price as you adjust the length of your rental. LensRentals also offers an optional damage waiver on this product, limiting your expense should it get damaged while in your possession.
ShippingLensRentals.com ships via UPS 2-day service, unless your rental requires faster shipping. Return shipping is included in the shipping price, and we include a prepaid return label with your order—all you need to do is bring it to a UPS drop-off location when your rental is complete. The shopping cart can automatically quote shipping, even for multi-item and oversize orders. Shipping multiple items together offers significant savings over shipping them individually. |
