Just click on the pictures a few times to zoom in....
D800 wide angle len options?
- Thread starter JacePhoto
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Just click on the pictures a few times to zoom in....
yeah, i did. But its not full size... la
True that. I only said it was sharp. But the distortion wise, depending on what you photograph. Architecture this lens definitely cannot make it. But for the average shot landscapes and some sort of "dynamic" cityscape, I just use the lens profile tool in lightroom to sort of correct it. Its not perfect. But its reasonably decent. Plus its one click - so not like the workflow is getting extensively long.
As much as I am a fan of the Zeiss 21mm (its sitting next to me in the office now!) There is some hard to correct moustache distortion on it. But I see it as one of the best wide angle options on the D800/E for now, until something better comes along.
I am getting UW by stitching 3 photos, at least make good use of lens centre spot. Saves me from buying wider and wider lens too.
All you need is to buy a cheap nodal rail about $60 to minimize parallax problem plus stitching software. A poor man's solution, because my CZ 21/2.8 not wide enough. lol
JT
All you need is to buy a cheap nodal rail about $60 to minimize parallax problem plus stitching software. A poor man's solution, because my CZ 21/2.8 not wide enough. lol
JT
anyway, i can confirm, and will hopefully be able to share more pictures later on.
the ZF.2 21 Distagon performs exceptionally well on the D800E. Given the diffraction limit constraint of f/7.1 for optimal detail rendering, its not a lot of depth of field to go with - so if you focus on something 15m away, stuff that's 5-7m away may not be in complete sharp focus.
detail at the center is crisp, well rendered, sharp and best results are still with the live view. the in-camera manual focus guide is not 100% on the ball, and my take is that we are pretty much at the limits of the sensor itself.
colors are beautifully rendered in the typical zeiss fashion, and because this sensor has so much dynamic range, there is much more shadow detail in the medium to dark tones than experienced historically.
yes, there is the wavy distortion, yes the corners are not 100% sharp - either because of field curvature or else depth of field issues but overall i am very happy and very satisfied. almost like these two are kindred spirits for each other.
the ZF.2 21 Distagon performs exceptionally well on the D800E. Given the diffraction limit constraint of f/7.1 for optimal detail rendering, its not a lot of depth of field to go with - so if you focus on something 15m away, stuff that's 5-7m away may not be in complete sharp focus.
detail at the center is crisp, well rendered, sharp and best results are still with the live view. the in-camera manual focus guide is not 100% on the ball, and my take is that we are pretty much at the limits of the sensor itself.
colors are beautifully rendered in the typical zeiss fashion, and because this sensor has so much dynamic range, there is much more shadow detail in the medium to dark tones than experienced historically.
yes, there is the wavy distortion, yes the corners are not 100% sharp - either because of field curvature or else depth of field issues but overall i am very happy and very satisfied. almost like these two are kindred spirits for each other.
No, it's actually the old concrete structure...sorry , much better to see in the original 77MB raw file , than in the compresses jpg
I wish I had a better wide angle and wish Nikon can really advice on this issue on wide angle lens to use w this?
Took some landscape shots w 20mm AFD. It's not as high quality in terms of sharpness at wide angles and it doesn't come close to a medium format. And yes, the aperture was at F2.8 which I cld have stopped down but it does come close.
All in all, with no scientific figures, I wld just say that it's 10-15% better compared to a D90 w bigger file sizes.
The time lapse function was a big plus though... Hur Hur...
Took some landscape shots w 20mm AFD. It's not as high quality in terms of sharpness at wide angles and it doesn't come close to a medium format. And yes, the aperture was at F2.8 which I cld have stopped down but it does come close.
All in all, with no scientific figures, I wld just say that it's 10-15% better compared to a D90 w bigger file sizes.
The time lapse function was a big plus though... Hur Hur...
I don't think the older generation of prime lenses can make it in my opinion. They do well on the D700 and the D7k, but once you exit the central part of the DX frame, the flaws of the lens come forth quite quickly.
Attached are a few more pictures taken with the Zeiss Distagon 21 T* 2.8 lens. I find that I can yield excellent shots in the light of the setting sun at ISO 400, 1/60s at f/2.8 and using manual focusing through the viewfinder - via the focus confirmation dot. The Live View is of course, much more accurate but for subjects more than 15 meters away, there is reasonably enough depth of field to mask small focusing differences.
I use Lightroom and click the "enable profile corrections" check box, so that takes care of the corner vignetting and sorts out some of the distortion, not all, rendering this to be a 22 to 22.5mm lens, depending on how you look at it, before cropping. Detail and resolution is indeed present in the image. Flare is low and I am pleased to recommend this lens as a viable wide angle candidate for the 36MP sensor.
I've processed the last one in a more "artistic" fashion, and there are some compression artifacts in the files. On the originals the detail is definitely there down to the pixel level. Right click and view image to see a higher quality version. Cheers. I strongly recommend this lens, not so much as a Zeiss fanboy, but because it really works well and the manual focus ring is super exquisite. Along those lines, with an adapter the lens can also be used on a Canon system as well - so its effectively a rather future proof investment in my book.
Attached are a few more pictures taken with the Zeiss Distagon 21 T* 2.8 lens. I find that I can yield excellent shots in the light of the setting sun at ISO 400, 1/60s at f/2.8 and using manual focusing through the viewfinder - via the focus confirmation dot. The Live View is of course, much more accurate but for subjects more than 15 meters away, there is reasonably enough depth of field to mask small focusing differences.
I use Lightroom and click the "enable profile corrections" check box, so that takes care of the corner vignetting and sorts out some of the distortion, not all, rendering this to be a 22 to 22.5mm lens, depending on how you look at it, before cropping. Detail and resolution is indeed present in the image. Flare is low and I am pleased to recommend this lens as a viable wide angle candidate for the 36MP sensor.
I've processed the last one in a more "artistic" fashion, and there are some compression artifacts in the files. On the originals the detail is definitely there down to the pixel level. Right click and view image to see a higher quality version. Cheers. I strongly recommend this lens, not so much as a Zeiss fanboy, but because it really works well and the manual focus ring is super exquisite. Along those lines, with an adapter the lens can also be used on a Canon system as well - so its effectively a rather future proof investment in my book.
Not cheap, I paid around 2250 for this lens new. It is also available for sale on the Buy and Sell here. For Nikon, the ZF.2 mount is preferred because it automatically indexes your aperture and records the focal length and lens data into the EXIF - helpful for automatic lens profile corrections in Lightroom. If you want to save a bit, the original ZF mount is exactly the same optical formula for around 30% less new and probably much more used.
diglloyd - Zeiss ZF.2 and Zeiss ZE Lenses For Canon and Nikon - ZF.2 vs ZF
One thing is that it is manual focus, and the only reason, if I am not wrong is because Nikon did not allow Zeiss to build autofocus lenses for their F mount. It would be pretty obvious where the market would flock to if there were AF capable 21/25/28/35 Distagons and 50/100 Makro-Planars available. Anyway the way I see it is that such a lens is a life long investment - and will last you and retain its value for a long time to come. I have zero regrets shooting a manual focus lens - everytime I download the files into my computer my eyes go "wahhhhhh... zeissssss...."
I've been following this lens, through its many iterations for the last 6+ years of digital photography. From contax and then to ridiculous prices on eBay and then to its ZE, ZF and finally ZF.2 present version. Back then in the era of the 1Ds and the 1D Mark II, Canon really had no outstandingly superb ultra wide angle prime lens, so we had to cook up all sorts of crazy shims and grinding of the lens mount to make sure the mirror did not hit the rear element of the lens (particularly with an adapted Leica R 19mm f/2.8)
Anyway I got wind about it many years ago from this guy off the Fred Miranda alternative gear and lenses forum, and now he's pretty much the site administrator for GetDPI, which I frequent as it has pretty much the most active medium format digital discussion board on the web (besides luminous-landscape). A good portion of the users there slant towards the high end medium format and tend to turn their noses up at 35mm FF sensors, but this is the image that made me sit up and take note of this lens.
The GetDPI Photography Forums - View Single Post - Zeiss 21 2.8 on D800/E
I am very confident that you will not be disappointed to own this lens.
Anyway I got wind about it many years ago from this guy off the Fred Miranda alternative gear and lenses forum, and now he's pretty much the site administrator for GetDPI, which I frequent as it has pretty much the most active medium format digital discussion board on the web (besides luminous-landscape). A good portion of the users there slant towards the high end medium format and tend to turn their noses up at 35mm FF sensors, but this is the image that made me sit up and take note of this lens.
The GetDPI Photography Forums - View Single Post - Zeiss 21 2.8 on D800/E
I am very confident that you will not be disappointed to own this lens.
That is a good price. I just paid $200 more for the CZ 21/2.8 a few weeks back. I got 20 ais, Nikon 20af, 16-35mm, 20 color skopar to play with. Love all of them. The 16-35 is very flexible for landscapes
D800 with Zeiss 21 & Nikon 14-24 [Page 1]: Nikon D4 - D1 / D800 Forum: Digital Photography Review
Another review 21 zeiss vs Nikon 14-24mm. Conclusion that the 14-24mm is better. Given that it is a zoom, I think it is remarkable
Another review 21 zeiss vs Nikon 14-24mm. Conclusion that the 14-24mm is better. Given that it is a zoom, I think it is remarkable
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i completely agree. the nikon excels is some shooting situations more than the zeiss. in fact the zeiss lens design leans more towards a planar type depth of field, whilst the 14-24 exhibits a measure of field curvature. also, the zeiss design is a much older one - going back to the time of contax, that has been unchanged, so its quite remarkable in that sense that it took nikon such a long time to come up with an equal contender. the old school 17-35 was great for its time a decade ago, but its really only recently has this 14-24 been able to match up to some of the great primes of the past.
the real disadvantage of the 14-24, which i also own, is probably its size, inability to use normal filters and flare because of its bulbous front lens element. personally i don't really shoot wider than 20mm, so no real need for the 14/16 focal lengths. for traveling purposes, the d800/e plus an L bracket, plus the 21 and this crazy 5 section travel flat tripod from benro that i bought by accident plus two ND grad filters will be my choice for simple landscape photography.
to each his own. i'm headed to egypt soon, hopefully there won't be a revolution again after this presidential elections, and i'm pretty glad i can stick a UV filter over the zeiss to protect against desert sand. 14-24? nadah.
yyD70S
Senior Member
I cannot confirm myself as I do not own the AFS 14-24mm f2.8 but on the contrary, from what I gather from feedbacks from my friends' (yes, more than a handful, not just a couple) on-the-field experiences, this lens performs best at 14mm at all apertures, less so in the middle focal length and almost as good again at 24mm.
Of course, the observations were on the 12MP D700/D3S & 24MP D3X so things could different.
Of course, the observations were on the 12MP D700/D3S & 24MP D3X so things could different.
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