Sold my 70-200 2.8 IS ii + 24mm TSE II to complete my Zeiss holy trinity + 1

I think I have my bases covered up until 85mm now lol

Got my two new lenses today so now my lineup looks like

Zeiss 21mm 2.8
Zeiss 35mm 1.4
Zeiss 50mm 2.0
Canon 85mm 1.2 Ii

My wife gets home from her deployment next week.. cant wait until things calm down and I can go out and get some great shots with this set up. (update: see post #22 for a link to my first series with these lenses).

(pardon the iphone pic)

Nice!

Wow, very nice

Interesting that you prefer MF lenses on a 5D3 where you can't swap out the focus screen. Would drive me insane! I had a hard enough time with a 14mm MF lens

I have yet to even hold/shoot with a Zeiss lens... If they offer AF one day I will be all over it, though. Beautiful lenses.

Invertalon wrote in post #15604133
Interesting that you prefer MF lenses on a 5D3 where you can't swap out the focus screen. Would drive me insane! I had a hard enough time with a 14mm MF lens

I have yet to even hold/shoot with a Zeiss lens... If they offer AF one day I will be all over it, though. Beautiful lenses.

Thats not true. There is a replacement split screen/magnified view screen you can get.


to the OP... don't you find that 21/35/50 a very close combination?

You know what,I think I do remember reading about that recently. I guess that answers that!

Invertalon wrote in post #15604133
Interesting that you prefer MF lenses on a 5D3 where you can't swap out the focus screen. Would drive me insane! I had a hard enough time with a 14mm MF lens

I have yet to even hold/shoot with a Zeiss lens... If they offer AF one day I will be all over it, though. Beautiful lenses.

Many of my more important shots are of cars/trucks, so they are stationary and I use live view.

Normally, I set up my shot, zoom in using live focus and then focus... then take the shot. When dealing with cars... if you get too close using a wide angle lens, your just begging for distortion.

I dont think AF will work using my Lee big stopper anyway.

Talley wrote in post #15604191
to the OP... don't you find that 21/35/50 a very close combination?

To be honest, they are very different focal lengths. They are also very different lenses. with the 35mm being a 1.4... you can step down to 2.0 and get something really sharp, which would be a full stop faster than the 21mm. When your doing a long exposure with the big stopper, that can take a 24 minute exposure down to 12 minutes... or a 12 to a 6 minute.

Also, if I want a shot where I want more of the landscape, I use the 21... if i dont have the room, or i just want to focus on the car (filling the frame) I will come closer and use the 35. You cant get too close with the 21... cause youll make a 15 foot long truck look a mile long down the side... so if Im closer, i use the 35.

The 50 is for macro and other general use stuff.... the 85mm is what I use for portraits of my kids... thats why I have the 85mm 1.2 ii and not the Zeiss 85mm... because with my kids I do need the autofocus.

that's another reason I wanted the 5d3 over the 5d2... much better focusing system and more af points... so i dont have to focus and then recompose my shot as much.. really helpful when you're working at f/1.2

manual focus isn't a problem on subjects that don't move

My eyes are searching for Zeiss 100 Macro
Beautiful set!

Doc, you may find that a Zacuto finder makes live view even more usable. I have given up on autofocus...
On the Zeiss lenses, you have a fine set... You may also want to try the 25/2 some time, it's pretty good too.

noisejammer wrote in post #15604522
Doc, you may find that a Zacuto finder makes live view even more usable. I have given up on autofocus...
On the Zeiss lenses, you have a fine set... You may also want to try the 25/2 some time, it's pretty good too.

why have you given up on autofocus? all modern 35mm cameras have great autofocus systems. period. If you cant get it to work... well, lets just say its not the camera

Talley wrote in post #15604191
Thats not true. There is a replacement split screen/magnified view screen you can get.


to the OP... don't you find that 21/35/50 a very close combination?

the focusing screen you refer to does not magnify the view but split prism screens are invaluable for manually focusing.

Saw on your FB, looks great having all Zeiss lenses. I really on AF for a lot of my shots, and I don't shoot with a tripod unless I am doing really serious work. Would love to own and use some Zeiss glass. Is the 21mm wide enough for all your needs? Thinking about the 15mm yet?

pyrojim wrote in post #15604553
the focusing screen you refer to does not magnify the view but split prism screens are invaluable for manually focusing.

didnt know about that... I'll look into it.

and the 15mm?

you're killing me... I had to jump through hoops to disguise the level of financial commitment the 35mm and 21mm required to my wife just to sneak these by.

I rented the 16-35mm one time and i found that when I put a car in say a lower left corner... a tire would become crooked or a hood would stretch way too much. On the other hand, the skies were dramatically bad ass.

maybe i should look into that 17-40 that you have!

The Zeiss 15mm might not have the same distortion as the 16-35 but its such a specialty lens that I cant justify a $3000 lens right now.

Maybe if I can start getting paid for my work i will look into it lol

Doc Fluty wrote in post #15604598
didnt know about that... I'll look into it.

and the 15mm?

you're killing me... I had to jump through hoops to disguise the level of financial commitment the 35mm and 21mm required to my wife just to sneak these by.

I rented the 16-35mm one time and i found that when I put a car in say a lower left corner... a tire would become crooked or a hood would stretch way too much. On the other hand, the skies were dramatically bad ass.

maybe i should look into that 17-40 that you have!

The Zeiss 15mm might not have the same distortion as the 16-35 but its such a specialty lens that I cant justify a $3000 lens right now.

Maybe if I can start getting paid for my work i will look into it lol

like others said - nice work. I can't see why you are not being paid yet - marketing?
Yes, the 15mm is missing. Not worst than many long focal primes, but maybe the TSE 17mm instead? Both are in my wish list.
the distortion on the Z15 is really minimal, compared with what's available.
You are not going to be happy with the 16-35 mk2 IMHO.
and don't forget theTSE 24 mk2

pyrojim wrote in post #15604553
why have you given up on autofocus? all modern 35mm cameras have great autofocus systems. period. If you cant get it to work... well, lets just say its not the camera

Oh... it's very definitely operator ineptitude

Seriously - my interests mostly allow for very deliberate image creation. I have checked and using live view and a loupe, I can out-focus both cameras (5D2 / 1D4.) Where speed is essential, I will use AF but this often comes at the expense of mediocre focus precision.

I don't want to hijack the thread but I suspect the limitation is focus shift intrinsic to lens designs. Autofocus routines do not seem to deal with this very well at all. It's silly because it would be an easy correction to build in.

Why the need for the superior autofocus of the 5D3 with fast manual lenses?

Of course my style of photoghaphy relies heavily on a good autofocusing system, and I would upgrade to the 5D3 except that I have always skipped a generation when upgrading. Hopfully the 5D4 (or whatever) will be great.