Zeiss Makro-Planar 50/2

I'm considering buying the Zeiss Makro-Planar 50/2 as my only lens. I will be using it for macro, landscapes, video and portraits. My biggest concern is for portraits, especially the bokeh. As I have looked at photos taken with this lens the quality of bokeh sometimes looked really smooth and other times very busy.

The other option is to buy a Contax Zeiss Planar 50/1.7 and a Canon 100/2 Macro but the bokeh on the Contax seems worse than the Makro-Planar. I have had the Canon 100/2 Macro in the past, it was fine as a macro lens, not amazing but got the job done.

As things look now the Makro-Planar seems like the best choice for me. Opinions? Suggestions? I would love to see some portraits taken with the Makro-Planar if anyone has used it for that.

Thanks!

The bokeh in an image is a combination of several factors. Off the top of my head, the lens quality, the f-stop, the aperture shape, the distance to subject, the distance to background / foreground, the nature of the OOF regions and the level of vignetting all produce an effect.

It's therefore quite possible to create bokeh that's clean or busy using the same lens - change the f-stop and the separation between subject and surrounds and away you go.

On the ZE 2/50 MP... it's one of Zeiss' great lenses (the others being the 15/2.8, 21, 2/25, 1.4/35, 2/100 MP. I'm lucky to have most of these and (perhaps with the exception of the TS-E lenses) I have not found another SLR lens that is in the same class.

Sorry - I don't shoot portraits but I'm certain there are plenty in the lens' sample page.

Step one: GET a focusing screen!


that huge viewfinder is SCREAMING for a focusing screen.


sure, you may use live view or focus confirmation, but the focusing screen is more accurate than the focus confirmation beep thingey.


Step two!

get a touch closer than with an 85mm lens, and keep the busy stuff in the background as far away as you are able to

step three! enjoy the sharpest 50mm lens for the EF mount!

The 100mm is just too damn long for many uses. Don't think about distance to subject. Think about how far back the background needs to be behind the subject for what you want.

Don't count out the TS-E 45mm in that class.

uOpt wrote in post #14231501
The 100mm is just too damn long for many uses. Don't think about distance to subject. Think about how far back the background needs to be behind the subject for what you want.

Don't count out the TS-E 45mm in that class.

50mm is without doubt my favourite focal length, it just works and that's one of the reasons I'm considering buying the Zess Makro-Planar 50 plus that I love doing macro I may get the Zeiss Planar 85 later for portrait stuff but as a only lens then about 50mm is a must.

I haven't looked at TS-E lenses, will check them out but I'm guessing they would be too expensive when I need a macro lens too.