Zeiss 35 f/2 vs 35L

I took both lenses on an outing and shot the same subjects with them to see if I could see a difference. Here's an example of what I saw.

Can you see a difference? Can you tell which is the Canon 35L?

I shot using a 1D III, manual focus, RAW, Daylight WB. All images were processed in Aperture, sharpened (the same amount). Exposure was adjusted up or down to eliminate minor exposure differences between the lenses. Some light cropping allowed both images to show the same field of view.

MODERATORS - May I post up to 7 other pairs of images without getting into trouble???


NOTE - links to larger images are posted starting with post 20 on page 2 ...

This first pair is shot at f/2.8.

Bottom one is the Ziess... why do I say that, because I can

Talley wrote in post #14957106
Bottom one is the Ziess... why do I say that, because I can

First question is do you see any difference at all?

Bottom one is sharper IMO

Ditto. Second one is Zeiss, but I am telling that by the better color saturation.

The Zeiss is more contrasty and the second one shows that. If you want my honest opinion, the Zeiss is the way to go.

Honestly, difference seems negligible to me b/t those two photos. I'd take the 35L for AF reasons. If there's a photo clearly showing the Zeiss having more of that "Zeiss pop" over the 35L, then it would be a different story.

The second one definitely has more contrast and looks sharper. The colors are slightly better too.

So far, y'all are doing great. The Zeiss shot is the lower one. In it I see higher contrast, warmer color balance and better details in the bricks and roof tiles.

Here is another pair. Shot a f/2.8

This house is a rather dark maroon color. Shot at f/5.6

One hint - open each image in a new tab then you can rapidly switch back & forth by clicking on the tabs.

The top one on the second set there looks sharper in the corners.

Although, cropping the images at all, even to achieve the same field of view, will crop some of those corners, and the corners seem to be very telling when looking at the differences between lenses.

This test seems kinda flawed to me in some ways. The fact that you MF for each leaves a bit to much room for error IMO.

Looks to me like the 35L was focused a little further back than the Zeiss, which would make the top corners sharper. But it's hard to say just eyeballing....

aduda wrote in post #14957655
The top one on the second set there looks sharper in the corners.

Although, cropping the images at all, even to achieve the same field of view, will crop some of those corners, and the corners seem to be very telling when looking at the differences between lenses.

This test seems kinda flawed to me in some ways. The fact that you MF for each leaves a bit to much room for error IMO.

These samples are so low res..it's really hard to tell.

Can't you upload them to flickr or something?