So, All Zeiss ZE Lens Made In Japan?

Hi All,

This is only 2nd last day we are in Osaka / Japan. Just walk into a camera shop in Chuoh-Ku, and it has lots Zeiss lenses in the shop (www.tokiwa-camera.co.jp)

1.4/35 ZE show ¥16,000 on display, but I'm offered ¥14,666 for duty free price without any haggling, which is better than B&H!

Few questions:
1. Is all Zeiss made in Japan?
2. Personally I can NOT possible to right focus @ f/1.4. Am I not alone or not?
3. Try Macro 50 & 100 as well, which all focus ring are just so tight - will they get loss a bit ever?

Cheers...

Older contax versions get even tighter/stiffer, but it depends on the ambient temperature, in the winter it can be stiffer and during summer it can get loose, but never like Canon.
For focusing> magic lantern - helps tremendously.

Thanks,

With 5D3 manual select focus area and focus conformation, which I still don't get MF in the shop right anyway. Hear Magic Lantern lots, I should try it soon.

One more thing, there is no fancy box coming with Zeiss either I don't feel the Zeiss heavy somehow.

Yeah, it depends on temperature, but Zeiss is overall stiffer than others.

I'm not sure about all Zeiss lenses, but I know that all DSLR Zeiss glass is made by Cosina.

For focusing through VF it takes time and practice, or you could just try zooming in in LV. Haven't tried magic lantern for focusing, but I've heard it's quite good.

I think I'm going to cheat with multiple shoots as soon as the focus confirmation beat up

For faster glass the EE-S screen for 5D or equivalent will help much in focussing acuracy.
The normal screen is opimized for f/2.8 lenses - faster lenses need some guessing where to focus. f/2.0 works most times good enough. But for f/1.4 or f/1.2 I love the special screen for manual foccusing. With that you additional see the better the original bokeh / sharp / unsharp in your image.

The Zeiss Contax stiffness is ideal for me, With ZE lenses I haven´t a problem too. All these AF lenses feel much to loose for me - but I am an old 99% manual focus user.

I try LV x10, which works beautiful.

I was bit disappointed with my MF skill @ f/1.4. As my eyes signs are only getting worser every single day, I have dout even with multiple shoots.

x_tan wrote in post #15356612
Hi All,

This is only 2nd last day we are in Osaka / Japan. Just walk into a camera shop in Chuoh-Ku, and it has lots Zeiss lenses in the shop (www.tokiwa-camera.co.jp)

1.4/35 ZE show ¥16,000 on display, but I'm offered ¥14,666 for duty free price without any haggling, which is better than B&H!

Few questions:
1. Is all Zeiss made in Japan?
2. Personally I can NOT possible to right focus @ f/1.4. Am I not alone or not?
3. Try Macro 50 & 100 as well, which all focus ring are just so tight - will they get loss a bit ever?

Cheers...

50 Makro Planar is a breeze to focus, I can fairly accurately focus on my cats while indoors at night, with the ambient light low enough I was shooting ISO 6400, f2, 1/60. I had to use a flash to stop motion, but the actual focusing is done without help from the flash of course.

With any fast manual focus lens wide open, you will have want to take multiple shots to ensure focus, but since your 5DIII has a great burst rate, that shouldn't be a problem. You just learn to always focus from either near to far or far to near, and once you hit the beginning of what looks sharp you press the shutter and slowly move the focus ring very very slightly for a good 3-5 shot burst.

The focus rings resistance isn't actually going to change much, but I promise you that after a few weeks, your perception will change and you wont notice anything except how smooth and precise it is.

x_tan wrote in post #15356612
Few questions:
1. Is all Zeiss made in Japan?

I've got 9 of them and they're all stamped "Made in Japan" on the barrel.

Bob

^Ha ha ha...

Time for me to find out if there is myth or true, too

Just back from the store, and I will use this lens as walk-around next few days.