Carl Zeiss Planar T 1,4/50 Pro Reviews

Some years ago we analyzed the Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 on an APS-C DSLR and the results were truly impressive there. However, on a full format DSLR the performance leaves a bit to be desired actually. The lens is capable of delivering great results at medium aperture settings - no doubts - but it disappoints at f/1.4 and f/2 with a rather poor border/corner performance and generally reduced contrast. Depending on the use-case this may or may not be overly relevant (e.g. portraits) of course. The light falloff is on the high side here but that's a rather normal characteristic for such lenses. Lateral CAs are well controlled and not overly field relevant. The quality of the bokeh is pretty good although the weak contrast may spoil the game at f/1.4.

On its own merits, the Carl Zeiss 50mm ƒ/1.4 is a good lens: sharpness is excellent at ƒ/2.8 and greater, even at ƒ/2 in a portrait application on a sub-frame sensor digital SLR. Chromatic aberration and distortion performance are tolerable, and corner shading isn't problematic. The problem in recommending this lens is that there wasn't anything wrong with existing solutions for Pentax and Nikon, which means the Zeiss would have to be something really special to justify the higher price point and lack of autofocus.

Some years ago we analyzed the Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 on an APS-C DSLR and the results were truly impressive there. However, on a full format DSLR the performance leaves a bit to be desired actually. The lens is capable of delivering great results at medium aperture settings - no doubts - but it disappoints at f/1.4 and f/2 with a rather poor border/corner performance and generally reduced contrast. Depending on the use-case this may or may not be overly relevant (e.g. portraits) of course. The light falloff is on the high side here but that's a rather normal characteristic for such lenses. Lateral CAs are well controlled and not overly field relevant. The quality of the bokeh is pretty good although the weak contrast may spoil the game at f/1.4.