Zeiss Planar 50mm 1.4
I just received the most amazing birthday gift from my dearest friend, a Zeiss Classic Planar 50mm 1.4 lens. I’m so excited about this lens and for the opportunity to get to see if the “Zeiss Look” is really a thing. I’ve only had time to shoot a few images with it but spoiler alert, the “Zeiss Look” is a thing and I love it. To get a bit nerdy, I think we folks mean when they say the “Zeiss Look” is the perceived extra 3D pop that Zeiss lenses can give you—this comes from added micro-contrast. It really is a huge blessing to have such a lens, and I’m incredibly grateful!
Special Note: I used a new tool in Capture One, the clone stamp, to completely remove a van on the road in the left of this frame—see if you can spot any artifacts left over. Pretty cool right?
This lens has other great qualities as well, including being super fast. Of course the depth of field wide open at f1.4 is pretty small, but that of course can be an asset in itself. The fall off from focus to defocus appears to be very very soft, smooth, and I think this produces some really cool shots like this one I got of some flowers.
Of course you can stop down to get more in focus, such as for a portrait, and you don’t loose that softer bokeh in the background that is just really nice.
The sunset provided that interesting lighting across her face here.
I’ve not had as much time as I’d like with this lens but the results speak for themselves I think. Another thing I’d like to note, I’ve been pairing this with the Canon EOS R which has a focus assist tool and focus peaking that are tremendously helpful with this lens. The Zeiss 50 is very sharp and when the aperture is set right and you use the camera’s focus tools to nail focus, it produces some really nice images.
I helped set the camera and edit the image, but my friend and assistant, Kainoa Frank, composed and caputred this wonderful image. I think she did a great job.