About a month ago I realized the Leica 50mm Summilux-M ASPH had not been compared to the Zeiss 50mm F1.4 ZE. There were some pleasing images taken with 50mm Planar on various photography forums, so I bought a new 50mm Planar ZE. This is article is NOT a Zeiss 50mm F1.4 Planar review, so to keep things moving - focus is very smooth with a light action. Build quality is solid. Fit and finish are excellent. In terms of the lens build, etc., there is nothing to complain about. On the Canon 1Ds Mark III the 50mm Planar is a fairly petite and could pass for walk-around usage. Thus far - a big thumbs-up for the Zeiss 50mm F1.4 Planar ZE.

On whim I decided to compare the Zeiss 50mm and Leica 50mm for their bokeh and wide open performance. The outcome was so apparent that there really was not much point investing any more time. Both images were processed in Phase One’s C1 raw editor with the default settings for each camera. Images were then exported to Photoshop for sizing and JPEG compression. Initially both images were taken handheld - one shot with each camera. However, the first 1Ds Mark III image looked front focused, so for the 100% crop a second picture was taken, this time using a tripod and live-view to ensure the best possible results from the Zeiss 50mm F1.4 Planar ZE. All the images were taken within a couple minutes of one and another.

Not posted here was a similar test with the Zeiss 50mm F2 Makro-Planar ZE. In a similar set-up the Leica Summilux was sharper up to around F2.8. At F5.6-F8 the Zeiss clearly won for landscape images. The catch-22 with the Zeiss 50mm F2 Makro-Planar ZE is its significantly larger size. For my purposes the lens was too big, and when shooting indoors without a flash, the F2 aperture speed was too slow and the 1Ds Mark III routinely needed ISO 3200 to get decent shutter speeds.

As for the Zeiss 50mm F1.4 ZE, if you are in the market for a Zeiss 50mm - get the 50mm F2 Makro-Planar ZE. It is larger, but an excellent lens. Of course, you could always buy a Leica M9 and 50mm Summilux-M ASPH :)  For those interested in the Zeiss 50mm F2 Makro-Planar ZE, a review is available here.