The Zeiss 28mm F2 ZE mounts smoothly and easily on the 1Ds Mark III. When mounted the lens feels solid and there is no rotational play. Sometimes lenses will rotate slightly to the left or right as they are focused - even Canon L lenses. Thus far I have not noticed any such “play” with the Zeiss 28mm. The only complaint thus far is the front lens cap which tends to pop-off as the camera is taken in and out of the camera bag. When not in use the lens hood is reversible and can be kept on the lens.

HANDLING

The Zeiss 28mm ZE might be a larger, heavier lens than some people may expect. The Zeiss 28mm ZE has 10 elements in a relatively short barrel length, the result is a dense lens. As a comparison, it weighs about the same as a Canon 35L. On the Canon 1Ds Mark III the 28mm feels nicely balanced. The 28mm ZE will probably feel comfortable on a 5D Mark II and 7D body as well, but it may feel nose-heavy on a smaller dSLR like the Canon 500D / XTi.

The focus ring is well positioned and as noted earlier, the focus ring is nicely dampened and is a joy to use compared to the manual focus feel of most Canon lenses. Focus confirmation works fine with the 1Ds Mark III, beeping when focus is achieved for the selected auto-focus point. The focus throw is about a quarter rotation, allowing for fine focus adjustments. The trade-off is focus speed. Going from near focus to distance focus requires a healthy turn, plus the time to finesse focus. Some people may find the Canon “S” focus screens beneficial for manual focusing:

1. •EF-S Focusing Screen for Canon 40D and Canon 50D Cameras
   

2. •EG-S Super Precision Matte Focusing for the 5D Mark II
   

3. •EC-S Focusing Screen for the Canon 1Ds Mark I, II & III and 1D Mark I, II, II N & III
   

On the ZE lenses the aperture is 100% automatic, thus eliminating the stop-down metering process. In the past 4-5 years I have missed my fair share of pictures due to the time required for stop down metering. The process is simple - focus wide open, turn the focus ring to the desired aperture and take the picture. While the process is simple, it requires added time. While turning the aperture ring, sometimes I moved the camera and compromised critical focus. Or the subject moved, or the composition changed, thus compromising the picture. With the ZE lenses aperture control is like any other Canon EF / EF-S. The aperture value is set via camera body and when the picture is taken, the Canon body sends a signal to the lens to close the aperture to the set aperture value.

The 28mm ZE has a 58mm front filter thread. A 67mm front thread would have been a better choice since the upcoming 50mm F2 Makro-Planar ZE and 100mm F2 Makro-Planar ZE have 67mm threads (50mm and 100mm ZE’s were announced December 4, 2009). The 58mm thread implies 58mm filter purchases, thus increasing the overall cost ownership. I already have 67mm, 72mm and 77mm filters, and have not decided if I will buy any filters specifically for the 28mm ZE.

PERFORMANCE

Thus far the most impressive aspect of the 28mm Distagon ZE has been its resolution at near and mid focus distances. A well executed floating element design results in a sharp lens across its entire focusing range. The 28mm ZE’s near focus resolution and sharpness is excellent. I compared some product shots taken with the Canon 50mm F2.5 Macro and the 28mm ZE; the Zeiss 28mm images looked as sharp and as detailed as the 50mm Macro images. Resolution is equally impressive at 5, 10 or 12 feet. At longer distances the 28mm ZE is sharp, but the resolution does not feel as impressive as it does on the near & mid distance images. The 28mm ZE appears to do well as traditional wide angle lens; however, F11 images focused at infinity do not leverage the 28mm ZE’s strengths.

The 28mm ZE’s drawing or rendering reminds me of the Leica 50mm F1.4 Summilux-M ASPH. There is a subtle 3-D feel with close subjects. The 28mm ZE’s bokeh is fairly smooth and thus far has not produced anything jarring or “nervous” (a very busy background with lots of double image outlines) bokeh. Bare tree branches with no leaves are ideal candidates for nasty looking bokeh, thus far I have been pleased with the 28mm ZE’s rendering in those settings.

Two commonly mentioned issues with the Zeiss 28mm F2 ZF reviews are - focus field curvature and color fringing. When reviewing images, I do not look for problems. If through the course of selecting images and working them in Photoshop a problem becomes apparent, then I start pixel peeping. Thus far I have not come across any objectionable color fringing (chromatic aberrations). There have been traces, but the CA was only visible when reviewing the images at 100% or greater. And, the CA as either been minimized or completely removed when using the lens correction tools in Phase One’s C1 Pro raw editing software.