Pros
- Beautifully built lens that will last for a lifetime
- Wonderfully smooth and accurate focus ring
- Beautiful color rendition
- Excellent bokeh and “drawing”
- Visual character
- Compact size
- Reasonable price
Cons
- Expensive
- Not particularly sharp wide open
- Low micro-contrast at wide apertures
- Some chromatic aberrations
- No autofocus
Zeiss lenses are considered some of the best for video. They have both excellent image quality and build quality without all the bells and whistles of other photo lenses. In this review, we'll focus on the Zeiss ZE lens mount which is built for Canon EOS cameras.
This lens is one of the most inexpensive entry points into the Zeiss lineup. It currently costs $725 brand new and it will last you a lifetime. It's a great investment if you love the look and wish to marry into the Zeiss family. Zeiss lenses will not disappoint you, but they are a much larger investment than many other legacy brands.
The build quality of this lens is top of the line. Besides the Leica R lenses nothing else seems to compare. Everything is made from metal and it feels as solid as a tank. It also capitalizes on tried and true methods which make vintage lenses some of the most sought after video lenses on the market. An important thing to note, is that it does not include a built-in autofocus or image stabilization feature. Aside from the electronic aperture adjustment, this lens is entirely manual.
Another version of this lens is made for the Nikon mount called Zeiss ZF, which does have a manual aperture ring. I'd recommend this version if you're buying this primarily for video. You can declick the aperture ring in the future creating a cine smooth lens. The only caveat is that it focuses in the opposite direction like other Nikon lenses.
The focus ring on this lens is one of its best features. It has an extremely long throw which makes precise focus adjustments a breeze. This lens has etched marks on the barrel to show distance scale and even has aids for setting hyperfocal distance to aperture. It's an old school feature that you rarely find on other lenses.
This lens will need a special adapter to work properly with a mirrorless camera. So, you will need to buy an adapter with an electronic control for the aperture which can be more expensive than a simple lens adapter for manual lenses. This will also affect your ability to close down the aperture without using hard stops. Just know that you will not have the option to de-click this particular ZE. Again, the ZF version of this lens will not require an electronic adapter to manually adjust the aperture.
In this review, we used the superb Metabones Canon EF to Micro Four Thirds speed booster. This adapter widens the focal length 0.71 times, increases the maximum aperture by one stop, and increases the overall sharpness. Surely, this additional feature will allow the lens to outperform other lenses we've tested so far.
Overall, I am very impressed with its optical performance. It really shines at f/2 and above. Surprisingly though, it does not seem to be as sharp at at its lowest aperture of f/1.4. I'm surprised by this because Zeiss lenses are considered to be some of the best in the business and I would've thought it would've performed better at this low aperture setting.
Despite all this, the color accuracy and saturation are both stunning and the images I was able to capture look incredible. The colors look a little richer and produce a true cinematic color for your videos.
If you're looking for a modern lens with that classic vintage feel then this is the one for you. Personally, I wouldn't spend the extra money on a brand new lens like this when I know I can get a true vintage lens at the same quality for much less. If you shoot with mirrorless cameras, you're far better off buying and adapting vintage lenses that perform just as well as this one.