matching the new T1.5 Zeiss Super Speeds

[Andrae Palmer]

Just ordered the 35, 50 and 85 Zeiss Super Speeds. Now I'm wondering what are some good lenses to match these with on the wide and long end? Would love a 18 & 25 close to the focal length of these. I know next year we should see more lenses in the set. Would the old Zeiss Super Speeds be a good match color wise? I'm not too keen to use the old CP.2's for a color match due to 2.8/3.5 apertures on the wides.

 

[Ivan Kovax]

Hey Andrae,

I am curious to hear your thoughts on these lenses. How do they compare to the canon cine primes?

I would guess that the old super speeds would be a fair bit softer than these new ones so I don't think they would match very well. But that is just a hunch.

Ivan

 

[Jeffrey T. Morgan]

Wait, when did these get the "Super Speed" name? That's awesome! You must post tests with these. Have any been done so far?

 

[Nick Morrison]

Yeah, these prob won't match perfectly with the older Super Speeds, as the Zeiss T* coating has changed a lot since the 70's/80's.

Although, they will likely COLOR MATCH.

The older Super Speeds will just get a more low-con/flare vintage look from the coating.

I think it's worth a test. My guess is that these NEW Super Speeds will look cleaner, more contrasty and modern. If you have lots of flare and shooting outside, I'm sure the differences outside will be more noticeable. But in a controlled environment like an interview, I'm sure you'd notice it much less, if at all. You could grade out the small diferences.

I'm curious if these are sharper wide open. Stopped down, Super Speeds are sharp. It's just wide open where they get creamy (which isn't always bad, lots of people prefer the look wide open). My hunch, as they are based on the ZF designs, is that they are not razor sharp wide open. Whether they are sharper I guess someone will have to test and see.

I'm not sure where you can find a budget 18mm and 25mm that will match, at T2 or faster. Oddly enough, the RPP 18mm maybe your best for a wide. It's pretty clean looking too. RPP's flare differently, but again you can probably grade out the small differences.

Good luck on your quest, and congrats on the new purchase.

Oh yeah, maybe consider the Canon 24mm 1.4. Another clean, modern lens that's fast. And covers FF.

- N

 

[Andrae Palmer]

Thanks for taking the time to give me some good advice Nick. I'll be sure to post back here once I've tested the color and sharpness matching.

Wait, when did these get the "Super Speed" name? That's awesome! You must post tests with these. Have any been done so far?

I'm still waiting on delivery... hopefully it won't be too long. These got the name "Super Speeds" at NAB... they are just for the 35, 50 and 85 at T1.5... the older sets are just called Compact Primes.

I am curious to hear your thoughts on these lenses. How do they compare to the canon cine primes?

I'll be doing a comparison as soon as they land. Stay tuned!

 

[Chuck Z]

Count me in as someone interested in the results, too.

 

[Jacek Zakowicz]

These are just rehoused ZFs (oh yeah with 14 bade iris and "hand picked glass" boo hoo:lol 35 f1.4, 50f1.4 and 85 f1.4.
For $5K a pop. The original CPs were that speed also- so what's new about these?
Unbelievable......
Just shoot tests with the ZFs
BTW the 50 f1.4 is a horrible lens IMO

 

[Matt Gottshalk]

http://matthewduclos.wordpress.com/2012/09/19/do-your-speeds-need-to-be-super/#more-2008

 

[Jacek Zakowicz]

I rest my case....

 

[Nick Morrison]

BTW the 50 f1.4 is a horrible lens IMO

It's funny, I'm coming at this an obsessive Contax fan. The Contax 50 1.4, which I always assumed was the basis for the ZF/ZE 50 1.4, is superb stopped down. WO it gets a little muddy, yeah. Which is the same rep as the ZF/ZE.

What's funny is there is another Contax 50 that never made it into the ZF/ZE line. Its the Contax 50 1.7. The budget model. Why do I bring it up? Cuz it's kind of famous in still photography circles. For being SCREAMINGLY SHARP wide open. I've tested it against my 1.4, and true enough...it's noticeable.

It makes sense that Zeiss never added the 1.7 to their ZF/ZE line. It would have been confusing, considering they have a 50 f2 macro.

But I'm just stating for the record that they have made a sub F2 50mm that's sharp wide open, for whatever it's worth....

 

[Nick Gardner]

These new lenses will not have anything in common with the super speeds (real ones). The real speeds are much sharper, more flare resistant, and have better contrast then the ZFs, so I doubt these new offerings will fair any better then the old zfs.

Nick

 

[Nick Morrison]

These new lenses will not have anything in common with the super speeds (real ones). The real speeds are much sharper, more flare resistant, and have better contrast then the ZFs, so I doubt these new offerings will fair any better then the old zfs.

Nick

Hey Nick, you are right the these new "Super Speeds" won't do any better than the ZF's.

Not sure if you are right about the flaring though....the new T coatings are supposed to control flare more; one of the reason's why they changed. And they added more contrast. I don't like these new coatings, because when a source overpowers the coating, the image gets splotchy and purple...whereas the older coatings would bloom and flare in a really nice way.

Anyway, this is really all semantics.

I think the new Zeiss lenses and old ones look pretty different, so on that we agree...I'll leave it at that!

 

[Andrae Palmer]

These new lenses will not have anything in common with the super speeds (real ones). The real speeds are much sharper, more flare resistant, and have better contrast then the ZFs, so I doubt these new offerings will fair any better then the old zfs.

Nick

http://reduser.net/forum/showthread...er-Speed-(MK3)-VS-Zeiss-ZF-SLR-s-(Shot-on-RED)


Funny the tester above noticed that the Zeiss ZF's were sharper than the Zeiss Super Speeds and color rendition matched.

 

[Stephen Williams]

It's funny, I'm coming at this an obsessive Contax fan. The Contax 50 1.4, which I always assumed was the basis for the ZF/ZE 50 1.4, is superb stopped down. WO it gets a little muddy, yeah. Which is the same rep as the ZF/ZE.

What's funny is there is another Contax 50 that never made it into the ZF/ZE line. Its the Contax 50 1.7. The budget model. Why do I bring it up? Cuz it's kind of famous in still photography circles. For being SCREAMINGLY SHARP wide open. I've tested it against my 1.4, and true enough...it's noticeable.

It makes sense that Zeiss never added the 1.7 to their ZF/ZE line. It would have been confusing, considering they have a 50 f2 macro.

But I'm just stating for the record that they have made a sub F2 50mm that's sharp wide open, for whatever it's worth....

Stopped down as you say, then just buy a F2.8 lens & save yourself a fortune, it's wise open where it counts. Having shot last week with the Leica C primes I can see the difference

 

[Demetri Zuev]

I will be very interested in your test results too, Andrae.

I'm in the verge of investing into a more or less complete CP.2 set and one of the burning questions inside my head right now is — should I get Super Speeds, or just regular 35, 85 and 50 Macro.

 

[Lee Saxon]

[disclaimer : I haven't used the new-ish ZF 28 2 or ZF/"Super Speed" 35 1.4]

Even wide open, the ZF 50 1.4 and ZF 85 1.4 are not the horrible lenses some say. But they aren't worth the "Zeiss premium." (the 15, 21, 50 Macro, and 100 are the only ones that are, in my humble opinion)

Everyone assumed that was why the CP.2 rehousings utilized a matte to artificially limit their aperture. Now it seems it was so Zeiss could release even-more-overpriced "Super Speed" variations. -.-

 

[Ryan De Franco]

CARL ZEISS

IF YOU ARE GOING TO CALL YOUR NEW LENSES "SUPERSPEEDS" BECAUSE IT SOUNDS WOAH MAD COOL

someone, somewhere, inevitably, is going to get very confused. and end up with the wrong set of lenses. imagine opening a flight case to find compact prime speeds when you wanted vintage superspeeds. producers, rich boy DPs, savvy clients and directors, all of these people have enough trouble remembering the difference between old and new zeiss and why their job deserves one or the other.

calling the new lenses superspeeds would be like calling Disney's new star wars movie "A new hope:" it might be new (and the lens might be fast), but that don't make it right.

I know caps is shouting, but this merits shouting about. can we call the re-housed ZF designs "compact speeds" or "CP2 speeds" or, in conversation, "Compact prime superspeeds?" really, the more words come out of your mouth, the more people will pay to rent them.

 

[Daniel Soderberg]

Since the new "Super Speeds" are actually Compact Primes, they will probably still look and feel like CPs. One big difference is the flare color which is purple in the CPs and SS have blue flares because of coating.