Zeiss vs. Nikon 35mm still lenses

[jaadgy akanni]

I was not aware. I had heard through other forums that JVC was supposed to offer the option. Too bad the $1200 mini-DV/S-VHS deck I bought from JVC died on me with hardly any use just after the warranty expired. I've avoided their products ever since.

I have a JVC HD200U and yes, it does have image flip.

 

[Harry Lime]

I'm very late into this thread, but wanted to share some experiences with the Zeiss and Nikon glass.

I own and have shot Nikkor and Zeiss glass in F mount.

On a whole the Zeiss glass is superior. It is sharper from edge to edge, especially below f4 or f5.6. The Zeiss glass is also far more resistant to flare. The 1.4/50 Planar is exceptional in this respect. If I remember correctly the ZF lenses are also color balanced across the lineup. Some of the lenses like the 2/100mm Macro are based on Zeiss Cinema lenses.

I found that the Nikkor AIS 1.4/50 is very close in performance to the Zeiss, but is a little softer in the corners between 1.4 and about 2.8. Contrast is also a little lower, below f4 or f5.6. The Zeiss is very, very resistant to flare and again better than the Nikon. The Zeiss bokeh is smoother, because of the round aperture. The Nikon has a 5 blade hexagonal aperture and your specular points of light will not always be round.

The Nikkor is 2/35 ok, but not even close to what the 2/35 ZF can do.

Same for the 25mm.

The Zeiss ZF 85mm and Nikkor 1.4/85 are close.

The Nikkor 2/28mm is a little soft wide open, but very sharp once you stop it down a little. But I would probably put my money on the new ZF 2/28. The Nikkor has been in production for about 30-40 years.

If you are going Nikkor, take a look at the Micro-Nikkor macro lenses. These are extremely sharp and come in 55, 60 and 105mm length.

The problem with the Nikkor primes is that the majority of them haven't been updated since the Vietnam War or the late 1980's. The newer AF versions of the primes are plastic bodied and unlike the old metal incarnations which were build like a tank, won't hold up to heavy duty use for very long. And again there is the issue of the 5 bladed apertures.

The Zeiss ZF lenses are very well made, by Cosina in Japan (to Zeiss spec).
They are metal and focus very smoothly.

Personally I would go Leica. I shoot both the R (SLR) and M rangefinder system and without a doubt it's the best glass I've seen. The Leica R glass is extremely sharp especially wide open, color balanced and neutral across the lineup, display very smooth out of focus areas and are extremely well built.

A few years ago, when I was working for Disney and Digital Domain, we switched from using Nikkors to Leica R (reflex) for shooting Vista Vision FX plates. The difference in dailies was quite an eye opener. There really was no contest.

 

[Nils J. Nesse]

Personally I would go Leica.

There are now two Leica enthusiasts on the forum. One of them is The Third Man, who has a picture of Harry Lime as his avatar; and the other calls himself Harry Lime. Can it be coincidence?

 

[Harry Lime]

Now that's weird...
;-)


Lime and Lime, no relationship.