List Price: $1,099.99
Sale Price: $898.00
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I pre-ordered this Zeiss lens very early on in August 2011. Getting this lens over a week ago, I wondered whether my implicit trust in Zeiss as implemented in a Sony E-mount is justified. I have used several excellent Zeiss lenses with my Nikon dSLR and wanted to give an auto-focusing version of one of its proven design a try with the Sony NEX-5N.
It is early days yet I am already inclined to give this lens a 5-star on account of its very good performance wide-open and even more, when stopped down to f/2.5 onward. The center is sharp wide-open and the corners improves visibly by f/2.8. Color, contrast and detail are all superb, while vignetting is minimal wide-open. This lens is very well-balanced and it is difficult to exaggerate how well this lens draws and renders an image. Clarity and acuity are immediately noticeable when transitioning from one of the Sony lenses to this lens.
The lens comes in a soft black bag and also comes with a hood that can be reversed into the lens for a compact carry. It takes a 49mm filter. Is the lens expensive? Do I want this lens to be priced less? Definitely. But as an owner of several Zeiss lens and knowing full well what these lenses can deliver, I cannot in good point claim that this lens is expensive. If anything, I would consider this lens as very good value. I could actually go farther in my praise of this lens but in this time of economic dislocation, it would be imprudent for me to say this so I will leave this praise where it is now.
If I am forced to look for a weakness in this lens, I would say that it exist in two areas. The first is that this lens is nowhere as small or as light as the Sony 16mm f/2.8. It is a fairly big lens and substantially increases the size of the NEX-5N when mounted. But I am very willing to forego my critical assessment of this lens' size and weight vs the Sony 16mm f/2.8 as the latter would be a very poor second and simply does not compare to this Zeiss lens in terms of its optical performance. It makes it very painful for me to look at the images taken with the Sony 16mm f/2.8 when I compare this with the Zeiss 24mm f/1.8.
Then as a dSLR user, I would actually look at the Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 and call it as small and light in relation o to the Nikkor 24mm f/1.4G which I use with the Nikon D7000 + MB-D11, and occasionally on several tests, with the NEX-5N. The Nikkor 24mm f/1.4G simply overwhelms the NEX-5N in terms of size and weight making an Arca-based lens-support all but necessary. Transitioning to the Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 on the NEX-5N from the Nikkor 24mm f/1.4G dramatically drives home the bulk and weight difference. From this perspective, this lens is neither big or heavy for me but believe that I should highlight its difference on this point vis-a-vis the Sony 16mm f/2.8. This lens' size via-a-vis the 16mm f/2.8 is easily justified and offset by its stellar performance.
The second area of weakness I see in this Zeiss lens is its tendency to flare and its chromatic aberration under harsh light transitions. While these perhaps cannot be avoided given its wide-angle coverage and its fast f/1.8 aperture, it can be a bit disconcerting when the much humbler Sony 16mm f/2.8 can easily match it in this area at the same aperture settings. I have the latest version of ACR and Lightroom and neither are very successful in removing the purple fringing. Yet I am quite accepting of this lens' weakness on this point as even the stellar Nikkor 24mm f/1.4G does not unduly out-perform it in this regard. Yes, the Nikkor 24mm f/1.4G is better but not by much. Given the size and weight penalty of using the Nikkor 24mm f/1.4G not to mention the lack of auto-focus when mounted on the NEX-5N, I cannot be overly critical with the performance of this lens.
EDIT: 2012 March 8
As expected, this lens holds up very well with the NEX-7. Used with the NEX-5N and NEX-7 weak AA filter, this lens renders scenes so indescribably well that one has to use this lens to appreciate how good it is. Matched with the higher resolution of the NEX-7, the details are incredibly sharp and clear though I make it a point not to shoot this lens beyond f/8.0 when lens diffraction will make its impact felt. Overall, I highly recommend this lens to anyone who wants to get the best possible image with their NEXs using a native E-mount lens.
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