5D / 85 Zeiss / 50 1.8 / 24 2.8

[ROCKMORE]

These are some grabs from the timeline. I shot with the 5D, 85mm 1.4 Zeiss Planar, 50mm Canon 1.8, and 24mm Canon 2.8.
All shot at neutral 0-0-0-0 with no corrections.
The Zeiss is superior, but 50mm 1.8 Canon held it's own this round.

 

[derekhillier]

Interesting that your comparing Zeiss to non L series lenses?

 

[ROCKMORE]

Interesting that your comparing Zeiss to non L series lenses?

There are many great lenses out there. This is a good example that a low cost lens may perform well enough to work beside a lens worth ten times as much. If I didn't say what lens it was you probably wouldn't guess just looking at the images.

 

[egproductions]

I agree that there are many very cheap lenses that will outperform a ziess. These aren't good tests though. Ideally we would need to see full 1920x1080 frame grabs at fast shutter speeds to illiminate the possibility of motion blur. scaled down, a low quality lens can resolve a 1000x563 image just the same as a very sharp lens.

 

[edsonkwushu]

Personally, I think the Zeiss lenses bring out more pop in the faces. It could be just me, but it looks like the changes in the tones of the face are less harsh and even half a stop brighter? But yes, they look practically identical for the most part.

 

[ROCKMORE]

I agree that there are many very cheap lenses that will outperform a ziess. These aren't good tests though. Ideally we would need to see full 1920x1080 frame grabs at fast shutter speeds to illiminate the possibility of motion blur. scaled down, a low quality lens can resolve a 1000x563 image just the same as a very sharp lens.

These aren't actually tests, just frames from my shoot that show a real world example of the two different lenses side by side. I did select frames with the least motion blur though. 1000x563 was the largest image I could upload here. If you want to see a 1920x1080 Jpeg drop your email address in my message box and I will be happy to forward them to you.
I also shot a series of more controlled tests comparing the 5D and 550D with the same lenses to see how well the smaller sensor performs in HD.
The camere was locked off and I shot the Nikkor 50mm 1.4, Canon 50mm 1.8, Zeiss 85mm 1.4 Planar, Canon 24mm 2.8, Nikkor 80-200 2.8 ED, As far as I can tell all these lenses produce high quality images and both sensors are about equal in output resolution at 1920X1080 if there is enough light to work with ISO 200 or brighter.

 

[ROCKMORE]

Personally, I think the Zeiss lenses bring out more pop in the faces. It could be just me, but it looks like the changes in the tones of the face are less harsh and even half a stop brighter? But yes, they look practically identical for the most part.

I agree the Zeiss has a better look with skin tones and softness. The Zeiss is also a warmer color than the Canon, but just the fact that the $99 lens competes at all is the most amazing part.