Best 50mm prime for $500?

Ditto to the above.

Just received my Zeiss lenses, 21, 28, 35, 50 and 85 (no 100 =( ) in the ZF brand. Gonna put the 50 and 85 against my CY 50 and 85 for some testing, then the 28 and 35 against each other of the either set when I get back home...

No charts, but in actual shooting, between crappy glass (Tamron) and my Zeiss CY there has been a major difference.
 
Kholi said:
No charts, but in actual shooting, between crappy glass (Tamron) and my Zeiss CY there has been a major difference.
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Contrast or sharpness though? Shoot with your 1.4 at wide open and it looks horrible. But adjust it to bring up some contrast and you'll see the resolved sharpness is just as much (at least in the 7D's video mode).

If you don't adjust the contrast, you'll be sick at how nasty the 50mm 1.4 looks at wide open...
 
Barry_Green said:
Contrast or sharpness though? Shoot with your 1.4 at wide open and it looks horrible. But adjust it to bring up some contrast and you'll see the resolved sharpness is just as much (at least in the 7D's video mode).

If you don't adjust the contrast, you'll be sick at how nasty the 50mm 1.4 looks at wide open...
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I think we're seeing a different image? It may be because I don't use the Standard profile, neutral with everything dialed down. At 1.4 on the 50 ZF and the 50 CY it looks much better to my eye than the 50 1.4 Nikon. My 50/1.4 Super Takumar actually "Looks" sharper wide open than the ZF and C/Y, but by 2~2.8 it falls behind swiftly.

I don't know if it's the way the Zeiss lenses handle Micro Contrast, they clearly look better to me than a lot of the glass I've tried, with the infamous zooms coming close to or matching, yet with a certain "Soft" overall quality to it.
 
Amazing chart, thanks for the info. It really is a great example of real world testing, even if it is a chart.
 
Back to the OP...I've got a nifty fifty, the Canon 1.4 and Canon 50L...as well as the Sigma 50. No Zeiss or Nikor comparisons....but, I LOVE my Sigma 50. Easily one of my most used lenses in my arsenal and to me, no comparison between it and my two Canons (1.4/1.8). My Canon 50L does fair a bit better than the Sigma, but not by much. Certainly not in the video arena. For stills, I have a hard time distinguishing between the two. 90% of my lenses are Canon...but I have a couple of Sigmas and the 50/1.4 is my favorite! Definitely tough to beat at the price point.

Definitely take a look at the Sigma and Canon 1.4. IF you are going to shoot stills at all with your 7d, the 50mm is an excellent walk around lens...on a 1.6 crop, gives you the perception of an 80mm lens.
 
macgregor said:
They are all sooooooo soft wide open... buy the f1.8 and spend the rest of the money in something else, like a vacation in Vegas. Then bet the remaining $400 in the rulette, on red. If you win, buy the ZF. If you loose, you still have a wonderfull lens that is sharper than most L glass anyway.
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Good advice. However, I'd buy two - just in case you drop one of them onto the floor. These Canon 50mm f1.8 are crappy plastic lenses (with great optics, though).
One important factor - forget about pulling focus with it. The entire focus ring rotation range is ~60 degrees, has significant play and you won't be able to mount the gearring on it.
BTW...MacGregor - are you Polish?
 
Hi Trez! I live in Warsaw city center but i´m not polish. I´m just having some long vacations here. What do you for living here?

About canon 50mm lenses... after owning the 1.2, the 1.4 and the 1.8. they all perform the same at f.2.8 and they are all soft and bloomy wide open. So if you are under a tight budget the 1.8 is the best way to go. Don´t be afraid of performance since this cheap plastic lens will outperfom most canon lenses in sharpness and resolution.
The f.1.4 focus ring breaks after some use.
The f1.2 is so bloomy wide open that hardly you´ll find a situation where you want to shoot wider than f1.4.


Now the advantage with the zeiss for video mode is that is fully manual (but a great disadvantage for stills since DSLRs don´t have focusing ground glasses and it´s actually impossible to accurately focus by eye with a manual focus lens).
 
macgregor said:
Hi Trez! I live in Warsaw city center but i´m not polish. I´m just having some long vacations here. What do you for living here?

About canon 50mm lenses... after owning the 1.2, the 1.4 and the 1.8. they all perform the same at f.2.8 and they are all soft and bloomy wide open. So if you are under a tight budget the 1.8 is the best way to go. Don´t be afraid of performance since this cheap plastic lens will outperfom most canon lenses in sharpness and resolution.
The f.1.4 focus ring breaks after some use.
The f1.2 is so bloomy wide open that hardly you´ll find a situation where you want to shoot wider than f1.4.
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That's the thing about 50mm lenses, they're generally all great performers and cheap. I do prefer my Zeiss 50's (ZF and Contax) over everything else, but I think it's a MicroContrast thing.

Now the advantage with the zeiss for video mode is that is fully manual (but a great disadvantage for stills since DSLRs don´t have focusing ground glasses and it´s actually impossible to accurately focus by eye with a manual focus lens).
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Unless you activate the video screen, which you can certainly focus with before taking a still, just the still mode becomes slow. It is definitely hard as hell to focus, though, with manual glass through the Viewfinder.

I've been testing out my new Zeiss glass (ZF/ZE) and finding the differences between the ZE/ZF line-up and Contax to be minimal but relevant in decision making. In comparison to a an 85/1.4 Nikon there's really no comparing, to my eyes... both Zeiss 1.4's kill the Nikon image.

Gonna start up a Zeiss Still Lens Info Thread soon.
 
politplastika said:
How good are the focus rings on the zeiss lenses (for video focus pulling usage) ?
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Exquisite.

And you can get them converted to a more cinema-appropriate configuration by Duclos Lenses; for $250 they'll de-click and lubricate the iris ring, add focus gears, and add a standard 80mm front on them.
 
I've shot all of my D90 stuff with ZF primes. They are amazing you will definitely enjoy the quality of Zeiss lenses for both stills and video.

I am about to try my set of ZF's on a 7d. I can't wait.

I am currently shooting on the 18mm, 25mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm & 100mm.
 
100/2's a Macro as well, it's pretty silky as far as racking. A very long throw, as well. The 85's the same way.

Right now I've got 21/2.8 (omfg), 28/2, 35/2, 50/1.4, 85/1.4 and still waiting on the 100/2

I'm on the fence on whether to go full ZE, however, because I also have copies of the 50 ZE and 85 ZE and not having the manual iris ring hasn't been an issue, to be honest. Which sounds silly, but even if you WERE to get the Manual Iris lenses and you were trying to do an on-the-fly-exposure ramp, you would have to get the lens professionaly de-clicked which costs more money.

Doing Stop Splits with ZE's is no issue, as you jump from 1.4 to 1.8 to 2 and so on and so forth anyway with 1/2 INcrements. Activate 1/3 increments and you get more.

1.6, etc.

So, I'm trying to figure this one out. Do I stay ZF, future protect for other camera bodies or do I go ZE, skip the lens adapters (which eliminates lens play) and suffer if the next great camera body is Nikon?

I must say, though, the 21/2.8 is astonishing. Close Focus + That wide on either the 7D or the 5D is just insane.
 
politplastika said:
Please do :love4:

How good are the focus rings on the zeiss lenses (for video focus pulling usage) ?
They look real nice...
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Like Barry said, quite nice. HOWEVER, I do have a set of Zeiss Contax and for Follow Focus operation, they're more intuitive. For handheld and pulling off of the barrel, the Zeiss ZF's and ZE's work better.

Go figure.

Lots of stuff to think about between the two sets, though. more soon!
 
this question has probably been answered, but is it not difficult pulling focus with a follow focus on the ZF lenses, when they focus backwards from just about everything else? they seem to be the most commonly packaged lens sets with follow focuses (redrock, cinevate, etc.), but every other lens focuses the other way.
 
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