Consider Zeiss 2.8 16-35 & 24-70 for Sony Alpha adapted to M43

Yes, rental insurance has to be provided---anybody can get it through NPPA.org which uses Hays Co---and they are underwritten by Travelers. Worth every penny. I pay about a thousand a year for $28K or so of coverage of my own gear, loss/theft, and within that I'm covered renting somebody else's gear up to $25K. So I can rent Barry's ZF's!
 
Zeiss Plans for M43

Zeiss Plans for M43

Zeiss is bringing the excellent but pricey Compact Prime line-up to native M43 shortly, but sadly they aren't planning (in the short term) to bring their photo prime lenses to M43 - they recommend using the Nikon ZF.2 primes with an adapter. We like the Novoflex adapter.

The advantage of the manual focus ZF.2 primes is the nice long buttery focus ring over the AF-designed Sony/Zeiss zoom lenses. Sony/Zeiss primes have nice long focus throws too, but not as smooth. The ZF.2 are a tad cheaper too.

In the end, any lens that has Zeiss in it is going to make you happy.

DV Dude
The DV Shop
Toronto, Canada
www.dvshop.ca
 
The Sony zeiss are nice because the give you the zeiss look but are much more versatile and less expensive than the zeiss primes to get comparable range.
 
Yep, these oh so fantastic but I've been trying to hold out for the fabled Zeiss M43 lenses which I'm hoping will hit the market not too far from now; otherwise I'm going to have to break down and consider something like this. The only things that concern me is the weight (2.2lbs without adapter for 24-70) and the lack of an apature ring. :-(
 
Well this was an interesting read because I was considering getting the Nikon 24-70 and the Sony zeiss 24-70, when I heard the nikon version had all sorts of zoom teething issues...the sony zeiss seemed more reliable until I looked at this data. While its not a scientific assessment it gives okay trends to take into account. In summary, it seems the nikon went from high zoom issues to low within the last 6 months, so it appears nikon probably fixed the issue. While the first time Sony sampling met their minimums, they had 30% failure (top of their failure list) with the zeiss 24-70 (Decentered, calibration, autofocus) and he even went on to say that repair costs were "spit out your morning coffee" expensive. So while a rental lens certainly is going to be abused more than your personal lens...Nikons 5 year warranty is of great value when Sony only gives you 1 year.

http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2010/09/lens-repair-data-4-0
 
User Result of Zeiss Zooms

User Result of Zeiss Zooms

Interesting data, but I'm extremely happy with the results of these lenses used in this project by a DP that had never touched the camera before and just figured it out as we went along. He's always let the whites blow and I was expecting that to be an issue in available light situations, but the editor who was also the producer loved it. These lenses are gorgeous, the adapter is solid, and the Hotrod Tuner Kit, Cineroid, and Cineslider helped make this a successful community service show for a very happy client. Here's the Vimeo link. http://vimeo.com/21450895
 

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No doubt I'm very glad he was pleased. They are awesome lenses...and I'm sure they will serve you and your clients well. I personally was just having a really hard time deciding which lenses to get and finally decided on the nikon...what decided it for me was the weather proofing, warranty, sharpness, ruggedness, and versatility to use on other platforms. Some of these same features are no doubt possessed by the Sony zeiss...I think mostly since I've been a minolta still camera owner, I was tired of being more of a niche user with lens support/availability etc...so we'll see in the long run if it was a good investment to go a bit more mainstream.
 
I concur. For the money, it was the way to go for me. I don't think any of these cameras/lenses are for the long haul---in a year it will all change again, heck it already is! I'm just having so much fun with camera prices so low and tricking them out with support and lenses. This is not how I used to do it in the 80's and 90's when it took 4 years to pay off a camera and a second lens was a luxury item. It's unbelievable times for those of us in the video game for so long.
 
Sound very interesting. 2.8, great IQ/bokeh, potentially a good color-match to the Zeiss ZF.2 primes (is that correct?) and a good manual focus ring for a follow focus on the 24-70, which beats the 35-100 zuiko.

But I'm a little confused as to how to control the iris with the adapter. You can't set it to a repeatable marking of any kind? For instance in a two camera interview if I have both lenses at 35mm and I want their apertures to match (to something other then 2.8) can I do that using the adapter?

I love my zuiko 14-35 (and on most days my 35-100) but the ability to add in ZF.2 primes and have them color match my zooms would be very attractive...
 
Well, I suppose you could put marks on the adapter for repeatability, or use scopes to try to match aperture with consistent lighting...but accuracy may vary on that!
 
I think they color match, but i´am not sure.
if someone wants to answer that question accurately everybody is happy!

Cheers
 
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