Zeiss ZF or ZS?

K

Kerplunk

Active member
Am planning on getting a Zeiss Planar 50mm f1.4 (M42) lens. So will need an adapter. I see this lens is also available for Nikon. Don't know much about lenses. Are a lot of the Zeiss lenses available for Nikon (ZF)? If so, am thinking if I get the Nikon Zeiss instead of the standard M42, I could then buy the Nikon adapter and have compatibility with some other Nikon lenses. Whereas buying an M42 adapter will limit me to standard Zeiss?

Which adapter would give me the best selection of available lenses - a Nikon (ZF) adapter or the M42 (ZS) adapter? Thanks!
 
Save your money and find the equivalent Zeiss for the Contax Yashica mount (GH1 adapter is available from the usual eBay Hong Kong / China / Poland source).

Is the difference between the CY and ZF/ZS lenses really enough to justify the £600 difference? I know Kholi was gonna try out some ZF lenses against his CY Zeiss.

I only have the CY Zeiss lenses (85 1.4, 28 2.8, 50 1.7 and 135 2.8). The 85mm is the star of this lot - amazing contrast and sharpness at anything other than wide open. The 28mm is very sharp even wide open, and probably one the sharpest lenses in the world at around F8. All have very good colour, contrast and bokeh.
 
Thanks for the advice. Will definitely check out those CY lenses. They sound pretty great and like they could save some money.

Am curious about your £600 difference though. That would be roughly $1,010 US. Have seen the Zeiss Planar 50mm f1.4 (M42) lens and the ZF commonly going for $550 US. Are you talking about a different lens?

See some Distagon 28 2.8 (CY) on eBay for around $320. Is that a good deal?
 
I'll have a set of Zeiss ZFs and currently own a set of Zeiss CY's. There actually might be a really valid reason to go with the newer ZF's, especially speed and optical quality.

For instance, the floating element 28/2 (which is th eonly 28 available in ZF mount) will wreck the 28/2 on all accounts. The 28/2.8 has a vignetting issue and you actually have to hit about 4~5.6 split before it vanishes.

The 28/2 doesn't have this same issue, and is quite stellar @ 2.8.

So, again, I'll actually have both sets of Zeiss Primes in just a week or so, from 18 - 100 in ZF format, to see how they perform side by side on the same camera.

As for the ZF vs ZS, get ZF. you don't want to deal with adapters that may hurt your infinity focus or close focus.

Also remember that Zeiss ZF's will retain their resale value and are new, wher eas must CY copies are used/second hand and may be defective.

The 28/2 is notorious for having a busted floating element, which is why most copies sell for so much money to begin with. They're basically promising a flawless copy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top