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I debated on updating to either this lens or the canon f1.2. After looking at many reviews I decided to go with this lens - and I’m so glad I did. It is SOLID - feels great. Focus is awesome - but I prefer manual focus anyways. Sharp images...And I love the color and creamy bokeh. Definitely gonna be my favorite!
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Outstanding image clarity, very precise focusing (easier than I thought on my Canon 6D - but I do have the matte screen, plus the lens has electronics to allow wide open focus confirmation). Very happy with it, and of course KEH is great.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
This takes the sharpest pictures I have ever seen. Absolutely amazing
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
This lens is fantastic!
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
This review would have been very simple a few months ago... Best quality 50mm lens ever! But then Zeiss released the Otus 55mm f/1.4 and reviews of the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 are beginning to emerge and it's not far behind the Otus. Given that the Sigma will also be cheaper than this lens, it's harder to justify buying this Zeiss Makro Planar lens. First, what did this lens get right? The build quality is amazingly solid, even though the lens is big and heavy for a 50mm f/2. The focus ring is very smooth and well damped, allowing you to focus precisely and deliberately. And the lens also looks very classy, if that matters to you. When it comes to image quality, the Zeiss delivers. At f/2, it used to trump every other lens, including all of the f/1.4 lenses on the market and the Canon 50mm f/1.2. There's no haze (spherical aberration), no chromatic aberration and very little distortion. Coma is very mild and way less intrusive than all the other fast 50mm lenses. And due to it's half-macro design, it focuses very close and its image quality is consistent at all distances. The best way I can describe the image quality is 'medium format like'. With the crispness and contrast it can achieve in the plane of focus - what others like to call the Zeiss micro-contrast - and it's sharp falloff into blur, the lens can separate your subject with surprising definition, even at maximum aperture. And that separation makes the lens look like it's shooting a larger format than it really is. This makes the images really pop and stand out and it's the most endearing quality of this lens. Now the disadvantages... The price is very high for a 50mm f/2 lens, even if it's image quality is this good. When you consider that it's also manual focus, it's an even harder price to justify. Up until recently though, this was the best quality 50mm lens money could buy, so it could justify this price. But then the Otus 55mm came out and wiped the floor with this lens. Thankfully, that lens is ridiculously large and expensive, which meant this lens still had a place. But then Sigma released their 50mm f/1.4 Art lens. This lens lets in twice as much light, boasts autofocus and is cheaper than the Zeiss. The only bragging right now is that the Makro-Planar is smaller than both of these lenses and has can focus as close as 1:2 (half macro). So this lens was a legend, but Sigma had to come in and rain on it's parade. So is this lens relevant anymore... I guess I need to ask some questions... Do I love it? Definitely! Will I keep it? Most likely. Would I recommend it to a friend? Only a dedicated photographer who enjoys manual focusing... If a casual shooter asked for the best lens, I'd tell them the Sigma...Read full review