Bazelmans's reviews

  • Carl Zeiss 35mm f/2 Distagon T* 2/35

    10 out of 10 points and recommended
    Contrast, sharpness, bokeh, flare, construction
    vignetting, manual focus, slight distorsion

    I use this lens on a D700.

    * Contrast is unbelievable, resulting in crystal clear pictures with brilliant colours.

    * Lens is also extremely sharp from corner to corner throughout the entire aperture range. My impression is that the sharpness is constantly limited by the 12 million pixels of my D700's sensor.

    * Beautiful bokeh too. I love to shoot at the f/2.4 - f/3.3 range.

    * Vignetting is significant wide open on a FX camera. It drops when stopping down. Can be corrected in PP if desired.

    * CA and colour fringing are low, but just noticeable in some occassions. Not to worry about however.

    * Distorsion is low, but the lens is not without. Noticeable in architectural photography, not a problem otherwise.

    * Flare is amazingly low, much better controlled than with other lenses I have seen.

    * Solid mechanical construction. All metal. Smooth manual focusing.

    Overall conclusions:
    This lens is wonderful. I highly recommend it for the serious photographer who doesn't mind to focus manually.

    reviewed August 7th, 2010 (purchased for $975)

  • Carl Zeiss 21mm f/2.8 Distagon T* 2.8/21

    10 out of 10 points and recommended
    Contrast, sharpness, colour reproduction, low CA, low fringing, flare suppression, close focusing distance, bokeh, build quality, focusing

    This lens has brought to me everything I wished for. And even more than that. It's better than I could imagine. It's versatile. It's magical. It's a dream coming true.

    I was a little bit afraid of the distortion mentioned by others, but I am very very glad I bought this lens. The distortion is much less than I feared.
    There is vignetting at wide lens openings, but I can't say it is a con, because sometimes it adds to the atmosphere in the photo. And if not, it's easily corrected in PP.

    Like I said, the lens is magic. This "magic" is not easy to explain. It is something you have to discover and then experience yourself.
    A small attempt though? ... Imagine shooting flare free pictures at really close object distances with the lens wide open or nearly wide open, creating beautiful bokeh in combination with exaggerated perspectives, while the object in focus remains razor sharp, full of contrast and rendered in beautiful colours!

    reviewed April 4th, 2012 (purchased for $1,900)