New Zeiss 50mm macro for E mount

[PHIL RUDIN]

Anthony,

The Ziess 24mm, the new 12mm and 50mm macro should all have excellent image quality, you get what you pay for.

To compare the Ziess 24mm to the Sony 10-18 zoom is like apples to oranges. At 24mm the Ziess is much better regardless of the port used.

To compare the Sony 10-18 to the Panasonic 7-14 for M43 is more like apples to apples and using the same 170mm port for both the 7-14 wins hands down, sorry NEX users.

These images are with the NEX-7, Ziess 24mm and 4.33 port. I would expect better results with the 170mm port but you would not be able to get as close. The lens can focus below six inches.

Phil Rudin

 

[Anthony A.]

those are some really sharp pics. love the bokeh pic.... i definitely gotta do more of that underwater (since i shoot exclusively topside in bokeh )

im thinking of getting the z24 for topside anyway so it could work well for underwater pics.... as you have just shown. the 10-18 and z12 will require me to buy the lens and a new port which gets pricey considering i just bought the nauticam dome port a few months back. i was doing some reading and just discovered that the new sony 20mm allows the use of the sony WA and fisheye adaptors. since im really new to underwater photography and really only like wide angle of fish and shipwrecks the sony adaptors are appealing as i already have both. too bad a WA voigtlander doesn't have AF

 

[Marsh]

Will the Zeiss 24mm work with the 4.33" dome? From what I've read, it appears to work with the 4" semi-dome, but posts are possibly referring to the 4.33? Maybe it'll work with either? We need Phil to the rescue here

---------- Post added May 15th, 2013 at 02:02 AM ----------

Okay, I just read the first post in this thread and missed my answer....Duh

---------- Post added May 15th, 2013 at 02:21 AM ----------

Anthony,

Where diid you read that the new Sony 20mm also has the bayonet mount and is also designed to be used with the WA and FE converters? Has the new Sony 20mm proven to be any sharper than the 16? I use both now with the 16 and have been really disappointed with the sharpness of the results. Works okay for general video, but when blowing prints up to any large size, the softness, especially in the corners is a joke. Visibility was poor when I used them, but still I was very close to the subject.

Now that I know the Zeiss 24 works in the 4.33 dome (thanks for the photos Phil), it would be nice if the 20mm gave a decent increase in sharpness for few times when I want more wide angle, especially since all the above lens and adapters are small/light and work with the small 4.33 dome.

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

As you may or may not know I write equipment reviews for Underwater Photography Magazine (UWPMAG.com) and other publications on a regular basis. As a result many of the items I test are in the bata stage of development and not the finished product or missing some component. This was the case with the ZEN Underwater 170mm dome when tested it with the Sony 10-18mm F/4 lens. At the time I did not have the Nauticam gear to zoom the lens so I used it set at 10mm to evaluate the lens at its widest setting. We have since found that the Nauticam gear does not fit the 170mm port well and as they say, it is time to return to the drawing board.

The same is true for the Ziess 24mm lens. When I used the lens with my NEX-7 no port had been developed for the lens by Nauticam. This still appears to be the case because the latest port chart for NEX still does not list the Ziess 24mm as being supported. I used the lens with the four inch dome because as best I can recall it fit to close to the dome in the 4.33 inch port. At the time Nauticam had not released the 20mm and 30mm port extensions. These extensions are very useful tools. I use the 20mm extension with my Panasonic 45mm macro port (same as the Sony 30mm macro port) for the longer Olympus 60mm macro and with the ZEN 170mm dome for Panasonic 7-14mm W/A zoom (with this lens the gear fits very well). With an extension the Ziess 24mm could perhaps work with the 4.33 port but I have not made that test. A few of the images I have taken with the NEX-5 and NEX-7 systems can be found on the NauticamUSA.com site and in the past issues of UWPMAG.com.

Going forward you need to keep in mind that because of the size of the APS-C sensors used in the NEX cameras V. the M43 sensors lens size just needs to be bigger with NEX to cover the sensor. Now the rumor mill is saying that Sony may come out with a mirrorless APS-C sensor camera that uses A-mount lenses so that the entire line of Sony lenses can be used. This would result in a much larger system for U/W use. The other option is two part ports for use with lenses like the Ziess 12mm or macro lenses like the Sony A-mount 100mm macro with an adapter and focus gear.

Phil Rudin

 

[alien]

Sony 10-18 lens got rave reviews at Sony Rumours