Outside the cafeteria

[dubaiphil]

A night street scene from this evening in Deira, Dubai.

D700 & 2/35 Distagon @ 1/100th, f2.5, ISO2200

[Shadowman]

Very nice. What steered you towards the Distagon lens?

[dubaiphil]

Thanks John.

What steered me? Another forum, with an Alt Lens subgroup. I liked the look of the output of Carl Zeiss lenses and investigated further. I went for 35mm and originally used it on a crop sensor camera - loved the lens but wasn't so keen on the focal length. Around 50mm is not my favourite. Then when I moved onto a full frame camera it felt a lot more natural and I really loved the output. Probably out of my 50 favourite shots of mine, around 90% are with this little lens.

It's pricey, manual focus (I don't consider that a disadvantage for most of the scenes I use it for - anything requiring fast focusing and I'd reach for my 24-70 instead - anything at night and I'm quicker manual focusing - with a proper distance scale you can accurately zone focus), and built like a tank. Next up will be the 2/25 Distagon which looks really special (but not amazing at infinity where I don't shoot my street scenes anyway)

[Shadowman]

Thanks John.

What steered me? Another forum, with an Alt Lens subgroup. I liked the look of the output of Carl Zeiss lenses and investigated further. I went for 35mm and originally used it on a crop sensor camera - loved the lens but wasn't so keen on the focal length. Around 50mm is not my favourite. Then when I moved onto a full frame camera it felt a lot more natural and I really loved the output. Probably out of my 50 favourite shots of mine, around 90% are with this little lens.

It's pricey, manual focus (I don't consider that a disadvantage for most of the scenes I use it for - anything requiring fast focusing and I'd reach for my 24-70 instead - anything at night and I'm quicker manual focusing - with a proper distance scale you can accurately zone focus), and built like a tank. Next up will be the 2/25 Distagon which looks really special (but not amazing at infinity where I don't shoot my street scenes anyway)

I see these lenses offered on eBay and suspect the manual focus is the reason. I have a 50mm f/1.8 that is manual focus so that wouldn't be an issue. Took it out this weekend and for the most part it's set at infinity but tried it at different distance ranges and the results aren't that bad. Of course I usually shoot handheld, had a few opportunities the past few weeks where I wish I had the tripod.

[dubaiphil]

I see these lenses offered on eBay and suspect the manual focus is the reason. I have a 50mm f/1.8 that is manual focus so that wouldn't be an issue. Took it out this weekend and for the most part it's set at infinity but tried it at different distance ranges and the results aren't that bad. Of course I usually shoot handheld, had a few opportunities the past few weeks where I wish I had the tripod.

Well as far as I'm concerned it's better that my pro Nikon lenses, and unless I need autofocus I reach for it first. Microcontrast is awesome, bokeh's nice, and colour's awesome.

Canon users have the ZE varient, or many use a ZF or ZF2 (Nikon mount) for videography due to the aperture ring. There's no real duffer in the range, but the 50 f1.4 and 85 f1.4 aren't jack of all trade lenses. Once you try one, you be thinking of another, I can guarantee you of that!