Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f1.4 ZS
Carl Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 ZS review and photo examples
Table of contents
Gallery
- The example photo was taken using a SONY α900
Review
The Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm F1.4 ZS is the initial line of Carl Zeiss brand lenses introduced by Cosina as single-lens reflex lenses following the Voigtlander SL series, and was released with the Nikon F and M42 screw mount.
It has since been released in several mounts, including Canon EF and Pentak-KA, and is still a long-lived lens that is still sold under the Classic brand.
ZS is an abbreviation for Zeiss Screw, and in addition to the 50mm focal length, the ZS lens lineup includes 25mm and 35mm lenses. This lens was released in 2006, and was introduced to the market about a year earlier than the Planar 50mm ZM for rangefinder cameras.
The lens is equipped with an aperture pin, and with a mount adapter that does not have a pin push plate, it can only be used at wide open aperture. However, if you use a mount adapter that allows you to push the pin in, the aperture blades will close when you turn the aperture ring, allowing you to use the lens at its actual aperture. With a single-lens reflex camera, it may be difficult to check the focus plane using the actual aperture.
To avoid this, Cosina’s Bessaflex and Pentax camera bodies focus with the aperture wide open, and some cameras have a function that pushes the focus pin so that the aperture changes to the aperture value set at the time of shooting.
The M42 lens is a long-standing mount that has been around since the dawn of single-lens reflex cameras, and many lenses are supplied by various manufacturers as a universal mount. Due to the relatively long flange back of 45.6mm, various companies supply mount adapters for most mounts except Nikon-F.
Because it was a screw-in mount, it was difficult to fix the lens position and it was difficult to add electronic contacts, so it fell behind the trend of electronically controlled cameras and fell into disuse. Some manufacturers made their own improvements by using physical cutouts to determine the lens position, but this did not last long.
The purpose of this lens was to use it with the SONY α900, and the Nikon F mount was not a candidate because there was no adapter for Sony or Minolta A mounts, so I purchased the M42 screw mount version, which was supplied with an adapter for the A mount. .
The α900’s finder was easy to focus at F1.4, so I often used it wide open. When the aperture is wide open, you will notice image distortion in the four corners, but this improves when you stop down to around F4. The viewfinder of a single-lens reflex camera allows you to see the light directly from the lens, and since it is a new lens, the field of view was clear and very clear.
At the time of purchase, it was the latest MF lens, and the helicoid had a soft feel and was very easy to focus. From infinity to the shortest focusing distance of 0.45m, the lens rotates more than half a turn, so there is a lot of rotation. There are almost no situations where you would want to go from infinity to the shortest distance right away with this lens, so I don’t think it will be a problem.
Lens configuration diagram taken from the official Zeiss page
Planar 50mmZS mounted on α900
Specification
| Items | Planar 50mm | Distagon 35mm | Distagon 25mm |
| Focal length(mm) | 50 | 35 | 25 |
| Max aperture | 1.4 | 2 | 2.8 |
| Min aperture | 16 | 22 | 22 |
| Leaf blade | 9 | ← | ← |
| Lens Construction | 7elements in 6groups | 8elements in 6groups | 10elements in 8groups |
| Aspherical lens | None | None | None |
| Min distance(m) | 0.45 | 0.3 | 0.17 |
| Lens length(mm) | 44 | 73 | 66 |
| Max diameter(mm) | 66 | 65 | 65 |
| Filter Size(mm) | 58 | 58 | 58 |
| Weight(g) | 330(ZF) | 510(ZF) | 460(ZF) |
| Lens mount | ZS/ZF/ZE/ZK | ZS/ZF/ZE/ZK | ZS/ZF/ZE/ZK |
| Release date | 2006.4.30 | 2010.2.11 | 2010.2.11 |
| Price(Yen/No-tax) | 59,500- | 89,500- | 89,500- |
Reference links
Update history
- 2024.04.01:update
- 2023.10.06:First draft
Affiliate Link
- Some external links are advertisements, and clicking them may generate income for the site administrator. I would appreciate your understanding and cooperation in maintaining my page.
