Zeiss ZF 50mm f/2 Makro

Zeiss 50mm Makro

I remember getting an email that said Zeiss were releasing new lenses for Nikon mount cameras, and at the time it was an interesting story perhaps but I wasn’t immediately planning on running out and placing an order. Somebody who I shoot with occasionally was very interested however, and kept going on and one about the ones he bought as he added them to his collection. There was one of them he kept talking about the most, it was the 50mm Makro and eventually it peaked my interest so I asked him if I could shoot with it for a day. Stupid, stupid, stupid - well, a lot less money in the bank later and I now have this wonderful lens.

It is a rather unusual lens, like all the Zeiss ZF lenses. First off, they are all manual focus lenses so I imagine that limits interest straight away unfortunately. It also has a larger aperture than normal for a Macro lens of 50mm and it goes to 1:2, not 1:1 as most current Macro lenses reach. A last thing I should mention, although many are probably already aware, is that while these are Zeiss lenses they are not made in Germany but Japan under Zeiss supervision.

As expected from a macro lens, it has very little if any distortions and certainly none worth worrying about. As it is designed for FX cameras, there is no vignetting on my D300/S5 pro that I can comment on. The two area’s where I find the Zeiss 50mm makro remarkable though are its CA and especially sharpness. First CA, this lens is likely the most resistant of any lens I currently have. You really almost have to go out of your way for it to produce any. It can be done of course, but still, its performance is fantastic.

Sharpness, this ZF 50mm is almost certainly the sharpest lens I have or have ever had. Not only that, it is fantastically sharp right from f/2 which is a striking accomplishment. It doesn’t appear to get any sharper when you stop it down, but then I’m not sure I’d be able to tell anyway as its already so sharp from the word go. In addition, it produces a wonderful blur in the out of focus area’. The bokeh lends itself to portraits, which is quite useful since its fast enough with the f/2 aperture to make a viable alternative to a fast standard 50mm.

The build quality is what you’d expect from the high price, its excellent. The manual focus ring is very smooth, and with it being a macro lens, it benefits from having a long focus throw in order to get the focus precisely where you want it. I can’t really add a last paragraph with the area’s of its performance that aren’t great as it seems to do everything so very well. Perhaps the only two downsides are its elevated price which is to be expected with the Zeiss name on its top and the fact it only manages 1:2, but since you know that going in it cannot be held against it. An excellent performer all round.