Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 2.8/28
My usage for Distagon 28mm
This lens has just one trick: produces unbelievable sharp pictures on long distances. The
acutance is unbelievable when you get this lens working. However it's doesn't have
spectacular bokeh and image quality in close-ups is not so good
Due to this I use this on landscapes and cityscapes. And in addition to those I don't have
almost any use for this lens.
Image quality
Highlight flare/reflection
Even people say that Carl Zeiss T* coating is the best coating available I have had some issues
with flare when photographing nighttime cityscapes. Below is example of this flare/reflection
problem. This might be caused by reflections between lens' back element and sensor?
However during daytime I have not seen problems even sun is shining directly to the lens.
Whole image, from which below are crops which show the problems in more detailed way.
As you can see the highlights cause lens to flare and cause some sort of reflected highlight on opposite side of the image (compared to center point of the image).
Build quality and basics
Lens body is made of metal and there is no wobbling or anything else strange. Build quality
is excellent.
Lens is very compact size: Length 79mm (with C/Y adapter and lens caps, bare lens), diameter 62mm
and distance from EOS mount with adapter is 52mm (how much lens extends from camera). Weight
with C/Y adapter and lens caps is 311g, and the lens itself weights 276g. Lenses minimum focusing
distance is 0.25m. Lenses minimum aperture is f/22. Lens has X aperture blades.
Handling
Manual focus feeling is very good, there is just about correct amount of resistance. Focusing
from minimum distance to maximum distance takes about 140 degrees.
Lens also has proper depth of field scale. However on digital cameras I would
recommend atleast one stop higher value since the circle of confusion is smaller
these days when digital SLRs enable much larger print sizes than film cameras.
Summary
Pros
+ When closed down (f/8 and f/11) best sharpness and accutance of my lenses
+ Very compact size
+ Excellent build quality, while maintaining small weight
Cons
- Flare resistance
- Performance on close-ups (no floating element): sharpness decreases and some barrel
distortion appears
- Doesn't focus past infinity and when used with Canon cameras with poor manufacturing
tolerances (sensor to mount distance varies between individual camera's a little) causes
some camera/adapter combinations to not focus infinity. My 5D is not able to focus
infinity, but my 40D focuses, just barely but it focuses...
See photos in my picturebank taken with this lens.
16-9.net - Test of 28mm lenses including CZ 28/2.8
digLloyd Zeiss ZF lenses
Pebble Place - Carl Zeiss Macro-Sonnar T* 2.8/100 N
Pebble Place - Carl Zeiss Planar T* 2/100
Zeiss.com - Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/2.0
Zeiss.com - Carl Zeiss Makro-Planar T* 100mm f/2.0
Pictures of lens
Extending while focusing
Distagon 28mm extends while focused close.
On the left side: Focused to infinity
On the right side: Focused to minimum focus distance
Depth of field scale
Distagon 28mm has pretty good depth of field scale. However on digital cameras I would
recommend one stop higher value since the circle of confusion is smaller these days when
digital SLRs enable much larger print sizes than film cameras.
On the left side: Focused to infinity
On the right side: Focused to minimum focus distance
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