I’ve delayed a bit with this review and test of this remarkable lens, but now I’m correcting this misstep.
- Introduction
- ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4
- Appearance, construction, design, ergonomic
- Technical characteristics
- Optical scheme
- ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4 vs ZEISS Distagon T✻ 35mm ƒ/1.4
- F1.4
- F4
- Which camera the ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4 lens will reveal the best of itself with?
- Images shoot on the lens ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4
- Resume and impressions
- Bonus
- The full size jpgs, shoot on ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4
- The extra pictures of ZEISS Distagon T✻ 35mm ƒ/1.4 (unboxing)
- Some test images shoot on ZEISS Distagon T✻ 35mm ƒ/1.4
- Purchase the lens Carl Zeiss
Introduction
ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4 was announced on the 21t of June 2017 and is the new development (significantly improved), which is assigned to be closer to the up to date requirements of the photo optics. In this position it has replaced ZEISS Distagon T✻ 35mm ƒ/1.4, which previously represented this popular combination of the focusing distance and aperture ratio in a “classical” lens range. “Classical” range in some sense was a lucky attempt of a rapid and efficient coming into the modern photo optics market. Carl Zeiss was not manufacturing the optics for the photo segment for a long time (the brand Contax in 2005 at the moment of the production curtailing was in a temporary use of the Company Kyocera, although it is a very fabulous subsidiary brand of Carl Zeiss. And the famous lenses of the passed years are associated with it, including the space missions. The admirers of the brand were looking forward to see when Contax comes back “under the wing” of Carl Zeiss).
ZEISS Distagon T✻ 35mm ƒ/1.4 at that moment appeared to be very nice, although no one can say, that it had breaken far away in characteristics from its’ predecessor under the brand Contax, but the resolution on the image field became better (much better on the edges), it became uniform and a bit higher in the center of the image. Plus, there was added the diaphragm controlled by the means of a digital camera.
A couple of years ago I did ZEISS Distagon T✻ 35mm ƒ/1.4 lens tests and remembered about them while writing the article about ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4. Thus, it will be the review of the both of these 35-s by Zeiss. At that, the “classical” version is still produced.
For those who did not know or forgot, I explain, why there is the word Milvus in the name of the lens. The reason is that the Company decided to add to the name of an optical scheme, as it was before, some extra name in order to give to the photographer an opportunity to quickly determine, which system is the lens suitable for.
Let’s see, Milvus – for the “mirror” cameras of 36 х 24mm format. Batis – autofocusing lenses for the full image system on the base of the Sony E bayonet. Loxia – lenses with a manual focusing for the full image Sony. An so on … The full list of the lenses Carl Zeiss lineup is here
The optical scheme of Distagon now has already been modified according to the requirements of the modern optics and is used not only in the wide angle lenses for the “mirror” systems, but for the “mirror less” as well, and for the focusing distance of 50 mm.
к содержанию ↑ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4
к содержанию ↑Appearance, construction, design, ergonomic
The lens has got a traditional appearance for the modern Carl Zeiss lenses – a body with the rounded elements and wide rubber focusing ring, a lot of glass and metal, so you feel the lens quite a heavy in your hand.
It has almost the same weight, as Milvus 85/1.4 an is even longer, but a bit smaller in a diameter.
The blend, like all the other modern lenses Carl Zeiss have, – is bayonet fixed. Fortunately on the wide angle lenses it is not deep, and there is no problem to get to the filter from the front side in order to rotate the filter, but it would be harder on a teleconverter lens.
The filters with the necessity of the rotating are: polarizing, star-effect, Vario-ND.
The distance scale is in feet and meters simultaneously. Besides you can notice a blue fitting rubber, which is tipical for the all Milvus lenses family – it is for the anti- dust and anti- moisture protection. There are no holes are noticed on the lens body, thus it should cope successfully with the slight water splashes, but do not abuse it. For instance, for any of the exact mechanics, to which the lenses Carl Zeiss belong, tiny sand might be fatal.
Here you see the diaphragm adjusting scale, which can be found only on the lenses constructed for Nikon (ZF.2)system. On the lenses constructed for Canon (ZE) system there is no such a scale. From the one side, this makes me feel joyful because it’s easier to use the manual focusing lens for video (no need to buy a very old Zeiss with mechanics, but just take a new one for Nikon), but from the other side, I prefer to focus on my Canon 5DsR on the opened diaphragm :) But the tested lens was for the Nikon system.
к содержанию ↑Technical characteristics
| Milvus 35/1.4 | Distagon 35/1.4 | |
|---|---|---|
| Фокусное расстояние | 35 мм | 35 мм |
| Диапазон значений диафрагмы | f/1.4 – f/16 | f/1.4 – f/16 |
| Оптическая схема (элементов/групп) | 14 / 11 | 11 / 9 |
| Оптическая стабилизация | нет | нет |
| Диапазон фокусировки | 0,30 м – ∞ | 0,30 м – ∞ |
| Рабочий диапазон | 0,14 м – ∞ | 0,15 м – ∞ |
| Углы обзора (диаг./гориз./верт.) | 64,2° / 55,0° / 38,0° | 63° / 54° / 37° |
| Диаметр круга покрытия | 43 мм | 43 мм |
| Рабочий отрезок | ZF.2: 46,50 мм ZE: 44,00 мм | ZF.2: 46,50 мм ZE: 44,00 мм |
| Покрытие на МДФ | 169,7 мм x 112,1 мм | 120 x 180 мм |
| Масштаб на МДФ | 1 : 4.6 | 1:5 |
| Диаметр резьбы под фильтр | M72 x 0.75 | M72 x 0.75 |
| Положение входного зрачка (за плоскостью изображения) | 122,0 мм | |
| Угол вращения фокусировочного кольца (от ∞ до МДФ) | 227° | 144° |
| Максимальный (с блендой) | ZF.2: 84,8 мм ZE: 84,8 мм | ZF.2, ZE: 78 мм |
| Диаметр фокусировочного кольца | ZF.2: 82,5 мм ZE: 82,5 мм | ZF.2: 75,5 мм ZE: 75,6 мм |
| Длина (без крышек) | ZF.2: 125,6 мм ZE: 124,8 мм | ZF.2: 96 мм ZE: 98 мм |
| Длина (с крышками) | ZF.2: 141,5 мм ZE: 143,7 мм | ZF.2: 120 мм ZE: 122 мм |
| Вес | ZF.2: 1131 г ZE: 1174 г | ZF.2: 830 г ZE: 850 г |
This is clear from the table of the technical characteristics, that the lens became significantly more complex in its optical scheme.
к содержанию ↑Optical scheme
ZEISS Distagon T✻ 35mm ƒ/1.4 had one aspheric and one low dispersal element, and in the ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4 lens the number of the low dispersal elements is equal to five. This should influence on its characteristics very positively.
к содержанию ↑ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4 vs ZEISS Distagon T✻ 35mm ƒ/1.4
When I tested ZEISS Distagon T✻ 35mm ƒ/1.4 a couple of years ago, I had the Canon 5D mark II camera, and now for the test of ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4 I use the Canon 5DsR camera, so the images shouted with ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4 I had to resize in AdobePhotoshop for diminishing. I tried a few ways of downsizing, all of them without the sharpness increasing, – the results are almost similar.
Of course, it is not a perfect comparison, it’s better to be done on the same camera. But some approximate results can be assessed.
F1.4
In this image we see, that the ZEISS Distagon T✻ 35mm ƒ/1.4 lens on the opened diaphragm doesn’t completely resolute the matrix 21 Mpix because of the different aberrations, including lots of CAs. The ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4 lens does not show the sharpness per pixel too, but I do not watch any CA here at all.
Some time before I would have say, that the resolution of ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4 on the opened diaphragm is great, but after the tests of the lens ZEISS Otus “the great resolution” belongs to them, it is the new bench to climb :) And the matrix of 50 Mpix is harder to exceed in resolution.
F4
On the opened diaphragm, surprisingly, the outstrip of the lens ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4 in a resolution in the center of the image even increases and achieves of about 15% (as it was at about 10% on the opened diaphragm).
ZEISS Distagon T✻ 35mm ƒ/1.4 has got significantly better in resolution and demonstrates now a very decent image (in my view 20 Mpix and more), but ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4 has become even more better, in my opinion it resolutes now 50 Mpix, but a camera with a higher resolution in a 36 х 24 mm format is not manufactured yet (and is impatiently expected).
к содержанию ↑Which camera the ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4 lens will reveal the best of itself with?
ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4 can, surely, be used with any bayonet-suitable camera, no problem, but as far as it’s a new and improved model, in order to employ its potential on maximum, use the camera starting from 36 Mpix and more. Ideally of 42-50 Mpix (Nikon D850, Canon 5DsR).
What particular advantages will you get, if to change ZEISS Distagon T✻ 35mm ƒ/1.4 with ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4 on a camera with 20 Mpix? In general you will notice, that the image becomes obviously “clearer” from the CAs on the opened diaphragm, with less purple contours on the contrast objects.
Images shoot on the lens ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4
Resume and impressions
The lens ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4 is very good, and I remark a real progress in comparison to the lens ZEISS Distagon T✻ 35mm ƒ/1.4, and especially to the model under the brand Contax. And the most of all I’m glad to the fact of CAs significant reduction on the opened diaphragm, because you can shoot some colorful autumn leaves close up with a blurred background and not to be afraid of CAs on a background, and on the leaves also.
On a diaphragm closed up to F4 the lens ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4 is becoming very technically skilled and sharp. This is good for the landscapes, especially on the camera’s with a big resolution.
Bonus
Extra pictures of ZEISS Distagon T✻ 35mm ƒ/1.4 (unboxing) and the link to the full size jpgs, shoot on ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4.
[lock] к содержанию ↑The full size jpgs, shoot on ZEISS Milvus 35/1.4
The extra pictures of ZEISS Distagon T✻ 35mm ƒ/1.4 (unboxing)
Some test images shoot on ZEISS Distagon T✻ 35mm ƒ/1.4
These images were shoot on the opened diaphragm 1.4 in order to clarify how strong the CAs are, i.e. the lens was posed to the challenging circumstances intentionally. In the majority of the other subjects there will not be such CAs. But we need to be informed about them.
