Sony Zeiss ZA 24-70mm Review

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James
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Sony Zeiss ZA 24-70mm Review

Post by James »

This is a review that I wrote on my blog a few months ago, sorry for not sharing earlier:-

I've had a bit of time to play with it now, I've also found that my sensor was absolutely filthy (and greasy) and after 3 cleaning sessions I am now struggling not to notice the grease marks on every image but that's another story (and I must say that Aperture 3 has a fantastic retouch option that I had never even looked for until today).

Ok back to my review.

This is a fantastic lens - I've been trying to identify what I liked so much about Zeiss and I suppose that the way to describe it is the way that Zeiss lenses draw images, even at f2.8 the lens is very sharp with really strong contrast and very strong colours. It might sound weird (surely the sensor is responsible for colour) but it is something that I've always loved about Zeiss lenses since I first starting using them.

Despite the fact that the whole image is so sharp and contrasty (with great micro-contrast too) there is still beautiful bokeh as long as the out of focus area is not too bright - you seem to get bright circles that are darker in the middle which I personally don't find very pleasing.

It's also very versatile - it's equally at home taking landscapes, architecture, still life and (what I got the lens for) portraits.

The SSM auto focusing is near instant (especially on the middle sensor). There is a little vignetting especially at wide apertures and short focal lengths but as with my Sony 50mm f1.4 this is something that I really like in the images, not something that I am afraid of or disappointed by. I've also heard that the corners are poor at 24mm and that there is distortion but I can't say that this is something that has been a problem for me with my style of photography again.

As for other qualities - I don't have any issue with CAs or fringing, it is a heavy lens but balances well with my A900 and the grip mounted and as I am a pretty large guy the overall weight just isn't an issue for me.

As you can tell from my thoughts above I think that this is a fantastic lens and I am only disappointed that I hadn't had the need to buy it earlier. I am looking forward to getting a chance to try the new Zeiss 24mm f2 at some point in the future but until then I am going to go and stay happy with this one!

Here are some real world samples (it's been a very busy week other work wise so I don't have lots of technically great images, so you'll just have to have these for now, sorry!) Click through to see them larger. Full size are now uploaded to my zenfolio site in a Zeiss test gallery that I have created http://photos.jamestux.com/

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Leave me comments if you have questions or find this interesting, thanks for reading :)
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Stany Buyle
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Re: Sony Zeiss ZA 24-70mm Review

Post by Stany Buyle »

Nice gallerie. I like underneath picture.
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kindest regards,

Stany
I like better one good shot in a day than 10 bad ones in a second...
http://www.fotografie.cafe
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