Cosina sure is turning out a lot of top-grade lenses

"Bruce" wrote:
RichA wrote:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/1110/11...eiss25mmf2.asp


You don't know whether it is a top grade lens until you see it
reviewed by a competent reviewer. Not all Carl Zeiss lenses are
stellar performers, and there is evidence of significant sample
variation in some of those made by Cosina.

True that some are uninspired: the 50/1.4 and 85/1.4 being examples thereof.

The two here (Zeiss 21/2.8 and Voigtlander 40/2.0), though, are stunning.
And it sounds as though the 35/1.4 is as well.

But you can see that in the MTF charts Cosina puts up: the 21/2.8 womps the
50/1.4 at f/5.6 in the corners.

http://www.cosina.co.jp/seihin/cz/zf-50/index.html
http://www.cosina.co.jp/seihin/cz/zf-21/index.html

And the 100/2.0 is amazing:
http://www.cosina.co.jp/seihin/cz/zf-m100/index.html

And to make life more complicated, the 25/2.0 may be mfd by Zeiss
themselves, not Cosina, since it's not up on the Cosina Japanese web site
yet. (Although there may be some sort of contract fine print that allows
Zeiss to announce first.) My undertanding was that a couple of these lenses
are (or at least were at one point in time) mfd by Zeiss.

Interestingly, Zeiss doesn't put up MTF charts.

It is interesting that it should differ significantly from the Carl
Zeiss 24mm f/2 for Sony. Presumably the Zeiss lenses for Sony are not
made by Cosina.

Off hand, I can't think of any AF lenses made by Cosina, nor any MF lenses
made for Sony.

FWIW, for the small-sensor Sony camera Zeiss lenses, Zeiss designed the
lenses and Sony assembled them, although I don't know where the glass was
actually made. The S85 and F707 lenses were rather nice.

--
David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

Bruce wrote in
news
RichA wrote:
On Oct 27, 8:23*pm, "David J. Littleboy" wrote:
"Bruce" wrote:
RichA wrote:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/1110/11...eiss25mmf2.asp

You don't know whether it is a top grade lens until you see it
reviewed by a competent reviewer. *Not all Carl Zeiss lenses are
stellar performers, and there is evidence of significant sample
variation in some of those made by Cosina.

True that some are uninspired: the 50/1.4 and 85/1.4 being examples
thereof.

The two here (Zeiss 21/2.8 and Voigtlander 40/2.0), though, are
stunning. And it sounds as though the 35/1.4 is as well.

I'd like to put that 35mm up against the Samyang. The 35mm f2.0 was
noticeably better than Nikon's 35mm f1.8G lens.


The Samyang is an outstanding performer. It makes the Nikon AF-S 35mm
f/1.4G look very, very expensive indeed.


Seems to be happening more and more.

On Fri, 28 Oct 2011 05:43:56 -0700 (PDT), RichA
wrote:

On Oct 27, 8:23*pm, "David J. Littleboy" wrote:
"Bruce" wrote:
RichA wrote:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/1110/11...eiss25mmf2.asp

You don't know whether it is a top grade lens until you see it
reviewed by a competent reviewer. *Not all Carl Zeiss lenses are
stellar performers, and there is evidence of significant sample
variation in some of those made by Cosina.

True that some are uninspired: the 50/1.4 and 85/1.4 being examples thereof.

The two here (Zeiss 21/2.8 and Voigtlander 40/2.0), though, are stunning.
And it sounds as though the 35/1.4 is as well.

But you can see that in the MTF charts Cosina puts up: the 21/2.8 womps the
50/1.4 at f/5.6 in the corners.

http://www.cosina.co.jp/seihin/cz/zf...-21/index.html

And the 100/2.0 is amazing:http://www.cosina.co.jp/seihin/cz/zf-m100/index.html

And to make life more complicated, the 25/2.0 may be mfd by Zeiss
themselves, not Cosina, since it's not up on the Cosina Japanese web site
yet. (Although there may be some sort of contract fine print that allows
Zeiss to announce first.) My undertanding was that a couple of these lenses
are (or at least were at one point in time) mfd by Zeiss.

Interestingly, Zeiss doesn't put up MTF charts.

They are all inferior to Olympus measurements anyway. Note the
lpmm they all use varies.

Yeah. All Oly needs is just ONE good sensor.