The Zeiss Loxia 50 f/2 on the streets of NYC
By Tomer Vaknin
Dear Steve,
First let me say how much respect I have for you and the other members of your website, I have learned a lot by exploring the wonderful photos you all shared, equipment reviews and inputs. I would like to share my own personal experience with the Zeiss Loxia 50mm f/2 Planar T* lens.
As a proud and very happy owner of the Sony Zeiss 55mm, I was hesitant to purchase the Loxia. However, after reading your positive impression of the lens in Photonika 2014 and as a huge fan of M mount lenses that I am, I simply had to try the Loxia.
Here are some photos I took with the Zeiss Loxia 50mm f/2 Planar T* in Amsterdam streets, Marken village and Rennstrecke Zandvoort, during a holiday I took with my wife in the Netherlands. I hope these photos, along with my personal impression of the lens, will help some of undecided readers in making the right decision for themselves.
My personal take on the Zeiss Loxia 50mm f/2 Planar T*:
– Great 3D feel (Check the box shot that was -take on a bed)
– Wonderful Bokeh
– Lovely Creamy look
– Great character
– Great colors and contrast
– Very sharp!
Overall, The 3D look, the creamy bokeh and feel + the very nice tone and color makes it a winner. The shots taken with the Zeiss Loxia 50mm f/2 Planar T* looks like they were taken with the Leica lens.
Altough the Sony Zeiss 55mm is an amazing lens and you can’t go wrong with it, I personally prefer the Loxia.
I want a 50mm but i don’t have the money. Do you guys think a Canon 50mm F1.4 LTM adapted to Sony A7r would fill in the job as a cheap alternative? I found one converted to Leica M mount for around $400, all i have to do is to mount it on my A7r via the M mount adapter
Thanks for your nice contribution.
The 2/50 Loxia is my favorite lens, and is capable of producing some stunning images with little effort.
I really like the images above but I dislike the excessive processing. It kills the character of the lens for me. You could have made these images with any other 50mm lens I think. And for example on the locks on the bridge picture the processing ruins the bokeh for me.
quite heavy post processing, too much for my personal taste
Totally agree, that much post processing don’t help too much in looking what the Louis is capable of…
Really awesome images. I may need to sell my sony/zeiss 55/1.8 and get one of these.
Hello, since you have used both the 55 and the 50, which was easier to focus?
hmmm. i dont know what to admire most, the quality of the lens or your postprocessing. The Images all have a different feel to them and it is really hard for me to tell, what it’s nature is. Very nice images though.
Those are some absolutely fantastic images my friend.
Nice shots with a lens which seems to render with a lot of pop. A comparison between the Loxia 50/2, Sony Zeiss 55/1.8, ZM Planar/2 and ZM C-Sonnar/1.5 would be interesting. I particularly like the ZM Sonnar on the A7s with its unique rendering, speed, compact size and light weight.
Great pictures Tomer, thanks for sharing.
The out of focus areas look perfect to me, with that POP quality Zeiss is known for. Especially in the acrobat picture.
Very nice shots…what camera did you use?
I suspect a sony A7 … Is that so ?
Yes of course but there are currently 4 of them 🙂 I’d like to know which one.
Thank you very much Scott. I’m sorry i take my time to answer i just waited to Re-edit my article. My old article was mix with my new one.
Im glad you like the picture i have a lot more from NY that i hope Steve will upload when he re-edit the Article.
about your question i use the A7 v1 when i was in NY.
i sell all my old gear 4 days before i fly to NY and preorder the A7 from adorama. the a7 was waiting for me as i land 🙂 and believe me its was hard flight without a camera lol
i did not know there was 4 A7 on the market … Sorry … I know that there is a A7 , a A7 R , a A7 s, and a brand new A7 II … But 4 A7, you got me here 🙂
The article of NY are mixed with the old article of the Loxia
Tomer
Great pictures and wonder how is that compare to the Zeiss 50mm planar m mounted lens with A7S
Nice pictures but I don’t see anything vastly different with loxia. If needs an experienced photographers eye to see that then it may not be worth it,except for the manual fofocusing experience.