Review of the Zeiss 35mm F1.4 Distagon ZE

I’ve previously written about my quest to find the ultimate (for me) fast 35mm lens, and the Zeiss 35mm F1.4 Distagon ZE is on my short list of contenders.  If there are two lens manufactures that have near legendary legacies and rabid cult followings it’s Voigtlander and Zeiss.  Since I own (and love) a Voigtlander 50mm F1.0, the idea of owning a piece of the Zeiss legacy was certainly attractive as I auditioned the best of the best 35mm lenses.   For those not familiar, Carl Zeiss AG, was a renowned German manufacturer of optical systems, industrial measurements, and medical devices. The company has a rich history dating back to 1846 when it was founded by Carl Zeiss.  The Zeiss Distagon lens design has roots going back to the mid-20th century. The “Distagon” name is derived from “Distancer,” indicating its wide-angle capability.

The 35mm f/1.4 Distagon was first introduced by Zeiss in the 1970s. This lens quickly gained a reputation for its superb optical quality, making it a favorite among professional photographers and enthusiasts.  The most recent iteration of the Zeiss 35mm F1.4 was introduced in ~2010 and came in different versions/designations depending on the camera mount, which can be a bit confusing.  ZE =Canon EF mount.  ZM=Leica M Mount.  ZF=Nikon F mount.  ZK= Pentax K-mount.  The original version from back in the 1970s was designed for the Contax/Yashica (C/Y) mount – a popular camera choice at the time. By 2015, the 35mm F1.4 Distagon was replaced by the 35mm F1.4 Milvus which remains in production today.  Zeiss collaborates with Cosina, a Japanese manufacturer, to produce certain lines of lenses. Cosina is known for its high manufacturing standards, and it produces Zeiss lenses like the Zeiss Milvus, Loxia, and Batis series under Zeiss’s strict quality control guidelines.  Cosina owns the Voiglander brand name and manufactures Voigtlander lenses in the same facility in Japan.  It’s hard to consider the Distagon version to be a vintage lens as it is only one generation behind the version that is currently in production and was likely manufactured in the early 2000s.  It does however have a more vintage adjacent aesthetic, particularly compared to the newer Milvus version.  The entire barrel of the lens is metal which instantly gives it a more high quality feel than nearly any other modern lens. The smooth, sleek look however has a more modern vibe and along with the silver metal nose makes it instantly recognizable as Zeiss.  It has an intangible “Zeissness” not found in any other lens.  Even the lens hood is metal – you just don’t see that anymore from lens manufacturers.

Here are the specifications:

• Maximum Aperture: f/1.4
• Minimum Aperture: f/16
• Lens Mount: Canon EF (ZE mount)
• Optical Design: 11 elements in 9 groups
• Angle of View: 63° (on full-frame)
• Minimum Focus Distance: 11.81 inches (0.3 meters)
• Maximum Magnification: 0.18x
• Diaphragm Blades: 9, rounded
• Focus Type: Manual focus
• Filter Thread: 72mm
• Dimensions: Approx. 3.07 x 4.45 inches (78 x 113 mm) (Diameter x Length)
• Weight:  790 (1,74 lbs.).

The Zeiss 35mm F1.4 Distagon features 11 elements in 9 groups, including special glass elements to reduce chromatic aberrations and enhance image quality.  It also features the Zeiss T* coating , which is a multi-layer anti-reflective coating applied to the lens elements of Zeiss optics to enhance image quality.  It is this proprietary coating which many attribute to perhaps the most unique image rending quality of this lens:  Micro contrast.   It is the micro contrast which provides the unique “3-D pop” to the images this lens produces.  

While researching this lens, I noted that they were remarkably few reviews of this lens made for Canon.  The overwhelming reviews you see on YouTube are for the Leica version where the lens is often compared (quite favorably) against the legendary Leica Sumilux 35mm F1.4.  Because the lens is manufactured to work natively on the Canon EF mount, when used in conjunction with the magnificent Canon EF to RF adapter, you get a shooting experience virtually identical to shooting an RF mount lens.  All lens settings are passed from the lens to the camera and stored in the image file, and you can not only shoot with focus peeking, but also use Canon’s excellent manual focus assist.  These features really do set both this lens and the Canon EF 35mm F1.4 II apart.  There are some great, fast vintage 35mm lenses that can be adapted to Canon RF, but in most cases you don’t get any lens data or manual focus assist beyond focus peeking.  If you’re really looking to complete the vintage lens manual focusing experience, you can set the custom function control ring on the EF to RF adapter to control aperture, which I like a lot.

SAMPLE IMAGES

Link other 35mm lenses I’ve used, the Zeiss has near macro capability.  Here’s a photograph of one of my watches I took with the Zeiss 35mm F1.4 Distagon:

Of course, no lens is perfect.  If you zoom in, you can see chromatic aberrations/purple fringing around the high contrast areas like the crown and chronograph pushers:

Chromatic aberrations in high contrast areas of an image are not uncommon on fast primes when shot near to or wide open.

This Porsche photo gives us the opportunity to see the fantastic color reproduction, and the visually appealing background blur.  The detail in the trees isn’t exactly what I’d call “buttery smooth” but this does look better than backgrounds produced by my Sigma 35mm F1.4 when shot wide open.

This photo of a group of friends and car enthusiasts at a local Cars & Coffee event shots how the lens renders people.  Again, we’re seeing great colors and nice skin tones.  Note the nice dynamic range – there are some fairly dark, shadowy areas as well as some that push the highlights, but neither extreme looks bad here.  The background blue is pleasing as well.

We see similarly please results in this photo of this gentleman sitting next to his truck.  Great detail in the skin, – but not harsh digital detail.  Colors are fantastic.

This engine compartment shot is quite nice – both the engine and the paper describing the car are very sharp, and the red parts in the engine really pop.

Here’s another engine compartment shot, but shot wide open we’re seeing purple fringing that was not present in the previous engine compartment photo.  Stopping down to below F2.8 or so seems to alleviate the problem.

In this photo we can see significant vignetting in the upper portion of the photo, which depending on your tastes can be a good or bad thing.  But a simple check of the “Enable Profile Corrections” in Lightroom fixes the problem if you’re not a fan:

In the second version of the photo we can see more detail in the trees and building, and the sky has a very consistent light blue color.

WHY NOT CONSIDER THE MILVUS 35MM F1.4?

If I’m truly looking for the “ultimate” 35mm lens, wouldn’t the newer Zeiss Milvus 35mm F1.4 be superior to the previous generation Zeiss 35mm F1.4 Distagon?  Not necessarily.  The current production Milvus 35mm F1.4 is weather sealed and I believe (depending on camera system) supports auto focus.  Neither of which are particularly important to me (I have plenty of other weather sealed lenses if conditions require it).  While the Milvus also features the newest formulation of the Zeiss T* coating, my research pointed to little to no real world optical difference between these two lenses with Bokeh smoothness actually favoring the Distagon over the Milvus.  The Milvus is also considerably more expense coming in at ~$1,500 pre-owned vs. $600-$800 for the Distagon.  It seems unlikely, but if Zeiss were to manufacture a version of the Milvus which natively supported the Canon RF mount, I would strongly consider it.  But for now, the Distagon with it’s cooler aesthetic and slightly smoother bokeh was an easy choice over the newer and pricier Milvus.  

CONCLUSION

The Zeiss 35mm F1.4 Distagon is a truly fantastic lens.  Many will not consider it because it isn’t an auto focus lens.  Which is a shame because both the shooting experience this lens provides and the images it produces are excellent for Canon cameras.  If I’m being honest, while the color, sharpness, and bokeh produced by the lens were all very good, the overall performance didn’t quite live up to the “Zeiss hype” I’ve read about online.  In particular, I was surprised by the purple fringing  – I was under the impression that the Zeiss T* coating dealt with this problem. So how does the Zeiss compare to the my other short list 35mm lens contender?  Stay tuned for my comparison of the Zeiss 35mm F1.4 Distagon with the Canon EF 35mm F1.4 II.