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Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II
vs Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 (Canon 1Ds Mark III, Church Mosaic)
Comparison on the full-frame 16.7-megapixel Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II.
To match brightness more closely, the Canon EF 50/1.4 images were pulled (darkened) by 1/6 stop. Minimal sharpening was used.
As with the Zeiss ZF 85/1.4 Planar, making a valid comparison proved extremely difficult; there could be focus shift in one and maybe both lenses, possibly with the Canon EF 50/1.4 shifting forward, and the ZF shifting backwards; but of course that depends on the precise focus achieved (wide open there are aberrations that make optimal hard to determine, even at 10X Live View).
Differing performance across the frame
Complicating the comparison, the conclusion for one part of the image field can be quite different for another part of the image field. The MTF graph for the Zeiss ZF 50/1.4 Planar shows the characteristic “camel’s hump” at about the 17mm mark (most pronounced at f/5.6). Though subtle, this can actually be seen this example, as can the varying performance across the field. In particular, the 50/1.4 Planar shows its lowest resolution in the center and at the extreme corners. This makes conclusions about relative performance highly dependent on the area of the frame. The Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM has a quite different shape to its MTF curve (and fine detail is graphed at 30 lp/mm vs 40 lp/mm), making direct comparisons in the same area of the frame a sort of apples-to-oranges comparison by themselves alone.
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