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Overall Impressions
Initial reactions to the PROTOTYPE lens:
- The focusing “throw” is exceptional; I'd rate it as the best I've used on any lens.
- The feel and damping of the focusing is also exceptional.
- The rubber surface is very welcome for cold temperature usage with bare hands (metal chills hands very quickly).
- The choice of color for the engraved markings is outstanding— easy to see in dim light— best I’ve ever seen.
- The lens hood tends to rattle like all Zeiss lens hoods. It can be adjusted to not rattle, but it tends to start up again.
- The lens cap design is too shallow and too difficult to operate (and just about impossible with gloves). It is for this reason I usually substitute a Nikon lens cap.
- The 9 blade aperture is welcome, but I wonder if it would be feasible to have a 14-bladed aperture as with CP.2.
- At first I thought the smooth focusing ring a bit odd, but in practice it works very well. The width is generous and I like that too, and it means that gloves work well.
- There is no chance of disturbing the aperture ring during focusing (a fault of some Leica M lenses).
- The standard focusing screen on the Nikon D800E remains problematic for discerning in/out of focus.
- The lens is relatively large and heavy, but I find it comfortable on the D800E.
- I wonder about a thin rubber strip on the outer (greatest) diameter of the lens and lens hood, just for those small bumps and knocks (not me!) that many photographers might incur.
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