SHOOTOUT: Sony FE 50mm f/1.4 ZA vs Zeiss Loxia 50mm f/2: Spuller Lake View to Mt Conness (Sony A7R II)
Related: Eastern Sierra, Mt Conness area, peak bagging, raw file processing, Sony, Sony 50mm, Sony A7R, Sony A7R II, Sony A7R III, Sony FE, Sony FE 50mm f/1.4 ZA, Sony Lenses, Sony mirrorless, Zeiss, Zeiss Lenses, Zeiss Loxia, Zeiss Loxia 50mm f/2 Planar, Zeiss mirrorless lenses
See my Sony mirrorless wishlist and other wish lists at B&H Photo.
See my review of Zeiss Loxia and review of Sony mirrorless lenses in Guide to Mirrorless.
This far distance comparison is extremely demanding of any lens, with infinity focus tending to reveal any latent lens asymmetries as well as field curvature effects and across-the-frame performance. As it turns out, this comparison hits the nail on the head in all these areas.
Yikes! This comparison shows that a well-executed classic design* can outperform a modern lens design with poor quality control, even wide open against a lens stopped down a stop, at least in the center areas.
Sony FE 50/1.4 ZA vs Zeiss Loxia 50/2: Spuller Lake View to Mt Conness, Sony A7R II
Includes images up to 28 megapixels + large crops, all from f/1.4 through f/8.
* Loxia 50/2 limitations: a decades-old all-spherical design derived from a rangefinder optical formula tweaked to compensate for the sensor cover glass. One simply cannot expect high performance across the field with such a design for the first few stops. But the Planar design is very strong stopped down to f/5.6 - f/8.
Sony A7R II + Zeiss Loxia 50mm f/2 Planar
[low-res image for bot]
