Zeiss Milvus 35mm f/1.4 Aperture Series: Backlit Bare Aspen Trunks
Get Zeiss Milvus at B&H Photo.
I wanted something a bit more unadulterated here in terms of sky and lighting, but the cloud-cover actually makes it more challenging and a better demonstration. The backlit brilliance of the scene caught my eye directly, and then I wondered how the Milvus 35mm f/1.4 would deal with it—it seemed just the right fit.
The series looks at total imaging quality under difficult mid-day morning lighting: high contrast a very bright background sky, and white against black subject matter sure to call out any chromatic issues. My commentary revolves mainly around the total aesthetic of the lens rendering and the strikingly refined balancing of all optical tradeoffs, which transitions into world-class performance with stopping down.
In my review of the Zeiss Milvus 35mm f/1.4:
Zeiss Milvus 35mm f/1.4 Aperture Series: Backlit Bare Aspen Trunks
Includes up to full resolution images from f/1.4 through f/16.
What a pity that in 2018 with DSLR cameras in decline, the lenses are by far the best ever (that is, that we had to wait this long). But what other people buy won’t stop me from preferring my DSLR of choice for landscape (Nikon D850 as I write this). That’s not to say I don’t also enjoy the Sony A7R III too, particularly with lenses like the superlative Zeiss Loxia 25mm f/2.4, but when actually shooting landscape with my usual care, the D850 rules in operational ways, and the lens selection is second to none. For many uses the A7R III rocks of course, as it does for quick grab shots while hiking and similar. Circumstances dictate the choice.
Shot near Bryce Canyon National Park in the nearby national forest. There are very large lava fields in the area that are less than 1000 years old, and are all but entirely barren. Yet pockets of trees like this exist among the fields, where the lava did not intrude. Camping (free) all over the many numerous roads, with quiet and peace, at lest here in late April.