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Zeiss Loxia Ergonomics / Haptics
Having shot the Zeiss ZM 35mm f/2 Biogon and many of its siblings over ~5 years, your author has developed a sense of how that classic design handles in the field. This page compares and contrasts the ZM 35/2 Biogon operation to the Loxia 35/2 Biogon; the same ideas apply to the ZM 50/2 Planar and Loxia 50/2 Planar pairing.
The Loxia lenses are identical in optical design to their ZM counterparts, but modified slightly to account for for the relatively thick sensor cover glass on the Sony A7 series cameras (E mount). Field comparisons show that unless one is stopping well down, the ZM 35/2 Biogon and even the ZM 50/2 Planar are not up to the performance of the tweaked Loxia models (the ZM designs are/were for film originally, and suffer from ray angle issues from the thick sensor cover glass).
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Special emphasis is placed on Sony full-frame, including Sony lenses and the high performance Zeiss Batis and Zeiss Loxia lenses plus Rokinon/Samyang and others. Fujifilm X, Olympus and Panasonic M4/3, Sigma dp Merrill and dp/sd Quattro are also covered in depth. Years in the making, it offers a wealth of material for choosing and using a mirrorless camera.
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Want a preview? Click on any page below to see an excerpt as well as extensive blog coverage, for example on Sony.
Zeiss Loxia 35mm f/2 Biogon and Zeiss ZM 35mm f/2 Biogon