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Resolution Chart
The 25mm f/2.8 Distagon is a puzzling lens. On a resolution chart its performance fails to impress, yet field shots (pictures of real things) have the same brilliance and life seen with the other Zeiss lenses, and when shot near infinity focus, performance is very high, even wide open at f/2.8.
This idiosyncratic performance of the 25mm Distagon might be attributed to several factors:
- It has no “floating element” to optimize for close focus, and performance is optimized for infinity. As a result, resolution and contrast decline steadily towards the edges and corners as the lens is focused more and more closely. Ironic, since the lens can focus until the subject is only a few inches from the from element.
- Its spherical design (no aspheric lens elements) most likely contributes to its edge/corner performance. (Really high performance designs for fast wide angles require aspheric elements).
- Even though this test used a fairly high reproduction ratio of approximately 1:37, curvature of field might be making the 25mm Distagon look quite poor on a resolution chart; read the Curvature of Field page, which used a reproduction ratio of 1:22.
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25mm f/2.8 Distagon @ f/2.8 (approx 1/4 frame)