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Focusing the 35/1.4 Distagon Manually By Eye
One of the challenging aspects of the 35mm f/1.4 Distagon is the obtaining accurate manual focus by eye. Especially on a high resolution body like the 36-megapixel Nikon D800/D800E, the tiniest focus error shows up. The focusing screen of the Nikon D800 does not help; like the screens in all DSLRs today, the screen is designed for autofocus, not manual focus, and Nikon does not offer a more suitable screen. The focusing challenge is true for any f/1.4 lens, the challenges are not limited to the Zeiss 35/1.4 Distagon by any means.
However, factoring into the difficulties is what I feel was a regrettable design decision: the decision to not fully correct longitudinal chromatic aberration, which essentially means differential focus of the spectral band, the effect being a mild halo effect. This halo effect adds a certain ambiguity to manual focus which is not helped by the inappropriate modern focusing screens designed for autofocus.
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Nikon D800E + Zeiss ZF.2 35mm f/1.4 Distagon