Ben Horton From Nat Geo Compares Canon Vs. Zeiss Glass.

by jared1October 22^nd, 2010

Photo By: Ben Horton

Lou Lesko over at Photo Cine News is reporting a great lens comparison from National Geographic photographer Ben Horton. The comparison is based soley on stills, however it does translate to the video side of these cameras. Here is what he had to say on the topic of Canon Vs. Zeiss in a nutshell. Click here to read the full article.

“The real problem with the 5D Mark II isn’t the camera. It’s that the 22 megapixel sensor can capture more detail than the Canon L lenses can give it. These problems never showed up when the sensors were smaller. Until a few days ago, the 22 megapixel sensor was a useless product of the megapixel race that has forced me to buy new cameras every few years just to keep up. Using standard Canon glass, any sensor larger 16 megapixels is a waste. While trying to find a way to take advantage of the 22 megapixel sensor, I tried mounting a medium format lens on my camera that can pass more detail. Even though it worked, the easiest way to take advantage of these lenses is to permanently change the lens mount on the body of the camera rendering my Canon lenses useless.

 

I found a potential solution to this problem while talking to the sales rep for Carl Zeiss lenses at the PhotoCine News Expo. Just a few weeks later, I have three Carl Zeiss fixed focal length lenses in my hands, a Distagon T* 3,5/18 , a Distagon T* 2/35 and a Planar T* 1,4/85 . Even before the lenses arrived I knew exactly what the foremost arguments against them were going to be. They are manual focus, and they don’t zoom.

I decided before I went about comparing the actual quality of the glass I’d get out and shoot with them for a few days. I want to challenge the idea that manual focus won’t work when you have to shoot quickly. The hardest thing to shoot manually is sports, so I took them to the 24 Hours of Moab bike race and tried the lenses in every lighting condition possible and with fast moving subjects.”