Hi, several people here have experience of Carl Zeiss lenses. Some of us like them, some of us prefer Pentax. I prefer Zeiss, on balance, but they are very expensive and if I'd been spending my own money when I bought them I wouldn't have, if you see what I mean.
To put it into perspective, I had a good set of Pentax K, M, A and A* lenses, from 24mm up to 400mm, which I was by and large quite happy with. I'd bought them all over a period of years on the 2nd-hand market. They were stolen and I was lucky or wise enough to have a new-for-old insurance policy, and ended up with a set of new Contax and Zeiss equipment, with manual focus lenses from 21mm to 300mm. I prefer the colour rendition, balance and warmth of the CZ lenses, as well as the uniformity of 'look' (optical as opposed to physical) that I didn't get from having Pentax lenses from different series. On average the CZ lenses seem sharper, although I didn't have direct replacements for all of them. For instance, I replaced the A* 135/1.8 with a CZ 135/2.8, but I replaced the M 35/2 with a CZ 35/1.4. The most noticeable way in which the Pentax lenses are better than the CZs is that the Pentax ones showed less flare, as I've mentioned here recently. I know people here have directly compared the 85/1.4s from each company, and I think they slightly preferred the Pentax. I was never able to do a direct comparison, although I've had both, but based on comparing different photos of different subjects, for what it's worth, I do prefer the CZ. But, it is very soft wide open. One of the problems with Pentax lenses, until you know your way around the vast historical range of them, is that you don't know whether you're buying a dog or a good one until you actually use it. It can be very confusing. With the CZ ones you know you're getting good stuff, but you have to pay for it. I do still have some Pentax equipment, which I still use of course. It's the price of entry for this place. www.photodo.com has some reviews. -- Cheers, Bob Saturday, January 3, 2004, 12:25:52 AM, you wrote: > Just wondering if anyone has had experience with Carl Zeiss lens. How do > they compare with Pentax and does anyone know where I might find reviews of > them. > Regards > Charles
