Zeiss Milvus 50/1.4 vs Zeiss Otus 55/1.4 vs Zeiss Planar 50/1.4 – Comparative Lens Review
Field test – Distant Focus Plane
With following tests we wanted to see how lenses perform at distant focus subjects. Unfortunately, weather conditions weren’t good at all for this type of testing, and visibility was limited due to the inversion and haze.
As a result, we will present you two scenes with related crops, but you shouldn’t make conclusion about absolute sharpness based on this test. What can be evaluated to certain extent is flatness of the field, spherical aberration and its influence to the sharpness perception and amount of corner smearing with distant subjects. As we wrote in the previous chapter, for sharpness detection, please use official MTF charts or our studio ISO 12333 visual tests.
Scene 04 – focus distance is close to infinity, heavy clouds, haze
Scene 04 at f/1.4
Scene 04 at f/5.6
The following scene was shot with Sony A7r and Novoflex Nikon G to Sony E mount adapter. With Sony we were able to better control critical focus, but the whole combination was very unbalanced.
Results are now presented in slightly different form, all 100% are next to each other. You can either hover with mouse in order to zoom to original size, or click on the image to open it in the lightbox. By turning the wheel on your mouse, you should be able to change zoom ratio.
Scene 06 at f/1.4 – Zones
While the haze in the air was most serious limit to achieve better resolution, once again it shows the slight differences between Otus and Milvus and Planar, especially in the edges and corners.
Stopped down to f/5.6 this time, lenses are much harder to tell apart.
Scene 06 at f/5.6 – Zones
From the above tests, we can draw certain conclusion regarding lenses performance at distant focus plane.
Zeiss Otus not only seems to have flattest field projection, it shows highest micro contrast and aberration free rendering even wide open. Milvus is right behind Otus, showing only very little of remaining spherical aberration which affects extreme corner performance. Planar wide open is not highly usable for distant scenes if resolution and contrast are required. Stopped down to standard apertures for this type of scenes, all lenses are so good, that it is hard to say which is better.
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regarding the manual focusing. I recently tried the Zeiss 85mm f/1.4 Milvus with the new D5 and I think that the the smaller focus points may make it possible to manual focus with the lens. Unfortunately, I did have a few issues, for some reason the focus point wasn’t visible for some reason on the D5, when manually focusing, I was told that the camera didn’t have release firmware. But when I reviewed the shot, it did show where the focus point was placed and the image did look sharp. So fingers crossed it is a big improvement.
Great, let us know how it works for you at full opened aperture, once you manage to fine tune it.
Cheers,
Viktor
I don’t own the D5, so it might be a while, I do want to try it with the D500, to see if the camera will manual focus accurately with the added pixel density of the camera, which will be closer to a D820 (I am guessing it will have more than 36mp).
Where would you put the Zeiss 50mm makro-planar in this equation of Milvus, Otys and classic planar? I see you have done a review of macro 50mm lenses but I believe the classic makro-planar belongs here due to f2 speed and focal length.
Personally I’m impressed that a planar design performs so well wide open at f2 but I don’t know how it compares to the new Milvus. The Otus, I know what to expect as I have 135mm f2 APO.
Hi Nat,
I haven’t compare macro lenses directly, I reviewed Milvus 50/14 and compared it with Otus 55 and Classic Planar 50. Macro Planar 50/2 was optimized for the short distances where it achieves very good resolution figures in the center of the frame. As a most macro lenses it has rather flat focus field and very long focus thread. I don’t know where I will put it in the above mentioned comparison, because I didn’t test it for other usage than product shots (mainly short working distances). I am very happy with the lens for that type of work.
Hope it helps,
Viktor
Thank you for your reply. I guess it’s apples to oranges in a way. People used to compare makro-planar to the f1.4 classic back when there were only two Zeiss 50mm lenses. Nowadays it’s 4 50mm lenses from Zeiss alone not to mention the offerings from third parties such as Tamron Sigma and Nikon already has more than 10 lenses in the 50mm range.
So far I’m happy with 50mm f2 zf as a general purpose lens. Zeiss 25mm f2 is slightly superior with off center resolution and coma (but it is a distagon that has aspherical and anamalous elements ). The 25mm f2 is then trashed by 135mm f2 APO if I attempt a technical comparison and go off-focus and off-axis.
Hi Viktor, so I finally got to test the 85 milvus vs. the loxia side by side. I can’t tell you which is sharper. What I can tell you is that I purchased milvus 85 and it’s on its way – what a gorgeous lens!
Anyway, I’m also thinking of picking up the milvus 50. I understand its optical pros/cons about as well as I can based off your literature/testing (please keep up the great work!), and others.
What I’m curious about is the feel of the focus on the milvus 50. I was concerned about the stiffness on 85 before I got it, but it does not bother me. Is the 50 focus stiffer than the 85?
Hi Micah,
sorry for the late reply. Congrats on your new lens, Milvus 50 has same focus stiffness as 85, don’t worry.
Cheers,
Viktor
thank u very much for this review, i am art photographer and user of 50mm 1.4 planar ZE and love it much
Actually Zeiss lenses aren’t that hard to nail focus with. You need to train first but after that it’s a lot easier.
Don’t trust the red focus point blink, instead look for focus/ae lock in the camera viewfinder.
Hi Gustav and thank you for the opinion. I don’t trust red blinker, but at open apertures, it is very difficult to nail eyeball instead of eyebrows in my experience. Could be just me though…
Cheers,
Viktor