Zeiss Milvus 50/1.4 vs Zeiss Otus 55/1.4 vs Zeiss Planar 50/1.4 – Comparative Lens Review

Field Test – Portrait

While 50mm lenses are considered as “normal” or “standard” focal length, I tend to use them mainly for environmental portraits. In this final part of the review, you can explore several images that we managed to capture during two days session with professional models.

In order to keep things at least partially comparable, I asked another experienced portrait photographer – Pavel Sinagl (www.pavelsinagl.com), who is shooting with Nikon D810 for help. We split lenses by focal length for each model and after setting the situation, we switched all three lenses, trying to keep similar composition and exposure values. Thanks Pavel for your kind help!

Weather was cloudy and colors are dull, but for the outdoor portrait it was actually blessing.

Because of the size of original files, in order to keep page upload reasonable, we had to reduce image size to only 800px wide. However, in the following Flickr album, you should find all images in their original size  Portrait with Zeiss 50 (55) mm lenses

(If you are not sure how to open original size, please check the end part of this article – How to open original image size in Flickr)

Please note, that it is impossible to compare sharpness on 1 or 2 images from this series. There are too many variables to ensure proper sharpness comparison, and it wasn’t intention to do so with this test. What you might follow is very simple – do I like images taken with one lens, more than with other or I can’t hardly see any differences? Technical and optical qualities are one side of the story, but as soon as lenses are used for taking images they were invented for, it’s only result that matters.

Session 1 – Model Viktoria, photo by Pavel, Nikon D810

Session 2 – Model Petra, photo by Viktor, Nikon D800E

Session 3 – Model Anne-Nicole, photo by Viktor, Nikon D800E, Sony A7 MII, Sony A7r

All images presented here are shot in RAW, developed in LR CC and exported as JPEG without excessive post processing, except for BW or Sepia adjustment. White balance was also adjusted and when needed exposure was slightly corrected. No additional sharpening or blurring was applied. Please, be generous to our models. We had little time and resources to work on make-up and for the purpose of this review we didn’t retouch skin to remove blemishes or make it smoother. I would never let any of those images as a final output, without making proper lighting, styling and post processing if not for the purpose of lens review.

From all those portrait application comparisons, we are not afraid to draw one conclusion. All three Zeiss lenses are outstanding optical instruments, and differences in the real life usage (at least in the type of scene captured above) are rather minor.

>To help this page survive, your donation will be highly appreciated.