The Carl Zeiss ZF.2 Family

My somewhat disturbing fondness for my latest piece of glass – the Carl Zeiss 35mm f/2 – was so strong, and frankly quite fervent, that I decided to throw caution into the wind, damn my low bank account and upgrade ALL my gear to Zeiss.  Today, having successfully sold my ultra-wide Sigma and my Nikon Fisheye lenses, I was able to purchase the drool-inspiring Carl Zeiss 18mm f/3.5.

21mm Versus 18mm

So, you ask, “Ray, why the 18mm f/3.5 instead of the 21mm f/2.8?”  Good question.

The $300 difference in cost had nothing to do with it.  When you’re dropping $1500 on a lens, the price isn’t a factor anymore.  It’s about my style.  If you look at my stream from the days I was shooting on my D80 – it was 90% shot with my Sigma 10-20mm glass.  I love the incredibly obnoxious wide shots of landscapes.  And though the difference from 18 to 21 mm isn’t mind shatteringly huge, it’s enough.  I like to go as extreme as I can and since Mr. Zeiss isn’t offering up that sexy 16-35mm lens for Nikon yet, 18 is as wide as it gets for me.

Can I deal with f/3.5?

As for F-stop, the 3.5 and 2.8 are irrelevant for my shooting.  I do long exposure in low light for most of my nature shots.  Being on a tripod is my key.  I tend to keep the shutter open from a second to 30 minutes.  Though I do love lenses that hover below f/2.8 – in landscape photography, they are not a must.

So, What’s Next?

Well, I’ll be in poverty for quite some time now.  But that’s OK – it’s very much worth it.  I will now begin saving for the CZ 50mm ZF.2 Makro and the CZ 100mm ZF.2 Makro.  It’ll be at least a year before I can afford to do that.  I do have 2 more pieces of glass to sell off, but that’ll get me only $500 or so.

Perhaps the kind folks at CZ would like to donate one for me to promote?

Carl Zeiss 35mm f/2

And I just can’t sleep.  I am head over heels in love with my Zeiss.  Been shooting a variety of things to get used to it and it is just amazing.  The performance on my D700 has been flawless and I am now saving to revise my entire line of lenses.  I plan to get the Zeiss 18, (have the 35), 50, 85 and 100 and do away with everything else I have.  All that will be left to buy is the ever so elusive D700x or D700s, then my dreams will be complete!

But I digress.

So, for some samples of my Zeiss shots to date, have a look at what I have been posting on my Flickr stream.  Trying to capture color, depth and detail with the different exposures here. There is much more to come, but this is a teaser sample:

Carl Zeiss 35mm f/2

Carl Zeiss 35mm f/2

Carl Zeiss 35mm f/2

Carl Zeiss 35mm f/2

And one last one in HDR:

Carl Zeiss 35mm f/2