This is to share my first hand impression on this lens but not intended to be a lens test report.
Ergonomics
Balance: I'm a handheld shooter. That's why the balance of the system (ie camera body, film back and lens) is important. This lens is 1.1kg but my system is 1.25kg so the balance is still quite good.
Focusing: I use this as an FE lens. The shutter ring is permanently set to F mode. To me, there are only two rings, ie the aperture ring and the focusing ring. The focusing ring is designed for easy grasping. Its width has been maximised. I find it quite enjoyable to use, given the fact that FE lenses generally leave the full barrel width for focusing. One thing is deceptive though. The focusing ring is actually one composite ring, although it gives the appearance there are two rings. The movement of the focusing ring is as silky as usual. Quite surprisingly, it isn't heavy at all. I would guess the movement is like the operation of the Contax Distagon 35/1.4, or even lighter. 90% of the focusing range is dedicated to subject distance from 0.50m to 2.0m. This is quite useful to me as I use it mainly for candid family shots.
Technical performance
Contrast: This lens produces extremely contrasty photos, as evidenced by the MTF graphs. The day I had a few shots was an extremely contrasty dusk. At around 1830 to 1930, the photos are inevitably contrasty. I had also taken a few shots indoor which coincide my comment above.
Colour rendition: I rarely if ever shoot slides. The colour of scanned images below is different from that on my prints. The brightness is pulled up a bit by the shop so it doesn't look as solid as my prints. Having regard to the limited value of my view in this respect, I would still say this lens give somewhat vivid colours. My feeling is that it gives more vivid colour than my FE110 (last generation).
Resolution: To a handheld shooter, resolution is practically not the most important. My photos give no indication of the resolving power of this lens. Nor does the technical data sheet provided by Carl Zeiss give such indication.
Relative illuminance (optical vigetting): The data sheet shows this aspect has been improved over the previous versions. In practice, I find no perceptible loss of illuminance at the corners even from indoor shots.
Distortion: I'm not talking about perspective distortion. It is said that this version has more pronounced distortion. Looking at the technical sheet, this is true. However, in the field I cannot perceive any distortion, let alone worsened distortion performance. I am not the kindof people who would look at pictures by a ruler.
Flare: Pictures Nos. 2 and 5 were taken at tricky angles. The flare at No 5 to me is quite prominent. This shows the improved internal coating of CFi and CFE lenses is not panacea for flare. I finding it extraordinary that Carl Zeiss does not provide a square hood in this package for more effective elimination of flare, having regard to the price tag of this lens. I always love Leica's way of dealing with hoods in this regard. A remedy is to use the compendium hood 6093T but such alternative is not open to handheld shooter.
Filter: No filter was used in the photos below. The main reason is that I haven't got one and it's reasonably difficult to get a reasonably priced one. There are a number of very expensive Hasselblad lenses which use Series 93 filter but, again, quite extraordinarily, a multi-coated UV filter is not generally available. Hasselblad catalogue does not have one. Nor does B + W do. Heliopan has one in their catalogue but dealers in Hong Kong are reluctant to order them. I do not find it from overseas dealers like B & H either. The result is that users of this expensive lens have to live with a UV filter without multi-coating.
Here are some sample photos taken handheld by Kodak VC400.
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