After tasting the Apo Distagon 55/1.4, I guess it is not difficult for people in this forum to understand how one can get hook to the quality of Apo lens design. Prior to Otus I have not use any Apo lenses before (well, a Sigma designed Rollinar 70-210/3.5-4.5 Apo but I doubt it is a true Apo but nevertheless quite a good lens, and I am not rich enough to play Leica, even used). But Otus Apo is certainly very breath taking, in terms of resolution, almost completely free from fringing, and is so confident to use at the maximum aperture and the centre of the photo is still laser sharp! These are the common characteristics of Otus lenses, which I feel when using the Otus 55/1.4 and the 28/1.4. Even the 135/2 Apo Sonnar also feels the same, short of a f1.4 aperture.
So I began photography back around 1980s with a outfit of Praktica BC1, Prakticar 28/2.8, 50/1.8 and 135/2.8. As a kid I had been admiring the Rolleiflex SL35E and the Rollei 35S. When I was in University when I got my pay as a student working for industrial attachment I then bought the Praktica, thinking it was German but only later to find out it was East German and thus the very good price. Then it was a system I have no regret and the Praktica is definitely very value for money.
Of course after playing with a Rolleiflex SL2000F and a 50/1.8 Planar and 135/2.8 Sonnar I got immediately hooked to the Western Zeiss. After one big round I get back to the same point, now on digital with Sony Alpha 7R Mk II with Otus 28/1.4, 55/1.4 and 135/2. But things do not seem improve a lot. Yes now I have a set of outstanding primes covering my favourite focal lengths, extremely high quality, high resolution and Apo quality, and very fast aperture. But the weight of the outfit has increased more than double!
The original plan was go for Leica M mount lenses with the ZM series but unfortunately the wide angle ZMs do not work well on digital full frame, so that was really a disappointment and a bit felt cheated by Zeiss. But then Zeiss in the first place did mention they were design for Leica M digital, not other FF mirrorless.
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Rolleiflex 3003, SL2000F - SONY Alpha7R 1/2/4. A1
Carl Zeiss C/Y T* - QBM HFT - ZM T* - ZF T* - Batis T* - Otus T* - Loxia T*
Sony. Zeiss 16-35/4 T* G200600 GM100400 GM600
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