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Home โ†’ Reviews โ†’ Cameras and Lenses โ†’ Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/1.4 ZF.2 Review

Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/1.4 ZF.2 Review

By Nasim Mansurov 21 Comments
Last Updated On July 3, 2020

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Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/1.4 vs Nikon 35mm f/1.4G

Let’s take a look at how the Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/1.4 compares to the Nikon 35mm f/1.4G:

Zeiss Distagon 35mm f/1.4 MTF Performance

Nikon 35mm f/1.4G MTF Performance

At the maximum aperture of f/1.4, the Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 has about the same center resolution as the Nikon 35mm f/1.4G, but better mid-frame and corner resolution. Stopping down to f/2 significantly improves center sharpness for the Nikon, but the Zeiss still lags behind quite a bit. The Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 gets much better at f/2.8 in the center, but the Nikon 35mm f/1.4G pretty much kicks off from there, with visibly better resolution throughout the frame. And by f/4, both lenses do very well in the center, but the Nikon is still clearly better in the mid-frame and the corners. Overall, it is pretty clear that the Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/1.4 is weaker than the Nikon 35mm f/1.4G, especially at large apertures.

Zeiss Distagon T* f/1.4 vs Samyang 35mm f/1.4

Let’s compare the lens with the Samyang 35mm f/1.4 manual focus lens:

Zeiss Distagon 35mm f/1.4 MTF Performance

Samyang 35mm f/1.4 MTF Performance

Looking at the above charts, the Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/1.4 is weaker than the Samyang 35mm f/1.4. Once again, large apertures and the corners is where the Zeiss suffers. Only at f/8 the Zeiss more or less gets close in performance in the center and mid-frames, but still noticeably worse in the corners.

Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/1.4 vs Sigma 35mm f/1.4

Lastly, let’s take a look at how the Zeiss compares to the excellent Sigma 35mm f/1.4:

Zeiss Distagon 35mm f/1.4 MTF Performance

Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art MTF Performance

This comparison does not need additional comments, since the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 just destroys the Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 sharpness-wise, whether looking at the center, the mid-frame or the corners.

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