Lens kindly provided for testing purposes by Peter-Cornelius Spaeth!

Introduction

Typical for all ZF lenses the 50mm f/2 doesn´t feature AF nor an electronically controlled aperture. Reads: the lens has an automatic aperture but you have to stop down via the aperture ring on the lens (1/2 stop steps). Consequently the lens is not compatible to the consumer-grade Nikon DSLRs a la D40 or D70. However, it works just fine e.g. in aperture-priority mode on the D200. The build quality of the full-metal Zeiss (brass with chromium-plated brass front bayonet) is superb. The fluted focus ring feels exceptionally well damped. A lens hood is part of the package as you may notice below. However, the front element is deeply recessed from the filter thread so you don't really need one anyway.

Typical for most macro lenses the focus design is a combination of an extension system and floating elements for close-focus correction. It takes a ~300 degree turn of the focus ring to reach the closest focus from infinity and in the process the length of the lens increases by 32mm. The working distance (front element to object) is about 9cm here. Unfortunately the max. object magnification is only 1:2 whereas most of the competitors offer 1:1.