Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/2 ZF - Review / Test Report - Analysis
Lens Reviews - Nikon / Nikkor (APS-C)

Distortion

The Zeiss 35mm f/2 ZF produces a slight degree (~0.7%) of barrel distortion. This is about in-line to what we´ve seen from other manufacturers.

The chart above has a real-world size of about 120x80cm.

Vignetting

The Zeiss lens exhibited a relatively pronounced vignetting of 0.74EV at wide-open aperture. From f/2.8 onwards the problem is negligible under field conditions. This is a quite typical behavior for a lens in this class.

MTF (resolution)

Similar to the other tested Zeiss lenses the Distagon 35mm f/2 produces breathtakingly high center resolution figures straight from the max. aperture setting. At f/2.8 and f/4 the center quality matches or exceeds the limits of the 10mp D200 sensor. In contrary the border performance is "only" very good at large aperture settings but increases steadily towards medium apertures where the quality reaches excellent levels.

Please note that the MTF results are not directly comparable across the different systems!

Below is a simplified summary of the formal findings. The chart shows line widths per picture height (LW/PH) which can be taken as a measure for sharpness. If you want to know more about the MTF50 figures you may check out the corresponding Imatest Explanations

Chromatic Aberrations (CAs)

Chromatic aberrations (color shadows at harsh contrast transitions) are very low at large aperture setting but are getting stronger towards medium apertures. In absolute terms the average CA width @ f/8 is still moderate with 1.1px at the image borders.



Disclosure: When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network and Google Adsense.