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Zeiss 100/3.5 - To buy or not to buy?

G

Guest

I m interested in the 100 mm 3,5 because of it s
light weight. In the Contax MTF there it makes a good job. Has anybody checked it out ???
 
Hi Martin,

I own one for about 15 years used with an RTS II and an ARIA. It's a wonderfull portrait lens. The only comprise for the lightweight is small aperture of 3,5. But this compensated by the difference of 20 mm to a standard portrait tele about 80 mm. On the RTS II I used it as my standard lens.

Andreas
 
It is a gorgeous lens. If you can live with the small F/3.5 aperture, it is an amazingly sharp and contrasty lens. When I need to travel light, I will prefer it to my Planar 100/2.0. In broad daylight, it always produced crisp and saturated transparencies. In lower light, it still reproduced the subtle shades that make those Zeiss lenses so remarkable.

My ideal field equipment comprises a Distagon 25/2.8, a Planar 50/1.4 and either a Sonnar 85/2.8 or 100/3.5. They all have the same filter thread and roughly the same dimension (the 100/3.5 is slightly longer, but not by much).

If you can find a used one on eBay or elsewhere, I think it is a real bargain.
 
I'd love to pick up one of these lenses. I just saw one (AE version), for £299. This seems steep to me, but then again they seem quite rare. For the same price you can find an 85/2.8MM, which have a more solid construction but are heavier. Does anyone have any idea what these lenses typically go for?
 
Graham,
The easiest way to get some idea of what the lenses "typically" go for is to go to eBay, search by "completed items" and see what people actually paid for those lenses recently. Doing that, I found that a 100mm 3.5 was just sold for US $315 on 12/16.
Of course this may be very misleading in many ways (condition of the item, seller, bidding frenzy...), particularly if you only find one recent sale. But if you find several, you can get some idea of what people out there are willing to pay.
Good luck.
 
They've been going for about $300 for several years now. So not a bad price.
 
>I paid $400 (U.S.) for mine ... and it was worth every penny. Great lens. >

michael.
 
Hi all, how does the YC Sonnar 3.5/100mm T* compare to Sonnar 2.8/135mm T* (excellent but bad close focus 1.5m) in terms of max. picture quality, including flare? THX, Rainer
 
I remember a test, which said the 3.5/100 to be more than superb, in my interpretation that does mean "better than the 2.8/135". But I do not remember, in which magazine this test was; must have been Color Photo or FotoMagazin from Germany.

So, I would buy it instead of the 135. Could you say something about the price ?

matthias
 
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