Zeiss Mirotar 8/500mm (C/Y) lens review

Kabraxis · Joined: 29 Sep 2009 Posts: 58 Location: Zuerich

Hello everybody!

I just finished the work on my Zeiss Mirotar 8/500mm lens review.I added you some pictures i shoot with this little beauty, the full review (in German language) you can find at: www.kabraxis.de
For an english version please use the Google translator.

In this post you will find some samples i posted before:
http://forum.mflenses.com/mirotar-8-500mm-sample-pictures-t26579.html

EOS 50D

EOS 5DMKII

Greetings from Switzerland
Pascal

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

Congratulations! A very desireable lens.

poilu · Expire: 2019-08-29

congrats! nice lens

aoleg · Joined: 22 Feb 2008 Posts: 1387 Location: Berlin, DE

Thank you for your review. This is the first time I've seen full-size pictures taken with this lens. Interestingly, the Zeiss does not seem any sharper or more contrasty than Yashica ML Reflex 500/8. Sorry for a boring subject:

AhamB · Joined: 22 Jun 2008 Posts: 733 Location: Germany

Quite nice, but there are a few factual inaccuracies in your article. Mirror lenses are not 100% free from chromatic abberations, simply because all photographic mirror lens designs include some corrective glass elements. CA is by all means low, but nonetheless I clearly see some cyan/red fringes in a number of your shots.

Another thing you didn't mention in the list of negative points of mirror lenses is that they are usually bad at resolving fine detail. Not one of your samples looks really sharp to me at 100% view. Unfortunately the samples don't have the EXIF, so we can't see how much high ISO and show shutter speed may have contributed to the blur.The resolution seems to be there for the most part, but the microcontrast is very low. Fine detail is simply hidden under a haze (and luminance noise).

In general I like the look of most of your samples, so I can see why could be happy with the lens. I don't understand though why you didn't make some test shots at ISO100 from tripod, using Live View in silent shooting mode. Then you don't even have the vibrations from the shutter (which you do get with MLU).

Anyway, it seems to be a nice lens all in all and I certainly wouldn't mind having it. Wink

Thanks for sharing the samples and the review; I learnt some things but my notes above are meant as constructive criticism. I hope it's of some use to you.