Candy from Venice
Glass candies from Venice.
Above: Nikon D3s + Carl Zeiss Makro Planar T* 2/100. Below are three shots of the same scene with three different lenses, the Zeiss MP/100, the Nikon AF-S Micro Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 ED and the Leica APO Macro Elmarit 100mm f/2.8 using a Sony Alpha NEX 5N and a Novoflex adapter. Further down below are three crops, all down-sampled to 500 x 450 pixels.
The Micro Nikkor 105/2.8 lens was focused using autofocus on a single point, the other two manually focused. All three were focused on the big white candy in the middle.
All three lenses show excellent sharpness at the center at max aperture. There is nothing in this image to compare corners, of course. The Zeiss shot was at f/2.8, to be consistent with the other two lenses.
The Nikon Micro Nikkor shows far more vignetting than the Zeiss. The Leica shows no vignetting at all, but that is because the NEX-5N produces a cropped image, so by definition, the image has no vignetting. It would be interesting to see how the Leica prints on a full frame sensor.
Both the Zeiss and the Leica show slightly better micro contrast at the actual pixel level. The Nikon introduced a slightly yellowish tinge to the image.
The Zeiss shows slight magenta fringing, which is the one known flaw of this otherwise incredible lens. In spite of the "ED" (Extra-low Dispersion) designation, the Nikkor also shows the same level of color fringing as the Zeiss. The Leica is true to its APO label - there is not a trace of color fringing or CA.
D3S_4280
Candy from Venice
Glass candies from Venice.
Above: Nikon D3s + Carl Zeiss Makro Planar T* 2/100. Below are three shots of the same scene with three different lenses, the Zeiss MP/100, the Nikon AF-S Micro Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 ED and the Leica APO Macro Elmarit 100mm f/2.8 using a Sony Alpha NEX 5N and a Novoflex adapter. Further down below are three crops, all down-sampled to 500 x 450 pixels.
The Micro Nikkor 105/2.8 lens was focused using autofocus on a single point, the other two manually focused. All three were focused on the big white candy in the middle.
All three lenses show excellent sharpness at the center at max aperture. There is nothing in this image to compare corners, of course. The Zeiss shot was at f/2.8, to be consistent with the other two lenses.
The Nikon Micro Nikkor shows far more vignetting than the Zeiss. The Leica shows no vignetting at all, but that is because the NEX-5N produces a cropped image, so by definition, the image has no vignetting. It would be interesting to see how the Leica prints on a full frame sensor.
Both the Zeiss and the Leica show slightly better micro contrast at the actual pixel level. The Nikon introduced a slightly yellowish tinge to the image.
The Zeiss shows slight magenta fringing, which is the one known flaw of this otherwise incredible lens. In spite of the "ED" (Extra-low Dispersion) designation, the Nikkor also shows the same level of color fringing as the Zeiss. The Leica is true to its APO label - there is not a trace of color fringing or CA.
D3S_4280