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Carl Zeiss 2.8/25 T* ZF on Canon as a Herping Lens
Yesterday I tried out my new herping lens - Carl Zeiss 2.8/25 T* ZF - with a subject that I actually planned this lens to use for. is a manual-control only lens that exists only for Nikon mount. On Canon it can be used with an adapter, e.g. a Novoflex EOS/NIK. Not being a fisheye lens, the Carl Zeiss 2.8/25 T* ZF has nevertheless that rare ability to focus on a very short distance of only 17 cm. In practice this allows you to make shots of small subjects, such as amphibians, reptiles, insects, flora - from a distance of only several centimeters.
Below you see photographs of a Common Frog (Rana temporaria). I had no flash with me this time, and was shooting with high ISO - 1600. Nevertheless the shutter speed was quite slow - 0.8 sec - due to narrow aperture - f/22. Even with this aperture which is maximum for this lens the background blur is quite strong when the subject is so small and so close. The frog was only about 5 cm from the front of the lens and its body size was about 6-7cm.
To eliminate the usual for such shots overexposure in the top of the frame, I am using this lens with a B&W gradient filter.
The image presented here is a full frame, and with normal processing - gradation curve, saturation and vibrance increase, sharpening.
Bottom line: This view angle is not as wide as in fisheye lenses, and with small subjects the background is too much blurred even at maximum aperture. Shooting with f/22 is very difficult because the image in viewfinder is almost black. On positive side, the distortion is virtually absent. The lens provides typical for Zeiss nice realistic colour rendering and contrast. Use of filters is another positive thing.
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