This was mean to be a very different article. You see, stuck as I was with my family in lockdown, I thought it would be the perfect time to compare a bunch of 50mm lenses in everyday use, from a lowly 50mm 1.7 Minolta to a monstrous 55mm 1.4 Zeiss Otus. I was going to post the results blind, and let you all guess which lens was responsible for which shot – but when I got my scans back from the lab I realised that it was a pointless exercise. Let me explain.
After posting 5-Frames with a Zeiss Otus 55mm sometime ago, a few people asked whether I’d mind sharing the results on other emulsions – so I thought ‘great idea!’, then got totally side tracked for a few years and forgot all about it. Thing is, good lenses have been able to out-resolve film for decades, so there’s really not that much point to this, except that it’s fun and it gives me an excuse to shoot film.
A lot has already been written about the technical wotnots of the Zeiss Otus primes, and I have little to add – except to say that they’re big, heavy, and forged in the heart of a dying star by wizards out of magic glass that was stolen from a dragon.
