This week we rented a Zeiss Makro-Planar T* 50mm f/2 ZF.2 to use on our Panasonic AF100 to film the walking gallery. We knew that the painted jackets by Regina Holliday would be the star of the video, so we wanted the capability to get some really great closeups. This lens is not a true macro lens because it only provides a 1:2 magnification, but it still gave us the ability to get extreme closeups. In the case of the painted jackets, we did not want to get too close, as then the images would no longer make sense.
The Zeiss is truly a joy to use for macro work. The focus ring is very well dampened, and has a near 360 degree throw. The majority of the throw is in the 9″ – 1′ range, so once you focus past 1′ it quickly goes to infinity. But getting sharp focus for the macros of the jackets was incredibly easy. The lens allows for very precise focus adjustments. I could easily focus on individual threads of the jackets. We used the lens for the interviews and some other shots, and it worked quite flawlessly there as well. The only real challenge was focusing on anything farther than about 5 feet away. I never felt like I couldn’t get focus, but it was much more challenging due to the very small turn between 5′ – infinity. The lens was tack sharp wide open, and I found that f2 was plenty fast for us. Faster lenses in this price range are rarely as good wide open, so I end up stopping down to at least f2 most of the time. The lens is built like a tank and weighs over a pound, so it is best suited used on a tripod. I would not want to run around handheld with this lens shooting video. The only real downside of using it this week is that now I want to buy one!
