Conclusion
Pros
- Extremely well-built and solid lens made of solid metal and rubber
- Good manual focus feel and firm, clicky aperture ring
- Outstanding central sharpness at all apertures and focus distances, and very good edge and corner sharpness stopped down
- Truly exceptional color and contrast yield beautiful tonality in the images
- Very nice and smooth bokeh at close focusing distances
- Practically apochromatic – excellent control of chromatic aberrations
- Resists flare and controls vignetting well
- Focuses down to 1:1 magnification for true macro shooting
- Quick and quiet autofocus in good light with excellent accuracy, even when tracking moving subjects
Cons
- Desperately needs a focus limiter
- Focus is slow in the macro range and has difficulty locking on to subjects in dimmer light
- Working distance at 1:1 is extremely short
- Bokeh is somewhat busy at medium focus distances
The Zeiss Touit 50mm f/2.8 Makro-Planar T* is the first true 1:1 macro available for the Fuji X-Mount and adds another high quality macro lens to the Sony E-mount as well. Optically, the lens is predominantly exceptional. It’s extremely sharp at all focus distances, provides some of the best contrast and color of any lens I’ve used, and produces gorgeous bokeh close up. Add to this the outstanding CA control and you’ve got a truly outstanding optic. The only real downside optically is the fact that the bokeh gets somewhat busy at further focus distances.
The major downsides to the lens are all in operation. While the lens is built extremely well, it could use some usability tweaks. The lack of a focus limiter causes some major problems with autofocus in the macro range, and can further slow the autofocus when shooting indoors at all focus distances. The fact that it’s only a 50mm lens that uses internal focus also means that the working distance at high magnifications is extremely short, making it a difficult lens to work with for extreme closeups of insects.
The usability concerns aside, the Zeiss 50mm macro is an excellent lens. While I would prefer a longer macro lens, it’s a great option for 1:1 shooting on the Fuji X cameras and a great addition to the Sony E-Mount as well. While the lens isn’t cheap at $999, given the optical quality, it’s not an unreasonable price. It’s the best of the Touit lenses in my opinion and a top-notch optic all around. Well done, Zeiss!
Image Samples
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