Canon 100mm L or Zeiss 100mm

Anjouri123 · Jan 6, 2014

Anybody go from the 100mm L to the Zeiss 100mm or vice versa and did you regret the move? I have the Canon 135 L and a 100mm L and I truly want to give the Zeiss a try but really cannot afford overall purchase without giving something up. I am also thinking about the Zeiss 35mm f2. What would be best 2 kit combo? I also have a 24-105, 70-200 f4 IS and a 35mm f2 non IS.

JOEFLY · Jan 8, 2014

I do not understand why you would trade an equivalent Canon for a Zeiss.

ronlane · Jan 8, 2014

JOEFLY said:
I do not understand why you would trade an equivalent Canon for a Zeiss.

I could be wrong but from what I understand Zeiss makes some GREAT glass. If it's that good, I could see wanting to try it over Canon glass.

kathyt · Jan 8, 2014

The Canon 100L is amazing. I am not sure what you are looking to improve upon that the Canon lens doesn't offer. Don't get me started on the 135, because it is my baby.

JOEFLY · Jan 8, 2014

OK, I am only a hobbyist with some L glass and I am very happy with it. Maybe you could rent some Zeiss lens and try it. I would be interested to know if it is that much better.

j-digg · Jan 15, 2014

I'd say keep the L unless you can find someone to pay a good amount for it and you could make the switch relatively hassle free. I love my L, but when shooting macro I manually focus 90% of the time, if not more... so I could easily live with an MF macro lens. The other Zeiss I had considered was the 21 2.8, which I also wouldn't mind as a MF lens, being a wider angle that I would mainly use for landscapes.

TCampbell · Jan 15, 2014

I'm curious why you'd want to trade a Canon L series lens for a Zeiss.

Zeiss DOES make very good glass.... but so are the Canon L series lenses.

In the case of the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro vs the Zeiss Macro-Planar T* 2/100, the Canon has a better MTF score ... even when accounting for the fact that Zeiss is an f/2 lens and the Canon is an f/2.8. The Canon at f/2.8 has higher acutance than the Zeiss even when the Zeiss is stopped down to f/4. Keep in mind that this is a manual focus lens.