It was a really windy day.
I was comparing my Loxia 25mm f2 Distagon vs the FE16-35mm f2.8GM here, not technical comparisons or
I was interested in doing that since I already did that many times in the past.
At this point (I have owned this lens since Feb, 2018 just after it was first out), I already know this lens very well, I have shot literally a few hundred thousands of images with this one.
Then what I wanted to see here, well I was just interested to see if the Zeiss pop or special Zeiss color really real, or SOOC color of this Loxia better than my GM zooms, that was what I wanted to see here.
I found those lenses equally sharp at 25mm , the SOOC color of the Loxia is a bit magenta biased especially in the mid tone grey area, while that of the GM is a bit cyan biased.
The Sony zoom produces quite a bit less micro contrast , but the over all contrast or global contrast is almost identical on both.
Both the Loia 25 and the FE16-35mm f2.8GM suffer from serious axial CA, distortion and a massive amount of Lo-CA, but both of these are still better than the mediocre Batis 25mm f2 in regards to Lo-CA, axial CA, lateral CA, and distortion.
Then what are the biggest advantages of the Loxia 25/2.4 Distagon over the FE16-35mm f2.8GM?
IMHO, there are two big advantages of the Loxia over the GM zoom:
1 much better flare performance.
2 better micro contrast that makes the main subject of the images shot at around f2.8 -f5 range really pop( many call it Zeiss 3D look).
Also, it is almost fully mechanical lens and it is a big advantage for me since it is less complicated and thus less fragile, less chance to go seriously wrong.....
In some Japanese wedding forums , there are some reports talking about some GM lenses mounted on the third generation A7X cameras automatically shut the aperture blades down and malfunctioned (such as freezing up and did not finish writing to the card, the LCD completely blacked out, or formatted some cards without the user permission) when the battery level got really low.
And some people experienced the ' sudden froze up of the A7R3' issue reported there was no other way than simply taking the battery out of the camera to stop the freezing. And it occurred only when they mounted an OSS lens and used the Eye AF at the same time.
I am not interested or doing wedding work myself, but I sometimes do event work for a big company(as my part time job) and so I am quite concerned about the above issue.
Sony denies it but the reports are all real, we had experienced some of these except the camera automatically formatting some SD cards issue.
Just imagine your camera suddenly started formatting your SD cards in the middle of a PAID event or wedding session?
How much money will you lose?
I am very worried about it, oh and the reports also say most of guys had the above issues after the last FW update....
Some say it occurred to them only when they used a specific SanDisk card. I do not think it's the card related issue(although Sony is now blaming all this on SanDisk Japan)
since the Nikon Z6 and Canon R and all the other Sony cameras than the A7R3 and A7M3 never experienced these strange issues even when used with the specific SanDisk card. My A9 , A7R2, A7R had no issue with my SanDisk 64gb and 128gb Extreme Pro cards, but my A7R3 had the issue(froze up and rejected to turn off).
Now I am selling a couple of A7R3 and use A7R2 and A9 until the annoying above problems are all fixed with a new FW release.
So I do not really want a more complicated than it should be kind of cameras since I do not need fast AF, complex IBIS, pixel shifting, Eye-AF, etc, that Sony (especially new users recently switched from Nikon or Canon) users really seem to be loving.
The IBIS, the complicated pixel shifting tech,etc are making the camera really weak and maybe even much less reliable in normal operations.
Many of us just do not need silly gimmicks like IBIS(why don't you just use your tripod?), pixel shift high resolution mode(we can easily stitch in post), Eye-AF(without that crap, can you not focus on human eyes?), extended battery life with a more heat generating big battery, etc.
If the system reliability must be compromised because of these new gimmicks , I'm gladly reject the latest cameras in favor of more reliable old ones like my A7R2, A9 and D810, etc.
The more complex a lens gets the more fragile it becomes and sometimes it hurts us in many ways.
In the old days when I as a little boy many people bought me a Leica lens and I used it for decades, now we cannot do the same.
If we can use it for many years, then the Leica price is not a problem for many of us, but now as everything is electronics , everything is becoming a just temporarily racket thing, and as such some of us do not want to pay a huge amount of money for any new or unreliable tech ,especially when we know we may use it for paid sessions sometimes.
So I am closely following how these A7X3 issues solved or remained unsolved , and if Sony mishandles this HUGE issue, I think they will lose many of the long time Sony camera customers(maybe those spec obsessed DPR guys still stay with them since they do only care about how good looking their cameras' spec sheets are).
Now I firmly decided to sell all Optically Stabilized complex lenses such as my Batis 135mm f2.8 APO, 85mm f1.8 Batis, Sony FE24-105mm f4G, the chance of those malfunction or make the third generation A7X cameras they are mounted on malfunction is great , seems much greater than with a more simple lens like the Loxia 25mm f2.4 or Batis 40mm f2 CF or Sony FE85mm f1.4GM..
So, now , I am selling my FE24-70mm f2.8GM, FE24-105mmf4G OSS(replaced these with the Batis 40mm f2CF), Batis 85mm f1.8(already replaced it with the GM), Batis 135mm f2.8 APO( will replace this lens with the Sigma).
Now I think it is the safest to go mostly legacy lens set up and when need AF or high contrasty lenses, use a Batis or a non-ISed GM prime. Now, the only two zooms I still own are the FE12-24mm f4G and this FE16-35mm f2.8GM.
And I may get the EOS R in addition to my Sony cameras since it seems to be a much more reliable camera.
Now, the Canon system does not have enough lenses, but since it has the fantastically affordable, beautiful RF35mm f1.8IS whose equivalent lens Sony does not offer, maybe it really makes sense for me to add the R with the RF 35mm and RF50mm f1.2 primes.
Opticallimits (used to be Photozene.de) reviewed the Canon 50 and they seemed to be really impressed.