Today, Lloyd Chambers posted an interesting article on the Zeiss website entitled - "
Micro Contrast and the ZEISS ‘Pop'".
Certainly most of us here who subscribe to this thread are already very familiar with "Zeiss Pop". One thing I found interesting in this article is that with some Zeiss lenses, the optimum micro-contrast is found at f/2.8; and that for most lenses the micro-contrast starts to degrade at f/6.3 to f/8.
Lloyd also said that the Zeiss "
Otus" lenses have the best micro-contrast/Pop of all the lenses that he's tested.
I've never shot Zeiss "
Otus" lenses on my K1, but I have shot many Zeiss
Milvus and Zeiss
Classic lenses. To my eye, the Zeiss "
Milvus" lenses clearly have better micro-contrast then their Zeiss "
Classic" counterparts. I guess that one really does get what they pay for.
While all of us would like to shoot the very best lenses, practically, I have to realize that I will never be able to afford the best Zeiss lenses (
Otus), so I am happy shooting my
Milvus and
Classic lenses.
Otus lenses can of course be adapted to Pentax K mount and shot on a Pentax K1 camera. I know of no one who has yet done so.