After looking carefully at the recently-uploaded ISO test charts for these lenses, I noticed that both of these lenses seem to have some contrast issues in the center at all f-numbers, which seems very strange to me. For example:


http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/ISO-12233-Sample-Crops.aspx?Lens=115&Camera=453&Sample=0&am p;FLIComp=0&APIComp=3&LensComp=727&Cam eraComp=453&SampleComp=0&FLI=0&API=5


and


http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/ISO-12233-Sample-Crops.aspx?Lens=107&Camera=453&Sample=0&am p;FLI=0&API=2&LensComp=728&CameraComp= 453&SampleComp=0&FLIComp=0&APIComp=3


Notice how in both cases, the edges on the center target (concentric circles) have sharp contrast on both the EF 50/1.4 and EF 100/2.8 macro, but the ZE lenses have a kind of halo effect. Also notice that stopping down further doesn't reduce it.


Any thoughts about this? Many owners of these ZE MPs are quite vocal about how much better their lenses are compared to the respective EF lenses; and if one looked in the corners, I suppose they'd be right. But I must wonder what is going on in the image center. It looks vastly inferior. And please don't start spouting nebulous buzzwords about "microcontrast" and "Zeiss look." I want to talk about possible explanations for the chart results.