I have recently returned to using all Zeiss lenses for my photography to imbue them with that unique "Zeiss look". It was literally a sign that made me do it!
I was, for a long time, an avid user of lenses made by Carl Zeiss with evocative names like Hologon, Biogon, Distagon, Planar, Sonnar and Vario-Sonnar known for their top end optical quality and their ability to produce first class images with their own signature look.
This is a way of rendering micro contrast and imbuing a 3-D appearance, and colour gradation which is uniquely Zeiss and which I rediscovered when photographing the signs in the two images above which I took with a Zeiss Vario-Sonnar 24-200mm f2.8-4.5 at the far end of the zoom.
Everything pops and zings in the good old Zeiss way. Now there are those that say that they just don't see it and there is no such "look" special to Zeiss but I have used many lenses from many makers (Nikon, Canon, Leica, Minolta, Konica, Yashica, Schneider, Voigtländer) over the years and when you put the images made with each along side each other you can immediately see the Zeiss made ones.
So here's to the Hologons, Biogons, Distagons, Planars, Sonnars, C Sonnars and Vario-Sonnars; long may they rule.