The Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/2.0 ZF.2 Lens is a classic focal length lens with a moderate wide-angle perspective. The Distagon T* 35mm f/2.0 provides very high image quality over a wide range of apertures and focusing ranges. The fast f/2.0 aperture enables hand-held photography under difficult lighting conditions and since it has a short focus rotation, it is great for action photography. When it is combined with a DSLR with a 1.5 crop factor, the lens has an effective focal length of 53mm (in 35mm format) and can be used as a standard focal length for a natural viewing perspective.

The new ZF.2 lenses are an enhanced version of ZF lenses. They feature an electronic interface (CPU) that enables support of all important camera operating modes such as shutter priority, aperture priority and programmed auto exposure or manual exposure settings on non-AI compatible camera housings. Photographers no longer have to set the parameters in the camera menu as the lens now transmits standard data such as focal length, speed and the aperture setting to the camera. This data can then be viewed in the EXIF data of each picture.

Furthermore, silver fork coupling is not available. For this reason, you cannot use light metering on older cameras (F, F2, Nikkormat, etc.). The ZF.2 lenses have a mechanical lock on the aperture ring to lock the aperture ring at the lowest setting and prevent unintentional adjustment while taking pictures.

For technical reasons, these lenses do not have a half-step aperture lock between the lowest (stop position) and the second lowest aperture setting. This guarantees reliable recognition of the automatic position. The lowest aperture on ZF.2 lenses is colored orange to emphasize the automatic position of the aperture ring.