ZM 21 2.8 or Elmarit 21

[Printmaker]

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I shot the grey copyboards as controls for color and white balance. The foamcore should have turned out to be a more or less even 240 R, 240 G, 240 B. You can see lower Red numbers here and there and readings of 230 on the edges but it sure looks within tolerance to me.

 

Copy the white foamcore file and use your photoshop eyedropper to measure the colors.

 

Bottom line: 21/2.8 with code and filter should be okay. If not, there is a problem somewhere.

 

Tom

[mtomalty]

In response to my own question in the first post, I was finally able to get my hands on

a non-asph Elmarit 21.

 

On my M8 this lens,when sharpie coded as a 21 asph, has no appreciable sign of the

red side contamination that has plagued me with my Zeiss 21 2.8

 

Really baffling, when one sees other owners of the ZM 21 2.8 show images almost

completely free of red cast.

Can't imagine there could be that much variance in the lens assembly.

 

Mark

Mark Tomalty Photography Montreal Canada Travel Landscape Stock FineArt

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[mtomalty]

Well,

Spoke too soon. Further testing with the non asph Elmarit 21 in a broader range of

conditions show the red sides of about equal intensity to my ZM 21.

 

Back to the drawing board !

 

I can only figure that my sensor is somehow more sensitive than others I have seen.

I was able to go back into my archive and find two tests,one with an M8 and one with an M8.2,

where I used the same non asph 21 from my dealer and have the files free of the red sides.

 

The only variable now is my specific M8 body

[roanjohn]

Odd. Keep us up-to-date on what transpires. I am using the ZM 21 on my M8.2 and never have that problem on any given situation.

[mtomalty]

Well, many will be thrilled to know that the story continues :>))

 

Was able to get hold of an M8.2 this weekend thinking that the inconsistencies with red sides

rested with my specific M8.

Fortunately/unfortunately this is not the case

The M8.2 exhibits essentially the same amount of red contamination as my M8.

 

What came to light, though, is that I noticed, while scrolling through test files from both bodies,

is that out of about 50 files from each there were 3-4 that had,in the metadata, 18mm listed as the

recognized focal length and not 21mm.

These were randomly scattered throughout the group.

 

As well, there were a handful of files,in one sequence of four, that were almost completely free of red contamination while the preceeding and following files were affected,as usual.

If I could get these results consistently I'd be a happy camper

 

It is as if the camera is applying an over-correction for the IR filter.

 

Mark

Mark Tomalty Photography Montreal Canada Travel Landscape Stock FineArt

[geoffreyg]

mildly frightening to say the least. Maybe its your software?

[mtomalty]

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Well, today was a good day.

 

Finally got to the root of the red/magenta color problems that has plagued me since Xmas.

 

Unbelievably, the problem came down to the @#%$^ UV-IR filter.

 

While waiting for a black 46mm filter to arrive I had been sold a chrome version and since these

filters aren't exactly 'slim' the silver retaining ring was somehow redirecting light back onto

the edges of the frame and contaminating it with magenta.

As the horizontal sides of the frame are closer to the 'edge' they were being more aggressively affected

than the vertical.

 

Also helps explains the 'wandering' effect of the contamination.

In flat light the sides of a file had fairly symmetrical contamination.

In situations where the light was coming from the left it would strike the inside right hand side of the

filter causing heavier contamination there and vice versa if the light were from the right hand side

 

Replaced the chrome filter with a black one and instantly the magenta 'sides' vanished.

 

I would encourage anyone with red sides issue and chrome UV-IR filter to verify that the problem

is not being induced by the filter retaining ring.

 

 

Mark

Mark Tomalty Photography Montreal Canada Travel Landscape Stock FineArt

[cbretteville]

Excellent Mark, thanks for posting this. One question: which make of filer were you/are you using?

Carl

[sandymc]

Mark,

 

Yes, that's very interesting - to echo Carl's request, can you tell us exactly what the two filters in question were?

 

Sandy

[mtomalty]

Both filters were/are the Leica brand

 

 

Mark

[geoffreyg]

wow. Lots of difficulty due to a chrome filter. Glad you got it fixed.

[mtomalty]

Yup. Certainly was a bit of a frustrating run and, truthfully, I was a couple of days away

from abandoning the system, as a result.

What really got my goat was not, necessarily, that the lens/camera combo was yielding

these results but that some people were reporting almost 100% satisfaction using the

same elements.

 

After working, professionally, for 30 years it still confounds me how such a relatively

insignificant detail can have such a profound effect on results and I still second guess

that fact.

 

At the end of the day it was the only variable after lens,camera,and software were replaced

that made the difference.

 

Mark