Zeiss 25mm Biogon and the M9--Any Consensus on How to Code It?

[photolandscape]

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First, I did go back and search under this subject--how best to code a ZM 25mm Biogon.

 

There seem to be three recommendations--

 

28mm Elmarit ASPH,

24mm Elmarit, and,

21mm Elmarit.

 

I know red-fringing is probably going to be a major issue, and I certainly hope Leica has been working on a FW fix for it at some point in the past six months. I tried a 25mm Skopar P and wasn't happy with the red fringing, so I decided to try the Biogon instead.

 

It sounds as if some people get a lot of red fringing with the M9, and others don't. I guess for now I'll just depend on CornerFix.

 

I'd appreciate any thoughts on which way to code the 25mm Biogon.

[Jerry_R]

28mm Elmarit ASPH,

24mm Elmarit, and,

21mm Elmarit.

[...] I'd appreciate any thoughts on which way to code the 25mm Biogon.

Why won't you make 3 pictures and evaluate yourself?

[lars_bergquist]

Jerry's idea is a good one. With manual lens identification, you can do that.

 

I acquired my Biogon before the advent of the M9, so I did not have the option. I coded the lens as a 24mm Elmarit, with excellent results. That said, a successful coding, with the present firmware, corrects for vignetting only, not for any kind of red edge effect. We will need new firmware for that, and though red edge with my Biogon is usually weak enough to ignore, it definitely is there.

 

The old man from the Age of the Enigma

[thrice]

I agree with Lars, the vignetting correction from the 24 Elmarit ASPH profile is very good. eg:

http://gallery.photo.net/photo/10430731-lg.jpg

 

Biogons vignette at least a little at all apertures, this is a similar degree of vignetting I used to get on film with this lens.

[bbijl]

Mine is coded as28mm Elmarit ASPH, and it works very well on an M8 and now on the M9.

[viramati]

rarely use mine now but I did take it out yesterday and it is a great lens. Mine has the milich adaptor and is six bit coded as a 24 and brings up the 24 frame lines on the M8. On the M9 though I manually code it as a 28 ASPH which seems to work very well. below is an example with no manipulation in LR2.6 with the adobe standard calibration profile

 

 

 

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[photolandscape]

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Thanks David. I wondered why you use the 24 Elmarit setting on the M8 vs. the 28 Elmarit ASPH on the M9?

[AlanJW]

Like Lars, I got my Biogon for my M8 and it is coded as a Elmarit 24, which seems to work reasonably well on the M9. Red edges have not been a major issue -- though it is not a nonissue. I tried some other manual codes on the M9 (esp 28mm) but did not see enough of a difference to warrant going through manual selection every time I use the lens as opposed to just putting it on and letting it be recognized as an Elmarit 24.

 

One question if I may add to those more knowledgeable is whether the red fringe problem appears at all F/stops. I ask because I usually use this lens outdoors and usually stopped down (even at ISO 160) and I rarely see red edges.

[viramati]

the lens came with the milich adaptor and that is 6 bit coded as the elmarit 24 but on the 9 I manually override this to the 28 as I find I get no red fringing

[dsaxe]

I code mine as a 28mm ASPH. Sometimes in the heat of the moment I forget to set the coding manually and leave it on automatic. There is very little difference.

[photolandscape]

Now that I actually have this lens in hand, I have tried all the suggested coding settings manually on my M9. And to my way of seeing it--the 28mm ASPH setting is the clear winner. There is slightly less red fringing, and slightly less vignetting overall. I am actually pretty pleased with how little red fringing there is. I had tried a 25mm Skopar and it was really objectionable, so from what I am seeing, the Zeiss is considerably better.