M8 & Carl Zeiss C Sonnar 50/1.5 ZM ?

[Ecaton]

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Does anybody use a Carl Zeiss C Sonnar 50/1.5 ZM with his/her M8 ? Looks as if it could be an interesting alternative potentially challenging or equalling the Leica designs at a considerably lower price.

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[hankg]

According to Zeiss comments in response to reviews the lens is set to focus at 2.8 and will experience focus shift at 1.5 and 2. If you are OK guesstimating focus at 1.5 it's an interesting lens. An old school signature wide open and a modern sharp lens when stopped down. Zeiss can calibrate focus at 1.5 if that is your preference.

[leseinne]

it has been discuss here :

http://www.leica-camera-user.com/digital-forum/19952-m8-zeiss-sonnar-50mm-1-5-a.html

 

cheers

 

jerome

[pelikan1931]

hi hank,

 

where do you get the reply from Zeiss?

 

It is an interesting response from Zeiss. I have seen the tests done by Sean at his web page. Wide open the C Sonnar is very soft. I wonder if he has done any bracketing to accomodate the focus shift.

 

When I first test the lens at full aperture, I thought the lens is a piece of junk, soft etc. But after I have done some bracketing, I found the lens to be very sharp even wide open. Of course with the focus shift, you can't rely on your rangefinder when focusing wide open.

[tom0511]

IMO this kind of disqualifies the 50/1.5.

How mayn occasions do you have where you can focus bracket in order to get a sharp image.

 

In my experience the differences in focus accurancy of my Leica lenses have more influence on image quality compared to the maximum possible IQ.

What I try to say even if alens is super sharp it doesnt help if you cant focus it 100% accurate.

Even at f2.8 and f4, not only wide open.

[hankg]

hi hank,

 

where do you get the reply from Zeiss?

C-Sonnar T* 1,5/50 ZM

Information about special features for dealers and users

The C-SONNAR T* 1.5/50 ZM is a very special lens; based on a classical lens design concept from the 1930´s. The additional letter “C” in the name of the lens expresses this designation.

This lens design helps to achieve pictures with a special artistic touch. This lens ‘draws’ your subject in a fine, flattering manner and is therefore ideally suited for portraiture. It renders a sharpness that is slightly rounded, being less aggressive than in contemporary lens designs, but at the same time not soft in its rendition.

Many famous portraits of glamorous and prominent people during the 1930´s used this technique to great effect. These images are characterized by portraying the person in a shining, nearly celestial way. This effect is very well balanced and not exaggerated; therefore many viewers see it in a subconscious way. The trained observer, however, understands the underlining technique and enjoys the results.

This lens design exhibits some additional effects, which should be understood to achieve the maximum benefit from the C-Sonnar T* 1.5/50 ZM:

Because of the above mentioned classical characteristic of the lens the best focus position in the object space can not be kept exactly constant for all f-stop settings.

The passionate photographer might notice a slightly closer best focus in his pictures than expected. When stopping down the lens to f/2.8 or smaller this effect is minimized, so the focus position will be as expected.

In order to balance the performance at full speed and other f-stop settings the lens is adjusted with above described characteristic.

The special features of the C-SONNAR T* 1.5/50 ZM are best used in emotional, artistic, narrative images, portraits or atmospheric landscapes. For documentation or technical subjects CARL ZEISS recommends to stop down the lens at least to f/5.6 or to use the PLANAR T* 2/50 ZM lens.

In response to a review on Luminous Landscape: Zeiss M-Mount Lenses

 

While the review was less then useful, the L-L reviews are very subjective initial personal takes on products with no real effort at a comprehensive review (like Sean's very thourough and objective reviews) -still the Zeiss response was informative.