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Zeiss 21mm f/2.8 Biogon on the M8


DRabbit

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David - How do I get in touch with Don Goldberg?

 

Wilson - Can you share exactly what you did to get the bayonet, which one, and who you sent it to for the bayonet change and coding? (I know Milich does coding)

 

Amy,

 

You get the 28/90 bayonet direct from Zeiss, Germany - part number 1469-516 plus 4 screws part number 1460-876. It is a real pain as they will only accept direct bank transfers as payment, so the bank charge is about the same cost as the bayonet. The other thing is that they send them by UPS, so again it nearly doubles the price. You then need a set of jewelers screwdrivers and some acetone. You put a tiny amount of acetone on each screw on the bayonet to dissolve the thread-lock. Remove the bayonet and replace with new one using new screws supplied by Zeiss and a very small amount of thread-lock. Total process takes about 15 minutes. I then just used a "Sharpie" felt tip marker to code my lenses. If there is a screw recess in the way, I fill this with Tippex. I have hand coded my Biogon 21 as a WATE but you can also do it as an Elmarit 21. I have my Biogon 35 as a 35 Summicron and 90 Elmarit as a 90 Elmarit. I have not bothered coding my 16mm semi fish-eye as anything and my other two lenses are coded by Leica (Elmar 50/2.8 and Noctilux f1.0). Hope this helps.

 

Wilson

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Thanks Wilson and David!

 

And... IT'S HERE! The M8 arrived along with the 21 and 35 biogons! I'm just waiting for the battery to charge (and reading the manual, and saying a lot of oooohs and aaahhhhs)...

 

hehehehe

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dagcam@chorus.net

 

DAG Camera Parts

 

608-835-3342

Zeeiss will let y9o9u pay by credit card when you get the bill there will be an email address to a Melanie Mueller I belive email ask how to do a credit card saved me a 35 dollar fee. David

 

David,

 

That must be new and about time. I even asked Melanie if I could send them cash by registered post and was told no - bank transfer only. Mind you this was back at the beginning of April when the mania for changing to the 28/90 bayonet was just starting.

 

Wilson

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It was last month I paid by credit card. I emailed melanie she had me send my credit card #. It was no problem did you ask if they took credit cards? Good Luck David

 

David,

 

Even at the initial ordering stage I said I would prefer to pay by credit or debit card either from a € account, a USD or a GBP account, as they wished, so every opportunity was given. After they said no to cards, I then said I would send them Euros in cash by registered post. They said they had no facilities to accept cash, so I bit the bullet and did a bank transfer which cost me GBP22. I assume the volume of sales has increased to the point where they have decided that a credit card merchant account made sense. I was also amazed at the volume of paperwork they generated for such a small item. It was like when I used to buy bolts and nuts from aircraft parts suppliers for my racing cars. Each item had its own tracking paperwork. The result was that each bolt could cost £4. Once I persuaded them I did not need any tracking paperwork, the price dropped to £1 or less per bolt.

 

Wilson

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  • 4 months later...

Wilson

 

I've just (!) seen that you coded you Zeiss 21mm as a tri-elmar so that you can vary the firmware correction.

 

1. I take it that the Zeiss 21mm f2.8 in conjunction with the 28mm bayonet allows the tri-elmar coding ?

2. Do you find the firware correction to be of the correct strength on one of the Tri-Elmar settings as opposed to the 28mm coding ?

 

and...(if you know the answer to this one)...for best quality would you just keep the Biogon 21mm as it is and use cornerfix instead ?

 

 

Many thanks

 

Cyrus

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Who uses it? -> me too :-)

What's your experience with it been? -> almost perfect

Do you use IR filters? -> no

Is your Zeiss 21mm coded? -> no

If so, who coded it?

Did you change the bayonet on it first? ->no

If you use IR filters and it's NOT coded, is there a lot of cyan shift?

 

nice lens!

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I believe that for someone who has spend $5000 for leica M8 $1500 difference between biogon 21 and elmarit 21 asph should not be a problem. Presently camera bodies are pretty much disposable (even expensive ones). I think one should invest in lenses which will continue to work for decades.

I had biogon 21/4.5 and returned it. Nice lens in terms of sharpness and flare, but when it came to light fall of it was worse than elmatit (lens detection off). It would take a lot of time and effort to fix minor problems like light fall-off and cyan cast. Sure if one is into engineering/refurbishing and is a good handyman he/she should definitely try.

Think about future compatibility. There is no guaranty that Leica will not change something in the lens/camera mount in the future.

Probably Biogon 21/2.8 is a slightly different, buy, in my opinion, general approach to use of this lens on M8 should be the same.

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I got my 21 from David Seelig, so I am the very happy recipient of the work he had done by DAG (mounting) and Jim (milling), both excellent. The lens is great and has rapidly become the main lens on the camera. Hyperfocal setting and a 28mm finder make life grand.

 

Butch Hulett

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Cornerfix is only for windows though, right? I use a Mac (though shortly I'll be buying a new mac that ran run windows through parallels, that isn't the case right now).

 

Someone said there was a plugin called Panarama something... that would also fix cyan shifting... ???

 

Thanks for the photo... it's awesome... Do you have an example of what it looked like before the fix?

 

No, CornerFix is also for Mac's now both Intel and PPC. Just installed it on my PPC iMac about 5 minutes ago.

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A really beautiful lens, showing many of the characteristics of the 21mm Zeiss Biogon for the G1/G2 rangefinder (one of the best 35mm wide angle lenses I have ever used).

 

If I had to choose between the Zeiss or the Leica equivalent purely on image grounds, I would probably go with Zeiss (but it does have a characteristic Zeiss look).

 

Can't seem to code mine using black marker pen, but with the excellent new Cornerfix software, this isn't really a problem any more. I have a strong feeling that the Cornerfix software now surpasses in quality the internal corrections used in the M8 with a coded lens.

 

Below, taken with a Lieca uv/ir filter and then run through Cornerfix

 

Interesting that you would choose the Zeiss. I had both and ended up keeping the Leica as I preferred the look from it. Another benefit was that it was sharper in the center wide open which I tend to do a lot of.

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Wilson

 

I've just (!) seen that you coded you Zeiss 21mm as a tri-elmar so that you can vary the firmware correction.

 

1. I take it that the Zeiss 21mm f2.8 in conjunction with the 28mm bayonet allows the tri-elmar coding ?

2. Do you find the firware correction to be of the correct strength on one of the Tri-Elmar settings as opposed to the 28mm coding ?

 

and...(if you know the answer to this one)...for best quality would you just keep the Biogon 21mm as it is and use cornerfix instead ?

 

 

Many thanks

 

Cyrus

 

Cyrus,

 

WATE setting at 18mm is about right if you are using B21 wide open at f2.8 otherwise WATE at 21mm is OK. The difference is settings is pretty subtle. The correction for WATE seemed better than the correction for 21/2.8 Elmarit. I find it essential to use manual WB with an expodisc remembering to take the lens shade off or you will get pink corners. I am using a Leica 46mm UV/IR filter.

 

Wilson

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