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Zeiss ZM 15mm f/2.8


barnack

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Agreed: it does matter. The attached panorama (South Africa, Namaqualand Daisies) is made with the WATE at 16mm. First focused at the closest flowers (much less than 1 meter away), then 'hyperfocalized', taking the reduced digital DOF in account. Result: sharp all over.

 

Sander, matter of fact your picture's lovely!

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15mm Distagon vs the Wate? In my view it's a draw.

 

Mark,

 

Seems a fair statement, also seen you 'lake' picture which indeed shows the Distagon draws out every bit of contrast.

 

Nevertheless, the WATE is not only a 16 mm, and an 18, but also a very fair 21mm. That's what makes it so attractive. And it is small ...........and RF coupled, which becomes more important at 21mm.

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I agree with Sander. The WATE is a wonderful travel companion. Once you get the hang of the width of images it takes, if you shoot with your right eye on the RF window and left eye open, for a lot of the time, you can get away without the Frankenfinder.

 

Once the MATE I have just acquired comes back from its second visit to Solms in a matter of weeks, it will be interesting to see if I like it as much for a travel lens or will I find that for mid range lenses, the f4 is too restricting.

 

I find it interesting that Zeiss opted for the Distagon formula for the 15 rather than the Biogon. That was one of the things that put me off, as my previous experience with Distagons (25mm f2.8 and 18mm f4 in CX/Y) had been distinctly mediocre. I sent the 25 back to Zeiss for a rebuild and it did improve from horribly soft to just poor.

 

Wilson

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Wilson, was it the actual 25mm ZM lens?

I had it, and found it everything but soft:confused: . I guess you got a bad copy...

 

Maurizio,

 

This was the Distagon 25 f2.8 for Contax/Yashica fit, which I used on the various Contax SLR's I had (139, RTSII and RX). All the Biogon lenses I have ever had in Contax G or Leica M, have been excellent.

 

Before I bought the MATE two weeks ago, I was thinking of a 25 Biogon for myself but the two chrome ones I sourced, still were the older model with the 28/90 bayonet, which would need to be changed to the 24/35 bayonet. I then came across this MATE, which was a series 2, just back from service at Solms, so I thought it should be perfect - silly me! Still I hope it will return from re-repair next week (the framelines were not changing to 28 properly, although they had fixed the focusing fault that it originally went for).

 

Wilson

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Between the high price and the non-coupled focusing, I went with the 4/18 Distagon. Granted, it's not f/2.8 nor is it 15mm. But I was able and willing to get around that. Not everyone can... I've been very happy with the 18 on the M8. The optical performance is incredible.

 

There's also the CV 4,5/15, but it's slower than both and also not coupled.

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