Zeiss lenses reviewed?

Karen Nakamura was raving about the 35 Biogon on the CVUG list this morning. I think the direct quote is: "Holy creamy bokeh, Batman! I'm in love with this lens. I'm retiring my 35 Summicron for this lens." She has posted a sample photo on her website at www.photoethnography.com/blog & says that there will be more to come after she can process the results of a 2 week trip. Similar reaction to that of Sean Reid when he reviewed this lens.

Cheers,
Huck
 
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35mm Zeiss Biogon

35mm Zeiss Biogon

I'm in love with this lens. I just posted a new photoessay on my site that is composed entirely of photographs taken with it:

http://www.photoethnography.com/gallery/dpi200505/index.html

I prefer the look of the B&W images to the color ones, but that's just my personal taste. I'll be posting photographs of rural Japan taken with the lens later on on my blog:

http://www.photoethnography.com/blog/

I liked the 35mm Biogon so much that I bought the 28mm f/2.8 Biogon as well. I've only had it for a week, but the first roll tells me that it's just as good as its 35mm sister.
 
I reviewed the 35/2.0 on the R-D1. Look for the "Fast Lenses on the R-D1" article on Luminous-Landscape.com

Cheers,

Sean
 
The only comparisons I've seen to date are those by Sean and the ones in Japanese publications. From the looks of things, it appears that the only real difference between the Leica and Zeiss is color cast, size and weight. I expect sharpness to be quite similar with Zeiss sacrificing a little centrally but gaining greater sharpness in the field and going right out to the edge of the frame. The Leica lenses tend to be more compact but heavier due to more liberal use of brass in their construction. This may give Leica fans a greater sense of "build quality" on comparison to Zeiss. Zeiss freely admits the lighter weight of their lenses is due to less brass in it's construction but also states their lenses were tested with 100,000 turns of the focusing ring with no ill effect in performance.
 
I have the 35mm Biogon and it is excellent. Every bit as good as the pre Asph Summicron M. Distortion is zero and overall contrast is extremely high from f2.4 on. The lens has the typical lovely contrast/tonal scale of modern Zeiss lenses, making it outstanding for black and white film fans. Flare is as low as any lens I have ever owned.

Gripes: The lens is not as sharp in the corners as I expected...Field curvature is noticable in wide aperture shots. Also, in night shots at full aperture the lens shows some coma. Bright points of light are stretched out notably in the outer areas of the frame.

Stopped down to normal working apertures I find corner sharpness improves somewhat, but never matches the performance of my Summicron M28.

The lens is very well made, though a bit larger than we are used to for 35mm f2 m lenses. Focus action is smooooth and notably faster than Leica lenses. The metal "bump" in place of a focus tab is OK, but not as intuitive to use as the Leica solution.

The out of focus rendition of the lens is very very smooth. At f2.8 portraits are really outstanding, with the point of focus rendered EXTREMELY crisply and the background blending away in a creamy goo.

I'm impressed by the capability of the lens, particularly considering the price in comparison to the current ASPH Leica. That said, it is definitely not as good as Leica's stuff in full aperture or night use. If your uses tend toward the extreme the Leica is still the king. For the rest of us the Zeiss is a great alternative.

Best wishes
Dan
 
Fascinating... an interesting contrast to Sean Reid's results, which seem to show that the Biogon 35 was not as sharp as the 35/1,4 Asph in the centre, but was much sharper edge to edge. Sample variation? Crop factor of the RD-1? Any other explanations?
 
I know this may sound silly, but with all the corporate mergers and takeovers going on nowadays, are Zeiss lenses still made in Germany ?
 
Well, flamingo, SOME are. The Carl Zeiss lenses for modern Contax-brand cameras were made in the Tomioka plant, I believe in/near Tokyo, owned by Kyocera, with supervision/QC by Zeiss. The same sort of arrangement, but with Cosina in Japan, is currently producing Carl Zeiss lenses in Leica M mount for the forthcoming Zeiss Ikon RF camera. Two other lenses in this series, the 15mm and 85mm, are to be produced in Germany. Rollei has produced Zeiss designs on licence in both Germany and Singapore. Sony is, I think, making Carl Zeiss lenses for their digicams.
 
Thanks Dan. Was your comparison to Leica using film? If so, it's the first I've read in english. The coma comment was interesting since I don't expect that to change with sample variation.
 
Doug said:
Well, flamingo, SOME are. The Carl Zeiss lenses for modern Contax-brand cameras were made in the Tomioka plant, I believe in/near Tokyo, owned by Kyocera, with supervision/QC by Zeiss. The same sort of arrangement, but with Cosina in Japan, is currently producing Carl Zeiss lenses in Leica M mount for the forthcoming Zeiss Ikon RF camera. Two other lenses in this series, the 15mm and 85mm, are to be produced in Germany. Rollei has produced Zeiss designs on licence in both Germany and Singapore. Sony is, I think, making Carl Zeiss lenses for their digicams.
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That is interesting info to me Doug. Thank you. So, if I am to understand you correctly, the 35mm and 28mm Biogon that Karen Nakamura talks about above are coming out of the same plant in Japan that the current Voigtlander 35's and 28's are coming from ?
 
My experiences have all been using Fuji Acros black and white film. Regarding digital comparisons: The lens definitely resolves more in the central 85% of the image than any 6mp digital sensor could distinguish.

I've been pretty well flamed elsewhere for saying this but the RD-1 is not a usefull lens test bench. The color fringing and resolution issues combined with the fact that it is not a full frame sensor means digital users results will vary greatly. The drop in sharpness I note on film will not show on a sensor that cuts 33% of the outer frame out of the equation.

I don't have any experience with the 35 1.4 ASPH so I can't comment on that side of the issue. Suffice it to say either lens will create amazingly clear, crisp images. Based on my use so far I see the Biogon as an alternative to the older Leica Summicron lenses, but not able to surpass the ASPH generation.

Best

Dan
 
flamingo said:
So, if I am to understand you correctly, the 35mm and 28mm Biogon that Karen Nakamura talks about above are coming out of the same plant in Japan that the current Voigtlander 35's and 28's are coming from ?
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I expect Karen has better info on those details, Dan. I don't know if it's the same facility, but I imagine Cosina's production infrastructure is under some stress from successful Voigtlander lens & body production, then a run of Epson bodies, then a whole new series of Zeiss lenses and a new relationship with Carl Zeiss, then looking to start production of the new Zeiss Ikon RF camera... This all may be managed easily, I don't know, next to Cosina's other products, or maybe they've needed to expand into additional working space.
 
Dan States said:
I've been pretty well flamed elsewhere for saying this but the RD-1 is not a usefull lens test bench. The color fringing and resolution issues combined with the fact that it is not a full frame sensor means digital users results will vary greatly. The drop in sharpness I note on film will not show on a sensor that cuts 33% of the outer frame out of the equation.
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No flames here but I believe lenses should be evaluated in context. How is a person actually going to use a lens in the real world? If on an R-D1 then the R-D1 is a certainly a useful test bench. Note that my definition of "test bench" is a camera you bring into whatever environment(s) you normally photograph in and then use to take lots of photos in real-world conditions.

-Dave-
 
Dan -- I don't know if comparing the new 35mm Biogon to the Leica's 28mm Summicron ASPH is "fair", as, my understanding, is that the 28mm lens is one of the absolute "best" in the Leica M lineup, even "better", according to Putts (which I take with a grain of salt) then the 35mm Summicron ASPH. I'm waiting to see the head to head comparison between the same focal length.
 
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