Question about the ZM4/18

[angeloks]

Anyone has experience with that lens? How does it compare to the 15CV and 21CV. Is it worth the price difference? And btw, I know it might not be very useful, but is this lens rangefinder-coupled?

Thanks,

 

[Tom A]

I have the 18f4 and I do like it. There are times when the 21 isn't wide enough and the 15 is too dramatic. Performance wise it is very good - sharp across the board with surprisngly little vignetting for an ultra-wide.
It is coupled, which really only comes into importance in the close quarters as the depth of filed usually takes care of focus issues beyond 2meters.
It is not a small lens, 58mm front ring! It is not uncomfortable to use by any means, but you know you have it along.
It has the same smooth texture that is the hallmark of all of the ZM lenses - they are amazingly consistent across the board!
There are some smaples of what it can do on our Flickr site. Go to it and type in "Zeiss Distagon 18mm f4.0" and they should show up. I haven't checked if there are others on Flickr, but they should show up in that case anyway.

 

[JonasYip]

Weird. I was just about to type up the exact same question (experience w/ ZM18 vs CV15 and CV21) when I saw this thread in the recent posts. Guess I'll just see what else people say here....

j

 

[noimmunity]

I was just shooting casual shots with it today on the RD-1, where it makes a FL closer to 25/24 than 27. It vignettes heavily on that, but on a film camera (ZI) barely much at all.
I don't have either of the CV lenses you mention to compare it to, so I'm not much help comparison-wise. I really like the Zeiss look and the way the ZM lenses handle, so I replaced all of my CV glass with Zeiss. But the CV lenses certainly have unique advantages, too.
I don't have either of the ZM 21s, either, but there are plenty of photos on Tom's flickr site.
I'm very happy with the 18/4.

 

[noimmunity]

Totem, New Year's Eve Concert,
Taipei Institute of the Arts
Distagon ZM 18/4

 

[JonasYip]

I was just shooting casual shots with it today on the RD-1, where it makes a FL closer to 25/24 than 27. It vignettes heavily on that, but on a film camera (ZI) barely much at all.

noimmunity,

Do you have an example of the vignetting on an RD1? I've read many of Tom's comments on the lens here and elsewhere and it sounds excellent, but I'm actually specifically interested in this lens for use on the RD1, not flm. I don't mind some vignetting in general, so I'm interested in what you mean by "vignettes heavily"...


thanks,
Jonas

 

[noimmunity]

vignetting on RD-1

vignetting on RD-1

The vignetting is considerable, but easily taken care of with the epson raw converter.

The wall on which the painting hangs is evenly white; the uneveness is from lighting (daylight through windows). jpeg straight out of the camera.
Hope this helps.

 

[noimmunity]

Here is the same photo after conversion using 21mm setting

 

[JonasYip]

hmm... that *is* pretty significant. Thanks for the sample, jon.

j