kds315
www.macrolenses.de
I was wondering if anyone has already had some experience with the Zeiss ZM Biogon 21mm?
back alley
IMAGES
sdk (steve) has one, iirc.
maybe do a search as i think he has posted some shots from it.
joe
maybe do a search as i think he has posted some shots from it.
joe
jvr
Well-known
kds315 said:
Yes, I have one and use it a lot on the RD-1s with a 21-D viewfinder from CV. Great lens. I have other lenses from Leica and CV but the Zeiss is one of my favorites on the RD-1s. The field-of-view is a bit wider on the RD-1s than a 35mm on my M3 (but that's to expect). Vignetting is very good, contrast great, wonderful detail and colour rendering, distorsion very impressive for a full-frame 21.
Would buy it again, no doubt.
Cons: a bit bulky (long) and heavy, not to mention the need for an external VF. But that comes with the territory of a 21.
Lovely image quality.
I post some attachments from a recent trip to Ireland. Epson RD-1s ERF, converted (no colour adjustment), resized and sharpened. I can mail you some "originals", they're too big to post.
Attachments
Trius
Waiting on Maitani
jvr: Wow, very nice. The colour in the 2nd one is lovely. But there is a serious problem with your R-D1s as shown on the 3rd shot being rotated 90deg. Send me the camera and the Biogon 21, and I'll sort the problem for you; it may take a year or two.
Jim Watts
Still trying to See.
Not only that - the building in the back has gone 'purple' just like from an
M8!
M8!
jvr
Well-known
Trius said:
Thanx!
Well, now that you mention it, I reckon that the 90 degrees thing doesn't happen with my D70s, pictures always come off straight!...
I heard about misaligned rangefinders on Epsons, maybe mine is _way_ misaligned...
jvr
Well-known
Jim Watts said:Not only that - the building in the back has gone 'purple' just like from an
M8!
That's _exactly_ the reason why I won't need to buy the M8!!!
Nachkebia
Well-known
21mm ZM is fantastic lens
jvr
Well-known
Nachkebia said:21mm ZM is fantastic lens
Couldn't agree more...
BTW, Nachkebia, what do you say about the new 28/2.8 Elmarit Asph? Do you like it (I guess you do... :angel: )? How does it compare to the Zeiss rendering?
Maybe I should upgrade my Skopar+Ultron 28s to the Leica. The Ultron is a better lens than the Skopar (not to mention speed) but it's heavy and bulky (ok, the Nikon 28/1.8 is bigger...
). The Skopar is very light and compact but vignettes a lot on the RD-1s.I guess the Leica is a very balanced choice: better image quality than both (I would say...), faster than the Skopar, much lighter and compact than the Ultron...
And only one lens!I noticed you have everything from Zeiss except for the 28, where you went for the Leica...
William Hunter
Newbie
The equipment mentioned here: Epson RD1s with Zeiss ZM Biogon T 21mm lens, was just purchased by me as a travel camera.
I filled my memory card 3 times and had several dozen prints made from my photos. Something is not right. In spite of the best focusing efforts and experiments bracketing focus, I cannot achieve nice results like the samples provided here and I have the same equipment! :bang:
I called epson and they said an expert would review the problem and get back to me.
They believe the brand new Zeiss lens may need calibration.
My equipment is all new and it should take amazing pictures. Anyone have any hints for me on how to resolve this focus and clarity problem?
The equipment comes from Hong Kong, do they have different software over there? I keep trying to solve this...3 days going now.
I keep hearing and reading about how great this stuff is but it just isn't as good as a camera of half it's price...makes me want to get something else but all my money is in this.
William, Michigan
I filled my memory card 3 times and had several dozen prints made from my photos. Something is not right. In spite of the best focusing efforts and experiments bracketing focus, I cannot achieve nice results like the samples provided here and I have the same equipment! :bang:
I called epson and they said an expert would review the problem and get back to me.
They believe the brand new Zeiss lens may need calibration.
My equipment is all new and it should take amazing pictures. Anyone have any hints for me on how to resolve this focus and clarity problem?
The equipment comes from Hong Kong, do they have different software over there? I keep trying to solve this...3 days going now.
I keep hearing and reading about how great this stuff is but it just isn't as good as a camera of half it's price...makes me want to get something else but all my money is in this.
William, Michigan
William Hunter
Newbie
jvr said:
Can you please elaborate on your statement
"Epson RD-1s ERF, converted (no colour adjustment), resized and sharpened"
I just bought this same combination of equipment for travel but the pictures are nothing like yours. You mention, resized, sharpened and with ERF. What is ERF? Was there a need for time exhaustive post production in photoshop to get your images to look so good?
Thank you for your time and posting, I have spent days trying to get my camera to work as good as yours and we own the same gear.
mwooten
light user
William,
"EFR" is the RAW file that the RD1's produce. They can be opened with the Epson PhotoRAW application, or with the proper plug-in with Photoshop. The files can also be opened and processed with Adobe's Lightroom (my preference).
As far as your lens/camera combo is concerned -- Do you have another lens that you could try on your RD1? That way you can determine if the camera does, or does not, have a fault. One thing I have found on my RD1s is that for critical, small aperture shots is to begin my focusing from infinity. This takes any "slop" out of the focus mechanism.
Take care,
Michael
"EFR" is the RAW file that the RD1's produce. They can be opened with the Epson PhotoRAW application, or with the proper plug-in with Photoshop. The files can also be opened and processed with Adobe's Lightroom (my preference).
As far as your lens/camera combo is concerned -- Do you have another lens that you could try on your RD1? That way you can determine if the camera does, or does not, have a fault. One thing I have found on my RD1s is that for critical, small aperture shots is to begin my focusing from infinity. This takes any "slop" out of the focus mechanism.
Take care,
Michael
Nando
Well-known
The 21/f2,8 ZM Biogon is going to be my next lens purchase probably. I used the CV 21/4 and really like the lens but I did some night-shooting in Portugal with it and that flare from street-lights to be a problem. I could have also used the extra stop even with a monopod I carried with me. I'm still keeping the CV though as it is quite small and great for regular day-time shooting.
William Hunter
Newbie
mwooten said:
Thanks Michael, that was a helpful tip. I noticed the lens/body relationship does create "slop." This seems to be what was the issue. The lens does not register on the rangefinder at a distance less than 0.7 meters. Meaning the engineering of the Zeiss lens appears useless on this lens between 0.5 -0.7 meters. By starting at infinity, the focusing mechanism is zeroed to the body of the camera. This must have created those problems, cause I've had some clear shots now
I wonder why there is that no focus zone in the lens that creates the space on the focusing ring of off alignment. That's ironic that it can be corrected as easily as starting from the opposite side of the focusing range at infinity. I'm new to digital rangefinders and they sure are finicky. My first rangefinder was the hasselblad X-pan II which spoiled me. It had such sharp focus...you could keep zooming the scans almost to poster size and still be ok with sharpness. Wish I kept it, I sold it because the Imacon scanner was $9,995. Ouch! I wasn not able to spend that...well I was, I just couldn't touch the money when I had the camera. Did you notice how everything X-pan II has completely dried up for sale? There is nothing X-pan II for sale anyplace, it's all sold out, not even second hand. To think I had the entire kit in my hands last year....
Oh well, digital lets you see what you did the moment you did it...hopefully the X-pan III digital will come out!
William Hunter
Newbie
William Hunter said:Thanks Michael, that was a helpful tip. I noticed the lens/body relationship does create "slop." This seems to be what was the issue. The lens does not register on the rangefinder at a distance less than 0.7 meters. Meaning the engineering of the Zeiss lens appears useless on this lens between 0.5 -0.7 meters. By starting at infinity, the focusing mechanism is zeroed to the body of the camera. This must have created those problems, cause I've had some clear shots now
I wonder why there is that no focus zone in the lens that creates the space on the focusing ring of off alignment. That's ironic that it can be corrected as easily as starting from the opposite side of the focusing range at infinity. I'm new to digital rangefinders and they sure are finicky. My first rangefinder was the hasselblad X-pan II which spoiled me. It had such sharp focus...you could keep zooming the scans almost to poster size and still be ok with sharpness. Wish I kept it, I sold it because the Imacon scanner was $9,995. Ouch! I wasn not able to spend that...well I was, I just couldn't touch the money when I had the camera. Did you notice how everything X-pan II has completely dried up for sale? There is nothing X-pan II for sale anyplace, it's all sold out, not even second hand. To think I had the entire kit in my hands last year....
Oh well, digital lets you see what you did the moment you did it...hopefully the X-pan III digital will come out!
I just experimented with the 0.5 - 0.7 meter focusing on my Zeiss 21mm lens. The Epson rangefinder mini window for focusing does not register any focusing changes. It does not move or tell you anything till it hits 0.7 meter. However, it is focusing and changes show in the pictures. This gets confusing because the focusing mechanism you use to check focus remains still in this short range, but the movement effects your pictures. I also noticed my light meter always tells me to underexpose by one stop. There is alot to know about this camera, it takes considerable practice!
On the other hand...if you want a camera ready to go out of the box, get a Leica Digilux 2...headache free and does tons of stuff at 5MP.
This may be unsettling, and catch you out sometimes on close shots, but it is a normal consequence of using a lens that will focus closer than the rangefinder is able to follow.William Hunter said:
As far as I know, the ZM lenses are the only RF lenses to focus as close as .5m, and no camera bodies can match that. We can speculate that Zeiss originally intended to have the Zeiss Ikon body focus to .5m and hit a glitch later in the design process that prevented its implementation in production.
simonape
Member
I would like to buy Biogon 21mm at Japan for my RDS1 and I would like to ask which View Finder should I buy ? Any recommend ?
Jim Watts
Still trying to See.
simonape said:
CV 28/35 Minifinder and use the 28mm framelines (the R-D1 crop & safety factor make the framelines a good match). Well built and very compact, works well with my 21mm Avenon.
OR
CV 21D finder. The D finder is designed for a 21mm lens on the R-D1. May be difficult to find now discontinued. IMHO bulkier and less well built than the Minifinder.
OR
Any good 28mm finder.
William Hunter
Newbie
simonape said:
Hi, I just ordered a 21mm finder from Carl Zeiss comany, it is made especially for that lens and the Zeiss Ikon Camera.
I guess the Zeiss Ikon film camera image borders will be larger since it is film, but it will show you everything in the frame, unlike the Epson R-D1s built in finder. This finder @ 21mm is a Zeiss product like the lens, great quality. Here's a link...
https://photo-shop.zeiss.com/Products/1365-663
Not cheap, but nothing good is...
victoriapio
Well-known
2,8/21mm biogon
2,8/21mm biogon
I too have had great luck with the Biogon on the R-d1s. I have posted some shots with it on my Gallery page (R-D1s Gallery). Click here.
I tried it last night at a symphony concert (with almost no lighting in the audience section) and it performed beautifully at ISO 1600 at 1/7th. I just wish I could hold it steadier.
BTW, with the Biogon I use the new High Point Voitlander 28mm viewfinder from Cameraquest and it is tiny yet the brightlines are really bright. Highly recommended.
O.C.
2,8/21mm biogon
kds315 said:
I too have had great luck with the Biogon on the R-d1s. I have posted some shots with it on my Gallery page (R-D1s Gallery). Click here.
I tried it last night at a symphony concert (with almost no lighting in the audience section) and it performed beautifully at ISO 1600 at 1/7th. I just wish I could hold it steadier.
BTW, with the Biogon I use the new High Point Voitlander 28mm viewfinder from Cameraquest and it is tiny yet the brightlines are really bright. Highly recommended.
O.C.