Crazy about the 18mm f4 Distagon

CrisR

CrisR

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So I've finally picked up this lens and i can see myself getting far more use out of it that the CV Skopar 21/4 and 15/4.5 lens that I replaced with it.

I thought I'd make another "Crazy about" thread for it to go with the 50 Planar and 25 Biogon ones that I regularly post to

Southbank Phonecall by Cris Rose, on Flickr
 
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Great lens. I can stack filters with it, which is quite rare for such a wide FOV...
 
Sure is great for buildings, but shoot into the sun and you will get flare! To be fair, I was doing my best to give the lens a full run-down, shoot any lens into the sun just off frame and you'll have an issue I think.

Also, with the standard hood being the petal type, the angle the sun was here would have meant minimum shading. Guess I better get on and get a full hood designed for it already huh?

Cloud Tower by Cris Rose, on Flickr
 
The angle of view really pulls you in. Superb shots. I'd say to skip the hood, as the flare adds to the dimension of the shot. Buy an SD card and just shoot more!
 
I felt I got pretty lucky with that last shot, all the elements lining themselves up. I was cycling around London trying out the lens for about 3 hours and I just happened upon this scene while I was waiting at the lights on my Brompton.

I took around 200 shots, so I think I'm shooting plenty ;)
 
CrisR said:
I felt I got pretty lucky with that last shot, all the elements lining themselves up. I was cycling around London trying out the lens for about 3 hours and I just happened upon this scene while I was waiting at the lights on my Brompton.

I took around 200 shots, so I think I'm shooting plenty ;)
Click to expand...

Those are all nice shots. As to the last shot, all things considered that isn't bad flare at all.
 
Luckily, the flare added to the feel of the shot in this case. When the sun's placed near the top left or right corners of this lens, you do get some flare as I got the same on similar compositions.

For comparison, here is a shot with the 25 Biogon with the sun in a similar place

Long Walk by Cris Rose, on Flickr

As you can see, the star is there on the flare, but nothing else. I was using the standard hood at the time. I wanted to see if the 18mm Distagon performed similarly with it's hood in place.

Here's today's 18mm shot!

One of Those Days by Cris Rose, on Flickr
 
CrisR said:
Luckily, the flare added to the feel of the shot in this case. When the sun's placed near the top left or right corners of this lens, you do get some flare as I got the same on similar compositions.

For comparison, here is a shot with the 25 Biogon with the sun in a similar place


Here's today's 18mm shot!
Click to expand...

FYI this type of flare (symmetric star without ghosts) is considered "optimal" performance from a lens design standpoint...A veiling flare at smaller apertures such as displayed on older Mandler lenses may be visually more appealing, though.

I've noticed that the 18ZM can flare quite a bit when the sun is in certain areas of the frame...but still better than the SEM18 in general.
 
I did think that the star without any addition elements was ideal flare handling, that's why I thought posting it for easy comparison might be a useful reference point for some people considering this lens.

I consider my 25 Biogon to be my reference lens now for a variety of factors, and wanted to see if the 18/4 handled shooting into the sun as well as the 25. It's clearly not as forgiving, but at the same time, it's not bad, the look is pleasing and it then just becomes another aspect of the lens that can be used in creative composition, in my opinion.

Now the CV 35/1.4, that's annoying flare.

As you say, the 18/4 does flare when the sun is at a particularly shallow angle, I haven't seen the 18 SEM's performance in this respect as my comparisons of the two lenses when I was deciding between them didn't get that far.
 
Here's another colour shot showing the colour performance of the Zeiss 18mm at f8. I've made no adjustments to vignetting, no use of cornerfix, nothing more than code the lens as a 21/2.8 pre-asph (000001) and the lens detection settings sort it all out!

Round and Round by Cris Rose, on Flickr

Here are some 100% crops of the outstanding pixel-level detail

100% ZM 18/4 Crops by Cris Rose, on Flickr
 
Lovely shot. I regret not getting mine sooner.

When shooting my 50 Planar on my M9, the 18/4 will be on my M8 as it produces identical Fov as my 25/2.8 on full frame with very much the same look and quality
 
I have the 18 Distagon, first intended for the M8. I still like it on the M8, as there it has an angle of view more commonly useful. Here it is on the M240, still fitted with UV/IR filter and coded as a Leica 18. (B+W now cautions not to use the filter with angles of view greater than 60°!) It did need CornerFix to deal with the resulting slightly blueish corners. Walking about my neighborhood in a dull January.

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Millennium Field. Chicago. Bessa R4M and Zeiss Distagon 18mm f4.0. Fuji Acros 100 in Beutler developer.
 
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