Desperate to see some images from the Zeiss 35mm f2 Distagon ZF or ZF.2

[Keith]

Please ... I need a really good 35mm fastish lens for my D700 and Nikon film bodies and I think this may be the one.

As for the 35mm f2 AFD Nikkor I bought to fill the gap because it was cheap ... I may just flush it down the toilet! 🙄

TYIA.

 

[gavinlg]

Keith,

Have a hunt through the FM forums "alternative lens" section here:
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/board/55

Here's a zf/ze/zs picture thread for starters:
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/860134

There's quite a few pages there but a lot of 35mm distagon samples on 5d's and d700's.

 

[gavinlg]

Also consider the voigtlander 40mm f2 ultron in F mount at half the price and a quarter of the size of the distagon. It's supposed to be an extremely good lens.

 

[semilog]

The Distagon is by accounts a great lens, but be sure to handle one in person if possible. The ZF is kind of absurdly big (73mm long, 530 g) for a manual focus 35/2. Well balanced and all, but still... how about a used 35 Summicron R in Nikon mount? It's smaller and weighs 3 oz. less.

http://www.leitax.com/leica-lens-for-nikon-cameras.html

And as fdigital says, Ultron is tiny compared to the ZF.

 

[antiquark]

This search page at "pixel-peeper.com" might be what you're looking for:
http://www.pixel-peeper.com/lenses/...one&aperture_min=none&aperture_max=none&res=3

 

[mfogiel]

A big lens.

A sharp lens

 

[semilog]

A big lens.

Butbutbut... they guys at RFF said the ZM Biogon is huge! How can this
be?????

🙄

 

[Steveh]

Keith, I'm intrigued to know why you hate the Nikkor so much? I have it as my standard "walkaround" lens and generally I like it a lot - very sharp in the centre where it matters, light, compact, quick focus etc. Fairly hideous bokeh admittedly but you can't have everything.

About a year ago I had all three of the Nikkor, the Zeiss and the Voigtlander at the same time for my D700, and I sold the other two to keep the Nikkor - the Distagon is great optically but as the photos above show just absurdly big and heavy for an everyday lens - it's like having an 85mm on the camera all the time and I didn't like the balance of the camera with it on - obviously that may not matter so much for your gallery shoots.

I think the Voigtlander's a dark horse and well worth a go if you want an MF lens - it's tiny but very sharp, and has a less harsh look than the Nikon wide open. Plus if you want to use it on an FM3A it's way, way better ergonomically than the Zeiss - a really nice, compact package. The Zeiss seems to dwarf the camera with an FM3A and again I found the balance all wrong. A shame because it makes beautiful images.

 

[Keith]

Thanks for the replies and links so far! 🙂

As for the lens being big are we talking similar zize to the 35mm 1.2 Nokton ... the size of that lens doesn't worry me at all? I mainly want it for shooting the gallery openings I do occasionally with the D700 so size on that camera shoudn't be an issue for what is usually a couple of hours at a time carrying the camera and lens around.

Steveh ... maybe I got a particularly crappy example of the Nikkor but I find it quite hard to focus manually. There's a lot of slop in the focusing mechanism and the barell of the lens has a lot of play generally ... and of course as you said the OOF areas are nothing to get excited about.

I think my mind has been altered by the 50mm f1.4 ZF Planar I got for D700 ... I just can't believe how good that lens is at f1.4 and how absolutely beautiful it's OOF rendering is. The images from that lens have definitely given me Zeiss fever! 😛

I was checking Matsuiya Store the other day and he currently has an as new 35mm Distagon ZF for just over $700.00 and I'm very tempted to grab it when the money for my just sold M8 lands in my account. I certainly wouldn't be buying a new one at over $1000.00 but this price seems a little easier to bear and the sample images I've seen seem to confirm it's credentials.

 

[Freakscene]

Keith, just do it. The ZF 35/2 is a great lens, much better, I think, than the now very old design 50/1.4. The 50 is the same as the one for the Contax SLRs - the design still seemed to me to be optimised for infinity shooting when I tested it, which is not what I need a 50 for.

Marty

 

[35mmdelux]

Who took the pix of my Porsche Cayman?

 

[Steveh]

Steveh ... maybe I got a particularly crappy example of the Nikkor but I find it quite hard to focus manually. There's a lot of slop in the focusing mechanism and the barell of the lens has a lot of play generally ... and of course as you said the OOF areas are nothing to get excited about.

.

That'll do it 😀 - I think all AF lenses are complete dogs if you try to use them primarily as manual focus lenses - they're just not designed for it, particularly the cheaper "plastic fantastic" primes.

Sounds like the Zeiss may be what you need for your purposes - it's undeniably very sharp wide open and even sharper stopped down a bit, and the bokeh is a lot nicer than the nikkor, so if size/weight don't worry you so much I'd go for it. I was quite upset I didn't get on with mine from a practical/ergononic perspective, I was hoping it would be a "lens for life".

 

[_mark__]

35mm f/1.4 Nikkor AIS one of the best ever!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mambolove/487395554/

(not my photo) if you need a s/h with warranty try grays.

 

[mfogiel]

Keith,
The Distgon 35/2 is 2-3 mm longer than Nokton 35/1.2 and about the same width. This is an extremely sharp lens,at f2.0 and 2.8 is sharper in the center than the Biogon 35/2, and it is quite a bit sharper than the Zeiss 50/1.4, although I doubt you will see the difference on D700 due to big pixel size. Another plus of the lens, is that you can focus really close, like 15cm from the front element. The bokeh is also very pleasing, the only optical flaw detected by pixel peepers was some CA at wider apertures on some sensors.

 

[italy74]

Keith
I think here you can see lots of ZF 35 pictures... bookmark this site which is always extremely helpful for similar cases...

http://www.pbase.com/cameras/zeiss/distagon_t_2_35_zf

and its home page, from where you can choose among 95% of the lenses ever sold on the market
http://www.pbase.com/cameras