Fast Lenses on R-D1

The Zeiss 35 just arrived from Hasselblad *at last*. The 50/2 is delayed by another week or more so I'm going to start with the side by side lens tests now and if the Zeiss 50 makes it in time, great. Thanks again to the members who've lent me their older Canon RF lenses to test, they add a nice flavor to the mixture.

Cheers,

Sean
 
Bizarre that Zeiss couldn't get you the 50, when they've been on sale for several weeks. But I'll be fascinated to hear your verdict on the Biogon 35/2 - the old Summicron 35/2 is getting so expensive, that if the Biogon is any good - and particularly if its performance re vignetting is good, as Zeiss claim - it will be quite competitive, even versus the used Leitz lens.
 
As I understand it, my contact at Hasselblad had one set aside for me (waiting for the arrival of the 35) and it was accidentally sold. It is weird but oh well...

Cheers,

Sean
 
What Paul said . . . If you can only test one, the 35/2 is the one I'm most interested in. It's the most useful focal length & I'd really like to know how the Biogon design stacks up. We pretty much know what a Planar can do & there are lots of good choices at 50 - most not very different from the Planar in design. But 35 is a more challenging focal length to design & the Biogon is unique. They didn't even make one in the 35 mm focal length for Contax G.
 
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I only had a borrowed RD-1 last fall, and had some problems with fast lenses. The 90AA wouldn't couple correctly at shorter distances (complete disconnect of camera and the 'cam follower' tab on the 90AA), the 75/1.4 got less and less accurate the closer I tried to focus, and the 50 Noctilux had 'anomalous' focussing issues; ie, it didn't focus accurately at any shorter distances, and the amount and direction of error weren't linear. These problems were all repeatable.

I'm glad to hear that these things weren't typical, and that it is indeed possible to focus accurately with fast lenses with a properly adjusted camera. I look forward to your tests, Sean, and am also particularly interested in your results with the Zeiss lenses. I had a chance to shoot a little at Photokina with them, but that was hardly significant.

I still really like the idea of the RD-1, and if it can do well with the 25/2.8 and fast 50's I'm much more interested again.
 
Hi Henning,

I'm still working on the article but some quick comments on focus:

1. My R-D1 body (which focuses most lenses properly) will not focus the 75/1.4 consistently at closer distances. I would not ever want to rely on that combination professionally. I think the RF BL is just too short.

2. The Noctilux can be focused correctly by the R-D1 but it's tricky. A friend of mine testing another R-D1 right now found the same during an assignment last weekend.

All of the other lenses in the test focused properly and consistently on the R-D1. The two best lenses overall were the Leica 35/1.4 Asph and Leica 50/1.4 Asph. The new Biogon 35/2 is an excellent lens - not as sharp as the Leica 35/1.4 on center but noticeably sharper in the corners - clearly they were going for an overall, across-the-frame kind of resolution.

Cheers,

Sean
 
Thanks for the sneak preview, Sean. :)

The good news about the Biogon seems to be: first, that Zeiss delivered what they promised, which is encouraging for this new product line, and second, that the Biogon has its own "look" so we don't have to talk about which lens is "better" when comparing it to other 35/2's. I do wish that this lens had been built to specifications as compact as the 35 Summicron.

Huck
 
Hi Huck,

That's exactly right. A good comparison to do would be the Leica 35/2 ASPH vs. the Biogon 35 but even then what I think we'll find is that they're both excellent but draw differently. The salient quality of the 35 Biogon is it's evenness of resolution across the frame. The salient quality of the 1.4 ASPH lenses is their biting sharpness on center (esp. the 50).

Cheers,

Sean
 
Rocamadour said:
Mmm, that part about swimming in lenses gave me some nice dreams...

This is how I imagine Seans´ kitchen table: ;)
Click to expand...

Not quite... Is that your lens collection?

Cheers,

Sean
 
No 1950s vintage LTM 50/1.5 Voigtlander Nokton Rocamadour? What's up with that? :D
 
What is the delivery status of the new Zeiss Ikon body? I check into their website occasionaly, and the storyline has been updated recently, but I can't find anything anywhere on shipping dates. Not that I have the scratch to itch my scratch...

Trius
 
Hasselblad-USA e-mailed me this week to say that they now anticipate delivery in early June. The word is the same from Dr. Yao in Hong Kong.
 
I'm now most of the way finished with the rough draft of my fast lens review. If anyone here would like to read it and e-mail me feedback, that would be good. For more info., please e-mail me at sreid@sover.net

If you decide to be a reader for this, please note the following.

1) I'm not looking for grammatical, etc. editing comments yet. What I'm most interested in is a response to the ideas and observations in the review.

2) Almost all of the lenses have been sent back out so I can't do any new tests.

3) I'm still finishing a few sections so if you note gaps in the content, that's likely the reason.

I've got to wrap this puppy soon because it's taken far more time than I originally planned for (ain't that always the way). I'll finish and tweak it next week and then send it in to Michael. I won't be able to make major changes to the review in the time I've allowed myself to get it done.

Lastly, if you become a reader for this, please keep the URL for the draft confidential.

Cheers,

Sean
 
Maybe I´ve missed it, but I wonder if anyone have experience from the 8-element Summicron 35/2 mm on the R-D1?
(knowing that the regular Summicron 35/2 mm is a disappointment)
 
Which regular Summicron 35/2 mm is a disappointment?


BTW, I've finished the review of fast lenses and sent it on to LL for publication. Should be on line next week sometime.

Sean
 
Hi Sean,
I've got front focus issues with the 4th version of the pre-asph Summicron 35/2 (serial # on the back side of the aperture ring, see pic).
Also with the Rokkor-M 40/2 BTW.
No problem with the Summicron-C 40/2 though.
Best,
LCT
 
Most 3rd & 4th versions of the Summicron 35mm f/2 seem to front focus close-up, but they still works well if used with care. The asph versions seem to be O.K.
 
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