M8 & Zeiss Biogon 28MM

[kasey]

Test shoot with this new lens......all exposure was set to -2/3 f-stop

A bit hand shaking for the first shot....

So.....how is this lens ?

 

[Avotius]

Its a good lens, mine is great, I think that there is a lot of potential to be had from it. Hard to say from your samples, also only two of the images are showing for me, but I think you got a good setup there and I hope you shoot the heck out of it.

 

[Rogier]

I am not ovely impressed with the sharpness.
Perhaps due to the fact that more than one immage suffers from handshake?
Take a look at the last immage while the blue shield shiels is in the same pane of focus. I the smaller fonts don't appear to be sharp.
I look forward to more shots since I am saving for the 35mm from Zeiss...

 

[kasey]

Well, thank you all for the comments .
If the set up is ok, then I'm happy.
I always shoot with hand held and shutter speed set with 1/15 sec. or below.
Maybe I will try shoot some with 1/60 sec. for Rogier.

 

[bottley1]

1/15 sec is too slow for the M8 and that lens, also the dreaded purple pants have reared their ugly heads again!

 

[jaapv]

I do not agree. 1/15th is perfectly adequate for a 28 on the M8. Especially if your style is to symbolize movement in passersby. It is not the right speed to test sharpness, that I agree. That shoud be done on a strurdy tripod using a cable release, regardless of shutterspeed.

 

[jky]

It's become my standard lens on the M8 and I find it pretty darn sharp at all apertures. Handles well on the M8, but I personally would have preferred either a focus tab or non at all. The little nubbin' it has on the focus ring take some getting used to.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Yeah, don't consider 1/15 shots a reasonable sharpness test. This lens is plenty sharp and a pleasure to use. I've been using it, with great success, on the R-D1.

Incidentally, I think those pics would look even better in B&W.

 

[kasey]

Revisit .....better ? shoud be 1/45sec at F5.6 or F8

Full open at F2.8, 1/24sec. hand held , focus at lower left paper bag.

Full open at F2.8 1/60sec. hand held.

All -2/3 F stop.
I love this M8 and Biogon 28MM......next I was thinking about Summilux 50mm.....or Sonnar is better ??

 

[baycrest]

My copy of the Biogon is extremely sharp corner to corner.

But as mentioned it doesn't come out in your photos at due to the slow shutter speed. As a generalization the 28 and 35 Zeiss to be have higher contrast than the recent luxes or crons.

It would have been even nicer if Zeiss could have made a 28 f2 and 35 f1.4...😀

Best Rob

 

[jaapv]

CV Nokton 35/1.2?

 

[Rogier]

Thanks for re-shooting!

Still I am wandering about the fact that everything outside the center seems to be out of focus.
See the last image of the styrofoam boxes. They are all at the same distance but to me only the ones left of the middle are sharp the rest look soft to me.


What's up?
Am I wrong?
I sure hope so since I have my mind set on purchasing Zeiss lenses myself...

 

[Dektol Dan]

Something must be wrong methinks

Something must be wrong methinks

Here's a shot that's hand held and that must have been close to wide open at a 1/60th. It's indoors with Porta 160.

My first impression is that I surely won't be buying an M8 anytime in the near future. I have complete faith in the 28 Biogon. Your shots look like mud to me.

 

[jaapv]

Yeah, a real muddy camera...

Really!😡 That kind of thing has everything to do with post-processing, and nothing with the camera. I can make any film shot look like s**t without trying.🙄

 

[kasey]

Rogier maybe I know why it isn't sharp.....because I do not have any software that can open the DNG and save it to jpg,
so I just open it with Mac's Preview, resize to fit the monitor then do a screen shot...........

Now here are the screen shoot of DNG file in biggest size in various portion from the 1st picture of 2nd time 's posting.

Maybe I will post more after I install the editing software that came with M8.

 

[oscroft]

Hi Kasey,

I hope you don't mind if I ignore all talk of the 28 Biogon and its technical quality (because you really can't tell from small web photos at slow shutter speeds).

Instead, I'd just like so say how much I like your photos - your use of slow speeds really does capture the feeling of your scenes.

The one of the guitarist is wonderful - it captures the feel of people passing him by as if he isn't there.

 

[Rogier]

Kasey,

I only now saw that you put these images up for me 🙂
Thanks!!!!
Indeed this looks much better.

 

[kasey]

Thank you oscroft , any discussion with my pictures is ok with me.
Actually I like this kind of slow shutter speed shooting style .
Cheers !

 

[kasey]

Today I shot some close distance pictures, and found out that the M8 can only focus at object which is at about 0.6 meters.
But the Distance marking on Biogon 28 mm can go to 0.5 meters.......

 

[kasey]

Today's close up shooting.....screen shot with OS X preview....

F2.8 , distance at about 0.6 meter .............

Enlarge portion

Focus on the new born leaf..... aperture at F4

Enlarge portion

aperture set between F2.8 and F4

Enlarge portion