Zeiss 18mm f/4 Distagon T

[richfx]

Just got the Zeiss 18mm f/4 Distagon T. I've coded it in the M9's manual menu as a Leica 18mm with the 16-18-21 f/4 WATE lens and also as a Leica 18mm f/3.8 with Tim Isaac's / Match Technical's Decoder Kit 2. I haven't observed any noticeable difference in IQ (I'm shooting RAW) between both coding choices in terms of color shifting, vignetting or fall off (this is an excellent lens all around from my so far limited observations). It does appear that images with the lens coded as the Leica 18mm f/3.8 produce slightly brighter / lighter images.
I'd really appreciate any wisdom / guidance from anyone who has been shooting this lens on the M9 for awhile and has put it more to the test.
Many thanks,
Rich

 

[Roger Hicks]

I code it as WATE 18 and it's fine.

Cheers,

R.

 

[D&A]

When I had my zeiss 18mm Zm, I coded as follows: On the M8, I coded it as a WATE and chose 18mm when the choice came up when turning on the camera each time.

On the M9, the lens brought up framelines that allowed me to code it as a Leica 21mm f2.8 pre asph. vs. some others I tried. The reason I chose this coding was after testing it out by coding it for all the various possible other choices that my lens mount allowed (the framelines it brought up)...the code for the Leica 21mm f2.8 pre asph resulted in almost no red edge under most all circumstances. Coding it as anything else, including the WATE 18mm, did result in various degrees of red edge, depending on lighting and subject matter. Others have observed these findings. Great lens optically, regardless!

Dave (D&A)