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asamimasa Offline • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #1 · Zeiss lenses sealed? Specifically concerning ZF/ZE-type lenses, I was wondering if there's any form of sealing on them. I've come across some claims that there are some internal seals, but I'm not so sure; I wasn't lead to believe in its presence with the 35 f2 ZF.2 I used to have, at least externally. Zeiss' "Stress test" marketing video shows them subjecting heating it to high temperatures, immediately transferring it to below 0 degrees C, and then back to high temperatures. I would imagine some sort of sealing would have to be present in order to prevent condensation from ruining the space between elements. Any conclusive word on whether there's some significant sealing? Feb 06, 2013 at 10:07 PM

Lars Johnsson Online • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #2 · Zeiss lenses sealed? I have seven Zeiss ZE lenses for Canon. I don't think they have any "real weather dust/water sealing" But they are exceptionally well built. ( better than Canon L) so I would guess they are better than most lenses. And you don't need to be afraid of using them in some light rain either. I have done that many times. Feb 07, 2013 at 03:41 AM

sjms Offline • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #3 · Zeiss lenses sealed? asamimasa wrote: Specifically concerning ZF/ZE-type lenses, I was wondering if there's any form of sealing on them. I've come across some claims that there are some internal seals, but I'm not so sure; I wasn't lead to believe in its presence with the 35 f2 ZF.2 I used to have, at least externally. Zeiss' "Stress test" marketing video shows them subjecting heating it to high temperatures, immediately transferring it to below 0 degrees C, and then back to high temperatures. I would imagine some sort of sealing would have to be present in order to prevent condensation from ruining the space between elements. Any conclusive word on whether there's some significant sealing? the sort of sealing will not prevent condensation within a lens. they are not airtight ambient air will get in during zoom or focus. they are not filled with inert gas. ambient humidity will reach equilibrium after time both in and out. Feb 07, 2013 at 09:32 PM

Mescalamba Offline • • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #4 · Zeiss lenses sealed? Only "I" type of lenses (found that recently, guy here on FM has industrial ZF-I 28/2). Otherwise nope, but they are very tightly put together. Feb 07, 2013 at 09:37 PM

sjms Offline • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #5 · Zeiss lenses sealed? and that imposes a few limitations on them. definitely not for someone in a hurry. since they are manual focus lenses that grow and shrink as they focus you need to disengage the seal manually (see knobs) and then reengage it. this includes removal and replacement of the lens to a body and aperture changes. it will then still allow or draw draw in ambient air containing whatever and seal it within the lens. reality is a multi bladed sword and mother nature will win everytime Edited on Feb 08, 2013 at 02:55 PM · View previous versions Feb 07, 2013 at 10:41 PM

peter_n Offline • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #6 · Zeiss lenses sealed? I wouldn't call Zeiss lenses "exceptionally well built" as described above. They are nowhere near the quality of Leica lenses which do generally have good build quality. They're manufactured by Cosina in Japan, supposedly under Zeiss QC but the rangefinder lenses they make that mount on the Leica M bayonet cameras suffer from a well known problem called "Zeiss wobble". I have one Zeiss lens; a 50mm/f1.5 C-Sonnar which is a modern-day reincarnation of the classic Sonnar 1,5/50 that Zeiss made for the Contax II. My copy doesn't have the wobble, and appears to be well built but most important of all it produces sublime images. And I think that's why most people buy Zeiss lenses; for the glass. Feb 08, 2013 at 01:54 AM

jcolwell Online • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #7 · Zeiss lenses sealed? peter_n wrote: I wouldn't call Zeiss lenses "exceptionally well built" as described above. They are nowhere near the quality of Leica lenses which do generally have good build quality... Your experience with rangefinder lenses is based on a different species than the ZF/ZE lenses that the OP was asking about. I agree with Lars that ZE lenses are exceptionally well built, and so are many Contax Zeiss SLR lenses. As good as Leica-R in most cases, and better in some. Feb 08, 2013 at 02:03 AM

Lars Johnsson Online • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #8 · Zeiss lenses sealed? peter_n wrote: I wouldn't call Zeiss lenses "exceptionally well built" as described above. They are nowhere near the quality of Leica lenses which do generally have good build quality. They're manufactured by Cosina in Japan, supposedly under Zeiss QC but the rangefinder lenses they make that mount on the Leica M bayonet cameras suffer from a well known problem called "Zeiss wobble". I have one Zeiss lens; a 50mm/f1.5 C-Sonnar which is a modern-day reincarnation of the classic Sonnar 1,5/50 that Zeiss made for the Contax II. My copy doesn't have the wobble, and appears to be well built but most important of all it produces sublime images. And I think that's why most people buy Zeiss lenses; for the glass. To be fair here, none of the lenses you talk about are at all the same as the lenses the OP asked about. It was Zeiss ZE, ZF lenses. And they are very different from the rangefinder lenses. Every review of ZE/ZF that I have been reading always write about the great build of those lenses. Feb 08, 2013 at 06:24 AM

asamimasa Offline • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #9 · Zeiss lenses sealed? Alrighty, what I'll take away from all this is that they're built tight, but don't have any distinct sealing features. and while I don't use anything in M-mount, I'll keep in mind that build quality reputation isn't necessarily consistent throughout production periods and mounts. I would certainly defend the ZF.2 build though. Feb 08, 2013 at 12:11 PM

peter_n Offline • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #10 · Zeiss lenses sealed? jcolwell wrote: Your experience with rangefinder lenses is based on a different species than the ZF/ZE lenses that the OP was asking about. Lars Johnsson wrote: To be fair here, none of the lenses you talk about are at all the same as the lenses the OP asked about. It was Zeiss ZE, ZF lenses. And they are very different from the rangefinder lenses. I'm fully aware of this, and of the construction differences between rangefinder lenses and SLR lenses. However Zeiss QC is the common denominator and that's why I used a rangefinder lens example. I sincerely doubt that the Zeiss QC inspectors bear down more heavily on the SLR production line than on the rangefinder production line. I've never used Canon equipment so I can't comment on the quality. As an aside Voigtlander rangefinder lenses have improved considerably in build quality and sample variability seems to be down since they started building Zeiss lenses. It appears Zeiss quality control methods have been adopted on their own lines. Also Leica used to make lenses with stellar build quality but they have slipped too. A few years ago when they came out with the ASPH lenses and the floating elements I bought five of them. Four of them were faulty, two of those four had to be replaced a second time. There were amazing reports of new lenses being sold with really ridiculous construction faults. Leica has more-or-less fixed their QC problems but they're not all that they're cracked up to be despite what the fanboys say. Feb 08, 2013 at 05:37 PM

Keith B. Offline • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #11 · Zeiss lenses sealed? The ZF/ZE lenses are clearly not as nicely finished as the comparable Leica-R lenses of days gone by; The semi-gloss black anodisation of the my ZF's seems cheesy and down-market compared to the old Leica R's, or even the current higher-end Nikons. Of the six or seven ZFs I currently own, I've only had mechanical issues with one---a 50/2 MP---that took Zeiss two tries to get fixed. Feb 08, 2013 at 08:18 PM

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