JaKo wrote:
...why purchase fast, large rangefinder lens that is hardly in lower price bracket to shoot mostly at infinity? I guess many photogs want perfection and all-in-one 35mm solution. Fair enough.
Yes. All in one. Versatility. The ZM is probably the best all in one RF 35mm lens currently available. For me it would serve dual purposes: farther distance landscape type use moderately stopped down; wide open available lower light work typically at nearer distances (1-5m). That said, I do shoot distant subjects wide open if without a tripod, knowing that there will be some tradeoff.
The ZM's performance is such that you could shoot it at f/4-5.6 for far distances and not really have to worry about edges/corners (on a Leica or modded Sony), nor onset of diffraction effects. It seems to edge the ZM35/2, which is considered very good for landscape work (except for the extreme corners), though is a bit soft/glowy wide open.
Instead I'm exploring the new CV35/1.7. I think it delivers similar far distance performance once stopped down to f/4 and gives up ~ half-stop in low light situations. As usual, it will also boil down to rendering characteristics. IMO, I like its near-distances background rendering better than the ZM, but it lacks some of the contrast/pop of the ZM..
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Jonas B wrote:
Thanks again Jack,
I'm going back and forth about the ZM35/1.4.
The second image, the one with the bottles, again clearly shows what I don't like about the ZM. It's the same problem hiepp mentioned above: the background is nicely blurred in the center of the image but, I dare to say, ugly to the left and to the right. The black outlines on the wall painting hit my eyes. The last image where the lower ring is green and purple/magenta on the other is also not that appealing.
As I think I mentioned some posts back... I see this with a lot of rangefinder lenses I either own, have used, or seen from online samples. And I read about why this happens, but unfortunately didn't tag that source info. I believe it's a combination of factors - field curvature and vignetting of some sort.
My typical SLR field curvature experiences were that the plane of focus often curved towards the camera at the edges of the image, which resulted in greater edge blur. A lot of RF lenses I've used have the opposite field curvature. But not all. IIRC, when I compared the 21 Lux against the CV21/1.8, at the same aperture, the Lux blurs the edges better because of its typical Leica wavy plane of focus that recovers in the outer zone to about the same point as the center.
Vignetting seems to be influenced by a number of factors, including lens mount diameter, if I've understood it correctly. But also, you look at lenses like the Otus line, or adapting medium format lenses to 35mm for the larger image circle and using just the center sweet spot (same with using 35mm FF lens on APS-C, etc.). Those lenses are made bigger than the base minimum needed for the format. Then there's also the Sonnar in the RX1, which has a very, very unique design for optimizing performance on full frame. In contrast, standard RF lenses have to conform to a number of factors that likely compromise certain performance characteristics. One of which seems to be outer zone rendering - vignetting, the shape and character of out of focus specular light sources... The ZM35/1.4 is particularly 'wonky' in how it handles the latter and one of the few things I dislike about it. Certain subject background distance relationships result in a rather disruptive rendering. That said, similar can be coaxed out of the highly regarded 'cream machine' 50 Lux ASPH (IMO the FE 55/1.8 has slightly less smooth rendering than the 50 Lux ASPH but better maintains that rendering into the outer zone, where the Lux loses some of the smoothness found in the center of the image).