RexGig0
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On
|
 p.3 #20 · Zeiss 35mm 1.4 zm still my preferred 35 | |
I actually have a pair of the Distagon 35mm f/1,4 ZM lenses. I bought the first one, black in color, pre-owned. I loved it so much I decided to buy the silver-tone version, which would feel less hot to the touch, when shooting in the harsh Texas sunlight. I waited for the anticipated November pricing promotion, to buy the silver-tone lens, spending $300, or perhaps $400 less than the usual new price.
I had thought I would sell or trade my black Distagon, after confirming the quality of the silver-tone Distagon, but, then, could not let it get away from me. I can be sentimental, with optical instruments. Plus, now and then, as a "training exercise, I will shoot with both an M10 and an M Type 246, at the same time.
The size of the Distagon 35 ZM does not bother me. I started Leica M rangefinder shooting with a Summilux-M 50mm ASPH, in 2019. The Distagon 35 ZM is only slightly larger, and, comparable in weight, to the Summilux. Moreover, I like a lens that my healthier left hand can grip, firmly.
On the matter of bokeh/out-of-focus highlights, the Summilux-M 35mm ASPH FLE has fundamentally different character, in this regard, than the Summilux-M 50mm ASPH. The Distagon 35 ZM seems, to my eyes, as the better 35 to complement the Summilux-M 50 ASPH.
Because I "can never have too many 35mm lenses," I would like to add a Summilux 35 FLE, sooner or later, if I am blessed with enough years of productive life. When a human subject fills enough of the scene, and the character of the bokeh, in the background, is not a factor, I just might want to use the FLE's character. (I have test-shot my Distagon, two separate times, at a Leica dealer, against their demonstrator FLE, and a Sixties-vintage Version II Summilux 35.)
Disclaimer: I claim no expertise, and may well remain artless. I was trained as a forensic/evidentiary documentary/crime scene photographer, performed that role for the final 7+ years of my career in police service, and have been trying to recover from that, now, for eight years.
|
).
