charles.K wrote:
I have been watching and liking of course So many excellent shots!!
Joakim, congrats on the Nocti 0.95 I still have my Nocti 1.0, and will not part with this lens. I would run a quick calibration check, on the near, medium and far at different f stops. Once the calibration is correct and very accurate the lens is a breeze to use, even wide open. The calibration is usually off, at some points and correct at others as the calibrations are not linear.
Thanks Charles. Good point, I can certainly see an calibration issue at infinity and wide open but I should definitely do a more through test.
Hi Everyone! Sorry for posting nothing for a while... Been traveling a bit and other things occupying my time. Happened to be in the NYC area the last couple days and stopped by the PhotoPlus Expo. There were a few things I wanted to see, but the number one priority was to have a look at the new Zeiss Distagon 35/1.4 ZM. Zeiss had a couple on display for actual hands-on use and I spent a few minutes running it through a few tests on my M240. Unfortunately I didn't have access to a Sony a7/R/S body to also try it on...
Initial impression is that it is somewhat large, but it's not gigantic, IMO. And it's lighter than its size implies, just as the spec sheet indicates that it's lighter than the CV35/1.2.
Focus feel was excellent - extremely smooth. And the throw seemed decent. Viewfinder blockage is there... it's creeping into the bottom right quarter of the frame, but should be manageable.
I managed to knock my M240's rangefinder out of alignment a few days ago, so had to rely on the EVF for critical focus. But in that respect, the Distagon seems to deliver very nicely. It's very sharp near or far wide open, with a hint of SA that cleans up a stop down. It also seems to be very sharp across the frame with a flat field of focus already from near wide open. Couldn't see any wavy field curvature typical of Leica glass. I could sometimes make out faint onion rings in the out of focus specular highlights... we'll see how bad this is in real life, but I suspect it probably won't be a major concern.
Difficult to judge rendering character with the limited time and location, but it seemed quite neutral. Double edged blur can appear in some situations and the blur balls towards the very edge of the frame sometimes take on odd, squarish shapes.
But so far, I'm very enthusiastic about the lens and plan to get one.
I also visited the Leica booth and the guy there very reluctantly allowed me to handle the 28 Lux, which was in the special edition stainless steel set... In this iteration, it's very dense/heavy, but seemed typical of the 21/24 Lux style of construction and design. Unfortunately I wasn't permitted to try it on any cameras... therefore couldn't tell how bad viewfinder blockage was or get any actual image samples...
Here are a few web-rez snaps from the ZM. I'll see about posting a link to some full-rez versions in the near future... I believe these were all wide open.
Here's a smartphone snap of the ZM on my M240 with the 21 Lux for a size comparison. That's the 28 Cron behind the camera (with non-standard $5 vented hood):
Also forgot to mention that the above ZM sample images were all shot uncoded. Looks promising in this respect, too.
Thanks so much for sharing Ron! The results look quite promising so far and I will likely get one as well. Do you have any idea when they will be available? Are the fall colors out in your area still out or all gone? I'll be in Toronto next week for a few days....
Unfortuneatly I spent all my ZM 35/1.4 money on a 5k retina iMac ---which i really love.
Imagine opening an image in LR, and being able to instantly see the sharpness and noise levels from the full view--it's something else. Lens character is suddenly very apparent. Really can't overstate how clean and sharp an M9 image looks on the thing
Gary - Zeiss said sometime in December for around $2200 US.
I suspect fall colours are pretty much over in the Toronto area, but can't say for sure as I've been in the US for the past week. I can say colours are quite nice in areas of MD, NJ and CT, if slightly past peak....
Charlie - the 5K screen is very appealing. How does it work for other non-imaging applications?
rscheffler wrote:
Charlie - the 5K screen is very appealing. How does it work for other non-imaging applications?
That's the shocker, Ron.
It's fantastic for all the normal stuff, including surfing. The web looks way nicer than the normal 27 TBD or 30" CHD.
For those who need perfect calibration, well they will need to plug their Eizos in the back .
Apple has done an incredible job with scaling, so your icons are good size and normal windows are rendered at 2400 x something or other, while the desktop backgrounds are ungodly sharp. But the normal stuff has extra pixels behind it so the web looks creamy like you can't believe. Low rez youtube looks better on the 5k than any other machine i've seen.
I did not understand pixel noise till it's absent. This thing will really spoil you. Looking at images is just mind blowing because the detail draws you close and the pixel count actually supports it. At 14 inches distance eye to screen, it's very very smooth and sharp. Peak is probably about 24 inches.
The default factory calibration is totally M9, high contrast, slide-filmesqe, with very rich and subtle blacks.
Flickr will really up the rez for viewing on the 5k, images look very crisp.
Ron, thanks for the ZM 35/1.4 report!
[currency] 2200 is a lot of money but the lens seem considerably better than the CV35/1.2 so maybe... for me it depends on what cameras there will be available, besides of the digital Leicas.
Nice documentary coverage of Halloween in Idaho, Charlie!
Ocean, the red fruits have so much 3D I could reach through the screen and touch them.
Gary, love the colors in the 1st shot and the composition and light in the 2nd shot.
I am fortunate enough that my job takes me to Hiroshima several times a year. This time I took a long late night walk around the city centre with the M.
So many excellent shots!!
I still have my Nocti 1.0, and will not part with this lens. I would run a quick calibration check, on the near, medium and far at different f stops. Once the calibration is correct and very accurate the lens is a breeze to use, even wide open. The calibration is usually off, at some points and correct at others as the calibrations are not linear.
---which i really love. 
