Amin
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The latest lens addition to my bag is the Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM Distagon. In researching this purchase, I found surprisingly few online reviews. Still, I found a good price on a used copy and decided to go for it.
After a few days of ownership, this lens has exceeded my expectations to the point where I thought I'd share some image samples and observations here.
Coded as an Elmarit-M 21mm f/2.8 (11134), there is little to no noticeable color drift at the edges when using this lens on a Leica M 240 (thanks to Antonio for this tip):
My copy of the lens has a replacement mount that allowed me to code it for automatic recognition:
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I use the LensTagger Lightroom plugin to alter the EXIF information so that it indicates the correct lens model and focal length.
Sharpness in the central part of the image is acceptable with the lens at f/4. Central sharpness is very good at f/5.6, and the edges are looking good at f/8. Stopped down to f/11, it delivers corner to corner sharpness. Sharp enough that even after perspective distortion of the above shot, it retains a high level of detail. Click the image below to see the 100% full size version:
That was taken handheld at 1/90s (EXIF inaccurate), so it may not represent the sharpest results I can get from the lens, but it looks good to me.
There is little distortion such a wide lens. Aside from a bit of purple fringing in tree branches against blown skies, I've seen little to no color fringing.
Some other shots taken with this lens during two brief family walks this weekend:
L1002273 by Amin Sabet, on Flickr - Slight crop
Bates Hall by Amin Sabet, on Flickr
L1002189 by Amin Sabet, on Flickr - Intentionally softened, glow added
L1002409 by Amin Sabet, on Flickr
L1002106 by Amin Sabet, on Flickr
The following are two f/4-11 aperture series (near and far targets) for download in JPEG or DNG format. I focused using the rangefinder and did not change focus when going from f/4 to f/11.
JPEGs (C1 process, sharpening @ 300/0.8/1; NR @ 15/35/1):
f4 near target - https://s3.amazonaws.com/18mmDistagon/JPEG/L1002415.jpg
f5.6 near target - https://s3.amazonaws.com/18mmDistagon/JPEG/L1002416.jpg
f8 near target - https://s3.amazonaws.com/18mmDistagon/JPEG/L1002417.jpg
f11 near target - https://s3.amazonaws.com/18mmDistagon/JPEG/L1002418.jpg
f4 far target - https://s3.amazonaws.com/18mmDistagon/JPEG/L1002420.jpg
f5.6 far target - https://s3.amazonaws.com/18mmDistagon/JPEG/L1002421.jpg
f8 far target - https://s3.amazonaws.com/18mmDistagon/JPEG/L1002422.jpg
f11 far target - https://s3.amazonaws.com/18mmDistagon/JPEG/L1002423.jpg
DNG files:
f4 near target - https://s3.amazonaws.com/18mmDistagon/DNG/L1002415.dng
f5.6 near target - https://s3.amazonaws.com/18mmDistagon/DNG/L1002416.dng
f8 near target - https://s3.amazonaws.com/18mmDistagon/DNG/L1002417.dng
f11 near target - https://s3.amazonaws.com/18mmDistagon/DNG/L1002418.dng
f4 far target - https://s3.amazonaws.com/18mmDistagon/DNG/L1002420.dng
f5.6 far target - https://s3.amazonaws.com/18mmDistagon/DNG/L1002421.dng
f8 far target - https://s3.amazonaws.com/18mmDistagon/DNG/L1002422.dng
f11 far target - https://s3.amazonaws.com/18mmDistagon/DNG/L1002423.dng
I'm very pleased with this purchase. Easily the highest performing ultrawide prime I've ever owned.
