[Leica] Zeiss Wide Angle 35mm f/2 Biogon T* ZM

[jbm at jbm.org (Jeff Moore)]

2010-02-26-23:59:08 Wendy Thurman:
> While of course a Leica 35 cron is, well, a Leica, I would
> appreciate opinions or experiences any of you may have with this lens.  
> It's
> affordably priced and appears to be generally well-regarded.

I really like the lens.  It seems to me like, if the pre-ASPH 35mm
Summicron were a little bit sharper all around...  this is what it'd
look like.

A downside is that it sticks easily twice as far out from the camera
as the pre-ASPH Summicron.  And I'm not sure how well its all-aluminum
bones will last in the fullness of time.  But the smoothness and
coherence of out-of-focus areas, taken with the fine detail of stuff
in-focus, is something it does very very well.  Possibly more well
than anything else that comes to mind.

The 35mm Summilux ASPH (which is a workhorse for me) can get kind of
jangly as things go out of focus.

Not sure about the Summicron ASPH.

I bet this Zeiss doesn't resolve quite as finely at f/2.0 as the Leica
Summicron ASPH.  The Zeiss seems to have a particular sweet spot at
f/4.0...  the picture below is an example.  I'd leave it at f/4 all
day if I could.  You see how detailed teh little birdie's feathers and
beak and little birdy feet are, and how Robert's face behind the bird
is softened, but maintains its shapes and shadings.

  
http://photos.bazbarfoo.com/Scratch/LUGmisc1/11359884_aTkKE#797916850_MUA4X-A-LB

I'll leave access to the full-res image (size "O" for Original) available for
a few days so you can pixel-peep.

 -J