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To keep C Sonnar or not?

MCTuomey

New member
Edward, I shot the C-Sonnar and Planar as a pair for 3 years. My C-Sonnar is factory "optimized" for f/2.8 which is where I like to shoot it most, and I like it a lot w/ my M9. It gives a certain dimensionality I value (apologies for lens-speak).

If the sonnar at f/1.5 disappoints, you might have it optimized at f/2.8 (or as D&A suggests at around f/2.2-2.4) and try it at f/2.8 where it still really excels, produces lovely blur, and is quite a bit sharper. And you still have f/1.5 speed when you need it - just learn to lean in a bit when up close at f/1.5.

If having two lenses to get sharpness and also speed when you need it is bothersome, there is always the 50 lux asph, as other have said. I started shooting with one late last year. It is a spoiler of the first order. I shoot in dim venues a lot. The 50 asph just seems to lift light so sweetly.

teera: lovely portraits of a lovely child
 

teeraash

New member
Hi Edward:
:OT: For your information, IQ Lab at Naratiwat road has a demo of M240. I will go there to play with it today. Haven't made-up my mind but patience isn't one of my virtue especially given that the IQ Lab's owner told me that I'm first on his list and thus I can become the first victim of the New M here.
 

edwardkaraa

New member
Hi Edward:
:OT: For your information, IQ Lab at Naratiwat road has a demo of M240. I will go there to play with it today. Haven't made-up my mind but patience isn't one of my virtue especially given that the IQ Lab's owner told me that I'm first on his list and thus I can become the first victim of the New M here.
Great news, Teera! Please keep us updated :)
 

CharlesK

New member
Hi Edward. I have had 3 copies optimized for f/1.5, and still had problems getting the focus shift to agree with me:) I love the rendering with the Sonnar, but the ergonomics of getting the lens in focus forced me to buy the 50 Lux :D
 

edwardkaraa

New member
What an unfortunate situation Charles! :D

I have already considered the summilux to be honest, but there are too many cases of focus drift that I read about.
 

edwardkaraa

New member
Hi Guys, Thank you very much for all your replies and very helpful advice.

I finally decided to keep the C Sonnar as a specialty portrait and low light lens and will keep it as is, optimized for f/1.5.

Cheers,
Edward
 

douglasf13

New member
Yeah, I think that may drive me a little crazy if my lens focused like that. It's one thing to have to subtly adjust focus at f1.5, since you're already dealing such a shallow DOF that focusing errors may already occur from subject movement, focus and recompose, etc., but I wouldn't want my f5.6 to be that far off.
 

edwardkaraa

New member
Douglas, totally agreed. I have given up already on trying to focus it at middle apertures. To be honest, the Planar swipes the floor with the Sonnar at all apertures and distances. But the advantage of the Sonnar is in its beautiful rendering for portraits and the nice bokeh. Coincidentally the Planar may be too clinical for portraits and its bokeh is average. That is why I believe the main interest of the Sonnar is at close range WO or near WO shooting. It does create magical results in the right hands.
 

douglasf13

New member
I hear you. I even enjoyed it on the smaller format of NEX as a portrait lens, although I didn't have to deal with focus shift. Granted, I also followed the advise of some users and shot portraits in the f2-2.8 range, anyways, and I think that may be the sweet spot of the lens for portraits, so I think I'd still want it optimized in the f2-2.8 range.

How is the ZM 85 for portraits?
 

edwardkaraa

New member
The ZM 85 is really great for portraits despite the f/4 aperture. It has a silky smooth rendering and very nice bokeh. The problem is that f/4 forces me to use very high iso so the occasions I can use it are not very frequent.
 

douglasf13

New member
I guess it depends on what type of portraits you're shooting. I use my 90/2.8 for my family at f4, and it is nice. For street portraits, I don't mind the grittiness of a ZM 50/2 type of lens. Are you using the C-Sonnar for street portraits, or for more planned stuff?
 

edwardkaraa

New member
To be honest, I only used the Sonnar on a couple of outings, mostly street shooting. I would normally use the Biogon 35 for this kind of shooting but I wanted to try the new lens, and I wasn't disappointed. I posted some in the image thread, both here and on FM. I like what the Planar does to the subjects, but I also like what the Sonnar does to the backgrounds, how it separates the subject from the surroundings. In fact, apart from the Contax lenses, the C Sonnar has the most 3D I have ever seen from a current Zeiss lens, equally as good or better than the Contax 35/1.4. This confirms my earlier theory that field curvature is behind all that Zeiss 3D.
 

douglasf13

New member
Agreed, the C-Sonnar has a lot of pop. This was on a crop sensor, and it still pops (sorry about the crappy flickr compression)



In regards to field curvature, the interesting thing is that my 35/2 Cron ASPH seems to have more 3D pop than my 35/2 Cron IV did, despite having less field curvature, which is odd to me.
 

edwardkaraa

New member
Very nice shot Douglas!

As for 3D pop, I think high micro contrast is also important and the cron asph definitely has a lot of that too. If you look at the MTF you will also see that typical Leica wavy graphs, so it certainly does have FC, though different from the old style bell shaped one.
 

edwardkaraa

New member
I like these shots, although, to be honest, I think I might prefer the bite of the Planar for this kind of stuff, but who am I to judge?
Thank you Douglas, and again I agree with you. The 50/2 or 35/2 would have been my choice for this outing but I wanted to try the new lens :)
 

douglasf13

New member
Very nice shot Douglas!

As for 3D pop, I think high micro contrast is also important and the cron asph definitely has a lot of that too. If you look at the MTF you will also see that typical Leica wavy graphs, so it certainly does have FC, though different from the old style bell shaped one.
Thanks! Good point about the MTF. The 35/2 ASPH is still pretty wavy, just not as much as the former version. Any idea whether whether the new 50AA has that pop? It's more flat field.
 
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