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Zeiss 18mm F4 ZM Sharpness

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
I shot this yesterday of a demo cockpit which the screens need to be replaced and still a lot of PS work to be done. Half daylight and strobe so somewhat a mess to shoot but just wanted to show you how sharp the Zeiss 18mm is. This reminds me of the Zeiss 21 distagon that we paid a lot of money for to bolt onto our Canons in the past. This lens is extremely sharp as you can see . no sharpening folks this is pretty much out of the can except i did fix some little things up. So if your in the market for a clinical sharp lens this maybe the best I have seen in this focal length so far.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
That is looking *really* great! Not only sharp, but very low distortion!
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Jack what i thought having the 21mm leica when i bought the zeiss 18mm was i was nuts to have 2 lenses so close but what I am seeing is there completely different looks, which i like a lot when i need clinical the 18 is the one but the leica 21mm is the smooth one, It just looks smoother more like film , still very sharp but has that 28 cron look we love. So having both in the bag is not such a bad thing and the 18mm is somewhat a bargain at 1100.00. Of course i hd John change the mount for me and code it for the WATE.

BTW i could use a empty 60mm filter ring to use as a shade actually would like to try two. If anyone has them let me know, would like to buy them
 
I agree, the image looks very sharp. In the 100% crop, I noticed some sort of reflection or localized blue (cyan) light just above the red switch in the upper right had corner. Is this a reflection off a filter or a light with gel?
 
E

espressogeek

Guest
That is impressive. I would love to see landscape shot taken with this lens.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Will do in Moab when we get up there on the 3rd. Looks like a lens i will go to with all the landscape we will be doing.
 
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espressogeek

Guest
I am eagerly looking forward to it. If I could get really good 20x30 prints out of it with this lens I would probably get another M8. I had one when they first came out and sold it out of frustration over the blobing, banding and lack of understanding of the 8 bit DNG format. Since they have most of that worked out the M8 and this lens look to be the easy way towards landscape work and having a nice camera to carry around on trips and such.

Will do in Moab when we get up there on the 3rd. Looks like a lens i will go to with all the landscape we will be doing.
 
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