Zeiss Distagon T* 3.5/18 ZF - a short report (Photos added!)

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

First impressions:
This lens looks huge. Actually it is not that big, but the gigantic front lens (diam. 82mm) makes look bigger than it is. It is heavy though and "feels" really great in your hands.
The manufacturing quality excellent and the focus ring turns with just the right level of resistance, a pure sensation of high-end quality.
This lens mounts to a Nikon cam in such a precise way that you completely trust this connection.
Even the – enormous – lens hood mounts securely to the lens so that you never get the impression you could ever lose this hood by coincidence.
Manufacturing Quality: A

Optical performance:
Building quality settled, let's talk about aberrations.
There is almost no chromatic aberration visible and typical lens problems such as coma or other spherical aberrations are reduced to a level that is negligible for everyday use. There is some very slight distortion, tough. Not really a problem on a crop cam, but it can be problematic for sensitive subjects, shot with a full frame DSLR. But then, we are talking about an 18mm lens superwide lens! Flaring is also well controlled. The nonagonal aperture forms a shape that is close enough to a circle which adds to a nice bokeh sensation, especially when we keep in mind that we talk about a superwide!
If you examine the lens in lab conditions, you perhaps can find some more flaws, but since this is a "field report", I have to admit that this high resolution lens is close to excellent.
Optical performance: A-

Handling:
This lens delivers a fantastic feeling of quality which gives proof for a top-level quality control.
Every mechanical part runs smoothly and gives a velvety impression. The focus ring is steep enough to enable fast focussing but still offers enough precision. The aperture ring “clicks” in accurately. Sometimes the large front element interferes a little with your focussing hand but this is something you can get easily used to.
Handling: A-

Usage:
If you have a lens that looks gorgeous, feels fantastic and delivers a great image quality, you want to use it all the time.
If you shoot with a crop DSLR (such as a Nikon D200) you can use this 18mm super-wide as an everyday lens, since it will approx. deliver the field-of-view of a classic 28mm wide-angle. On a full-frame DSLR or 35mm film cam, 18mm are really wide! There this lens will offer an amazing 90° horizontal view which is not easy to compose.
Once you stop down this lens, focussing will not be a big issue any more, since the DoF becomes so deep that you can use this lens for snapshots.
We might wonder why Zeiss has not included any electronic communication between lens and cam. The Distagon 3.5/18 is nothing but a classic AI-S lens. OK, this makes it possible to use this lens on almost any Nikon film body, but since – so I think – most photographers will use this Distagon on an AF-cam (digital or film), a chip would have been a “nice to have”.
For me, as a Canon shooter, this decision to construct it as an AI-S lens is great, because I can adapt it to my EOS cams perfectly. Anyway, this lens is definitely a joy to use.

Would I recommend this lens?
Yes, I would! Definitely! This lens is a fantastic superwide for full-frame cams, no matter if film or sensor, and it is a great wide-angle lens on crop cams.

To put it into a nutshell: Any wide angle enthusiast who loves the unique feeling of using a Zeiss lens, who gets the goose bumps by turning such a wonderfully smooth focus ring and who can afford a lens for € 1150,- should go and buy this Distagon!

Final verdict: A (with a tiny "minus")

This lens was used on a Nikon D100, a Canon EOS 350D, a Canon EOS 40D and a Canon EOS 50e.

More pictures later...

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

Finally, some shots from today! You can see the warm touch, since these shots were taken at 11.30 am! But then: winter sun...

Landscape

18mm are wide even on a crop cam (Nikon D100):

A b/w "film simulation"

Some test shots:

Distortion? Pretty low:

Flares? Well controlled.

It took me a while to get this one. The viewfinder was flaring like crazy. Wink

Schnauzer · Expire: 2012-03-08

Love the colors this lense delivers.

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

It seems excellent performance to me under the distortion department and the flare department
I certainly would expect a ghost image while shooting so much into the sun, so that is not a problem, instead it's remarkable how little is the veiling on the photo while shooting against the sun. This means excellent coating.
Distortion also seems excellent to me, better controlled than my 4/18 Contax copy (which isn't that bad either).
Thanks much Carsten for the report.
What about a couple 100% crops from an image? Maybe one from centre and one from a corner?

P.S. a question: does the lens come with a hood in the box?

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

Here are some crops, but it's not the best picture. I need to find a better example. Focus is not correct. This lens can produce sharper images.

Centre crop

Corner crop

Cam: Nikon D100, no sharpening, no PP whatsoever.

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

Compared to other superwide lenses:

Vivitar 3.5/17 - Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 3.5/18 ZF - Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 4/20

Some more shots here: http://forum.mflenses.com/wow-what-a-nice-lens-t14310,highlight,distagon.html

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

I think that the large diameter was made with the purpose of hosting the hood without it getting in the visual field.