RF glass on M9 (or 8)

uhoh7 · Joined: 24 Nov 2010 Posts: 1300 Location: Idaho, USA

At first I figured I was pretty set with 35ish mm, since I owned CV 1.2,1.4,2.5 and the rokkor 40/2.

But while quite good, I did not see landscape performance like the 50 cron, or 28 cron, so i began to research.

After a few hours reading I'd settled on either a 35/2 asph or 35/2.8 zeiss. But more reading finally led me to what's probably obvious to many:

DSC04451 by unoh7, on Flickr

According to some hard core shooters with lots of lenses, for landscape or architecture, and especially for stopped down performance, the Zeiss zm35/2 has no equal, outside possibly the 35 FLE, which was not an option due to the 4k+ price tag.

So I found one for 750USD in LN condition.

Here today at f/16:

L1012052 by unoh7, on Flickr

Some claimed the lens has poor oof rendering.....

at f/2:

L1012100 by unoh7, on Flickr

also f/2:

L1012091 by unoh7, on Flickr

at f/8:

L1012059 by unoh7, on Flickr

f/6.8:

L1011822 by unoh7, on Flickr

I don't think it's any sharper than the SEM 21, 28 cron, or 50 cron, but it seems quite good and has rendering similar to both of those crons, to my eye.

It does seem to have super-human flare resistance, however, superior to basically all my lenses Smile

So this makes my "frontline" daylight lens set: zm18, 21SEM, 28 cron, zm35/2, 50 cron, CV 75, and CV90.

My lowly canon 135/3.5 LTM is placeholder for 135mm Sad

Which impress the most? SEM 21 and 28 cron.

I really did not completely understand the 28 cron, but besides it's great high speed character, it is scary sharp at f/8 and still good at f/16 with great DOF.

In fact f/16 performance, I'm learning is more varied than f/2 performance when comparing lenses and much more crucial to a landscape lover like me Smile