Build quality of ZE series: My correspondence with Zeiss

[Nikos]

I exchanged a few emails with Zeiss about the build quality of the ZE series.
I think you will find it interesting.
My case may be a rare one, however I did not like Zeiss' answer and tone.


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1. My initial inquiry:
==========================

Salutation: Mr.
First name: Nikos
Last name: Kanellopoulos
Subject: Build quality of ZE lenses

Comment:
Hello.
I have 2 ZE lenses.
I bought the 2/35 in May 2010, and the 2/100 last month.
I have used the 2/35 outdoors in just one 4-day trip.
I am afraid that the paint on the focusing ring has started to wear.
I am very careful with my lenses and I always store/carry them in a bag.

This is uncomfortable. I want to use my 2/100 Makro Planar (an expensive lens), and I find myself hesitating...
This made me buy used Contax versions of the 1,4/50 and 1,4/85. Although second hand,
there where no signs of paint wear. Only a few tiny dents, very different from what I notice on my 2/35.

I could provide you a photo if you like. I thought that with Zeiss I also bought high build quality and I would like your comment on this issue.

Regards

Reference Number: DEPC-20100830-2350770806


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2. Initial response by Zeiss
==============================
Dear Mr. Kanellopoulos,

Thank you for your inquiry to Carl Zeiss. In reference to your inquiry from 2010-08-30:

Of course, a certain amount of wear is unavoidable in daily use. Under normal conditions,
the ZE lenses do not show more excessive wear than other lenses of this kind (e.g. former Contax models).
We never had any complaint regarding unnormal wear so far.
Please send a few pictures (jpeg, as attachment) so that we can see what we are talking about.

Sincerely,
Bertram Hoen*****


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3. My response
===============================

Dear Mr. Ho*******,

I attach a photo of the lens. Taken with the 2/100 MP.

There is no doubt that a lens will have signs of wear in daily use, as you say.
My concern is that the wear started with my first real use of the lens.
Due to boiling weather and other personal issues I have only used it twice in a walk
in Athens, and more seriously during a 4-day trip to Santorini. That's about all of the use
it has seen.

I will agree that the wear is not so great. But it is there, after just 5-6 days of careful usage.
It seems that giving up the rubber focusing grip for this bare metal grip was not the best choice.
Perhaps you could make it like the silver nose of the ZE series lenses. But the paint on these
tiny and sharp bars of the current focusing grip does go away easily.

My lens' S/N:
2/35 ZE: 15.797.630 (bought from Zeiss online shop)

By the way, here is a very targeted "advertisement" of the 2/35 by me:
http://forum.mflenses.com/santorini-panorama-t30137.html


Regards,
Nikos Kanellopoulos
www.diafragma.gr





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4. Zeiss' response to the photo
========================================

Dear Mr. Kanellopoulos,

Thanks for sending the picture.
Of course, such little marks on the outer edges of the denticulation of the focusing ring cannot be avoided.
Even the durable black finish of our lenses will show marks like this especially when the lens rubs against other lenses in the photo bag.

Sincerely,
Bertram Ho*******


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5. My reply
========================================

I do not use to rub my lenses against each other.

My camera bag is this, and my expensive lenses are put in a lens pouch, even in the bag.
I have no other option than use my ZE lenses and hope they won't be very ugly after 6 months.
My Canon 24-70, for example, after 3 years of trekking and 10.000 shots is perfect.
The 20 years old, second-hand Contax lenses are near-perfect.
Something is wrong here...

I hope I have given you food for thought.

[Orio]

Nikos,
your picture shows the lens at what could be (I am guessing) 400% magnification, and yet I find the wear negligible. I'm sure that viewing the object in 100% natural proportion this wear would be barely visible at all.
I'm afraid that I can't be on your side with this quarrel: if you don't want a lens to wear even minimally, there is only one way: to not use it...

[hexi]

Thanx for sharing your experience, pretty unusual, bad luck maybe.

Despite this i still want my ZE Planar for the 5D

[Nikos]

[Orio]

Just enjoy the lens, and don't mind the wear.
Everything wears, including our bodies - unfortunately.

[nemesis101]

Whilst the wear does appear to be very minimal unless magnified, I agree with the poster - I have both a 1.7 and a 1.4 Planar C/Y mount and each has very little wear - and the aforesaid rubber grip...

I also have quite a few Vivitar lenses with similar close-milled ridged metal grips like the new Zeiss glass. These Vivitars are quite elderly, thrift store (!!) purchases and none show as much wear as that on the poster's Zeiss glass!

If I paid what Zeiss are asking I would expect diamond coated, titanium constructed quality, and this ain't it?

Doug

[poilu]

[Attila]

Buy cheap abused lenses and no problem with wear anymore, this is my way to go.

[Nikos]

[Orio]

I remember when I first wore my 5D.
I first felt shocked and thought "oh no, damn". But then immediately thought "so what?"
I am still enjoying it, after years.

I have a Contax Planar 1.2/85 that costed a fortune (for me, at least)
A sensible person would have chosen to keep it on display in a glass cabinet.
I have chosen to use it, and hell with the wear.
Maybe if I scrutiny the lens there could be a few wears here and there. But I am a happy person with the photos I take like the one in my avatar. If I kept the lens under a glass bell, lens would have no wear, it would not have lost resale value, and I would not have the photos and the enjoyment I had taking them.
I did choose the photos/enjoyment, and I am happy with the trade.

[Nikos]

[56 DIN]

maybe you clean it too hard
poilu are you producing portrait lenses for nursing homes ?


regarding your coating, i think either you wear a ring, or if it comes from production of the lens barrel, here the underground of the finish wasn´t perfect.
If it this area and no more failures like this, it might be some unexpected (oily) spray of an aircylinder of a production machine contaminating the surface before last coating
Don´t care for it - it is your personal sample

[Esox lucius]

[LucisPictor]

[visualopsins]

Looking at the photo, I see a scratch made by something harder than the black coating on the metal, perhaps a ring as der einrahmer suggests. If the black coating continues to wear off only then would I question quality.

[Spotmatic]

Let's see how the wear evolves over time. I also baby my lenses, but I also use them normally and don't check them every day for new wear. Doing this is exactly the problem Nikos is facing: buyer's remorse. He paid his hard-earned money for some of the best lenses out there, yet these show barrel wear faster than the old Contax lenses. To be honest: I probably would feel the same. It's the same feeling as the first scratch in the paint of your new car.

[Attila]

[Orio]

I would feel buyer's remorse if I made a stupid or wrong buy (which sometimes I did ) - but remorse for a good lens that I love and use? Never, no matter how much I wear it.
Anyhow, people is different and feels different, so everyone is entitled to their own worries

[rawhead]

[hexi]

Your lenses are normally under guarantee, can't you just return them and have some new one ? I wouldn't mind the small wear, but for the price paid i understand your feelings.

[Nikos]

[visualopsins]

[Andrew G.]

Pre-1975 (or so) Vivitar lenses have the same type of focus grip as the Zeiss ZF/ZE/ZK/ZS lenses. I have three older Vivitars and all of them show some paint loss on the focus grips. It's normal wear, it's something I'd expect to see.. even with Zeiss.

[Nikos]

[Attila]