Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 4/18mm ZM

[marco_gea]

Hi all,

 

I recently acquired a Zeiss ZM 18mm f/4 for use on my X-E2s via Fuji's own M-mount adaptor (which I chose so as to be able to dial in any necessary in-camera corrections).

 

It turned out that only a very minor correction is required for distortion ("barrel weak"), while some more pronounced tweaking of the vignetting and corner colour shading controls is required to clean up those aspects of the lens' performance.

 

Here's the corner shading and colour cast without correction...

 

 

..and then after dialling in the right amount of in-camera corrections:

 

 

With that out of the way, I then set out to take some test shots.

 

Here's a 100% original resolution file below.

Shot at f/8 as JPEG with "Astia" film simulation and circular polarizer, focused at the f/4 hyperfocal markings (i.e., assuming a stringent 0.015mm CoC, rather than the standard 0.030mm).

The white plumage in harsh midday light made this a good test bed for any chromatic aberration or purple fringing - gladly, there is none whatsoever of either.

Post-processing was limited to some minor lifting of shadows and some added vibrance; no other corrections were applied, and no additional sharpening (in-camera sharpening was set to 0 = default).

 

Marco

[quincy]

Very, very nice, thanks for showing!

I'm surprised by the amount of vignetting though, taking into account that it's a full frame 18 mm lens with a slow aperture.

I'd keep vignetting and colour cast as it is and call it "lens character", but that's just me.

[marco_gea]

One more from today: straight out-of-camera JPEG at f/11, "Velvia" film simulation.

 

No flare, good contrast, no CA, no fringing, nice sunstar