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| Pete Myers on the Biogon T* 2/35 ZM |
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In April of 2007, Carl Zeiss loaned me a Biogon T* 2/35 ZM lens for evaluation. The lens has had a good word-of-mouth reputation on the street, and I knew that its performance would be solid. But I was doubtful that it would perform as a “Master Class” prime lens. My intention was to photograph with it a bit, make an evaluation, and send the lens back with a kind note of appreciation to Carl Zeiss for allowing me to borrow it.
Instead, my first look at the evaluation negatives made from the ZM 2/35 left me startled. I immediately made my first image from those negatives (see “Monster”, shown above), and then begged Carl Zeiss to keep the lens! I simply was astounded by the performance of the lens.
Very few lenses in the world are “Master Class” lenses. I believe that the Biogon T* 2/35 ZM is a “Master Class” lens — and I would go so far as to state that it is the best 35mm focal length lens in the world.
Background
I am a fine arts photographer by profession (www.petemyers.com). Over the past fourteen years my work has been exclusive in its use of small format photography. Rangefinder cameras have always exhibited superior performance for my work, and most of my former images have been photographed using a competitor’s aspheric 35mm focal length lens and rangefinder camera system.
I say “lens” in the singular. Throughout my career I have maintained simplicity in my fieldwork by using only one lens and camera body combination at a time. For me, the most versatile focal length for my image-making is at 35mm.
The 35mm focal length lens that I have used in recent years has been considered state of the art for rangefinder lens design by the use of its aspheric lens element. It is well regarded, but many photographers have questioned the “bokeh” of the lens in having significant visible “jarring” fore and aft of the focal plane as a result of the exotic aspherical modeling.
My use of Bokeh
“Bokeh” is a Japanese term, derived from the word “boke,” which means “blur.” The term is used to describe the aesthetic qualities of the fore and aft lens blur away from the lens’s focal plane.
I use the bokeh of the lens to “paint” the image I am photographing so as to help create an illusion of three-dimensional depth in my two-dimensional photographic prints.
For example, if I stand at a fourty-five degree angle to the edge of a building and focus on the edge, the focal plane of the image will be the building edge — while the walls receding from the edge will gradually blur further and further out of focus as the distance increases away from the focal plane. If the lens has “good bokeh,” the graduation from the focal plane to the defocused zones will transition extremely smoothly — gradually opening up to a defocus that looks pictorial in nature.
If the lens’s bokeh is utilized to advantage when creating an image, the viewer’s full attention will be directed right to the point of interest in the image’s focal plane. As the viewer’s eyes continue to explore the print, the subtle blurring effect transitioning away from the focal plane helps create a three-dimensional sensation to the image. Bokeh helps create an illusion of depth in the photographic print. It is not something that can be added to the photograph in postproduction, but rather is a characteristic of the lens performance at the time the image is taken.
Using the “ZM 2/35”
For my work, I often photograph with the lens substantially “opened up.” This usually means working at an aperture of f4. At this aperture, and with a Master Class lens, the image will have extremely high resolution in the focal plane, pronounced bokeh fore and aft of the focal plane, and yet will hold resolution deep into the corners.
The most obvious characteristic I saw in the negatives was decisively more resolution and micro-contrast over the competitor’s lens. My assumption in photographing with the competitor’s lens was that my images were bandwidth-limited by the film emulsion response. I was extremely surprised to see an obvious and substantial increase in performance with the same film emulsion when using the Biogon T* 2/35 ZM.
The second characteristic of the ZM 2/35 that appealed to me was in the simplicity of the symmetrical Biogon lens design and the 10-blade diaphragm. The lens has yielded stunning bokeh as a result of its design and careful build at the factory. I knew from the first image that my work had gained strength in terms of the artistic element of my image-making by means of the ZM 2/35. The bokeh is astonishingly “fluidic” in its smoothness — a characteristic I feel is lacking in the competitor’s lens.
Take a careful look at the sample below from the image, Monster. The enlargement factor of the sample is equivalent to viewing a 75cm (~30 inch) wide print. The razor-sharp performance of the lens is apparent.
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| Ausschnitt 1 Monster © 2007, Peter H. Myers (Image Gamma 1.8) |
The second image sample below shows how the bokeh of the lens supports the transition of the image from near-field, to far-field, in a smooth and pictorialist manner.
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| Ausschnitt 2 Monster © 2007, Peter H. Myers (Image Gamma 1.8) |
The ZM 2/35 lens has become my prime photographic lens. It will not leave my camera. I thought it was important for me to stand up for this lens and reflect in writing my excitement towards its use.
I applaud Carl Zeiss for creating a Master Class lens in the Biogon T* 2/35 ZM, and doing so by using conventional Gaussian design and utilizing simple spherical optics. It is a tribute to Carl Zeiss’s lens designers. That company’s partnership with Cosina has resulted in a superbly built lens, in a beautiful package — and at a price point that is stunning in its modesty given the performance. But in the end, I would not be using this lens if I did not find that it produced the best images in the world at the 35mm focal length — it is simply that good.
About Pete Myers
Pete Myers is a fine arts photographer by profession, residing in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, with his wife, Kathy. Myers is known for his pioneering efforts in Digital Intermediate image processing for monochrome images. |
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July 2007 |
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