Zeiss ZF 35mm F2

A short while ago I wrote about my dream lens. I did not think such a lens existed. However, I now think that the Zeiss ZF 35mm F2 might just be the lens I was wishing for. From all accounts this lens seems to be superlative. Like Leica lenses, its widest aperture is fully usable. The lens appears to be extremely well corrected for coma; this is confirmed by Diglloyd. 

The build quality of the lens seems like that of the Leica Summicron. The same all metal finish. Even the texture of the metal focussing ring is the same.

I can't wait to put this lens through its paces. 

I used to own the Zeiss ZF 50mm F1.4, but I sold it because it suffered from severe coma at the widest aperture. 

Leica R-E

I have added a Leica R-E 35mm SLR camera to my film camera collection. Leicas have always been so costly that owning one has been beyond my reach. But in recent years prices of used Leica R equipment has fallen significantly. I was able to acquire a used R-E and a 50mm Summicron-R for less than £450. The M series cameras are way more expensive.

The R-E is a cut down version of the R5. It has aperture priority plus manual exposure, and has shutter speeds upto 1/2000 sec. Spot metering is available in both modes, plus average metering is available in aperture priority mode. The camera is relatively small in size.

The 50mm summicron-r is built beautifully. The focusing is silky smooth. I have yet to develop the first film I shot with it, so can't comment on image quality yet. But holding the lens is a pleasure and you can see straight away that these lenses are built to a very high level of standard.

My first impressions are that the Leica R-E is quite well built - though not as good as the Nikon F2 or F3, both of which feel sturdier. The Summicron-R is, however, definitely better built that the 50mm Nikkors.

Here are some pictures of my Leica:

www.flickr.com dibyendumajumdar's Leica R-E photoset

Nikon F2A and Nikon F3

Recently I acquired a used Nikon F2A, fully serviced by Sover Wong, and a used Nikon F3. I have wanted to own these for more than twenty years ... so I am really pleased.

Sover sent me some pictures of the F2A as he serviced it; this was a unique experience, and made the whole purchase very individual and satisfying. Thank you Sover!

The F3 was a bit beat up - and the seller had not been completely honest about the condition. Anyway, I took it to FixationUK to have it serviced - to my great disappointment, they no longer open up F3s for CLA. All they do is clean from the outside, check that everything is okay, and replace the foams. Wish there was someone like Sover who was willing to service F3s!

Here are pictures of my new beloved toys. The internals of F2A were taken by Sover Wong.

www.flickr.com dibyendumajumdar's Nikon Equipment photoset

Nikon D300 opens the doors to some old manual focus Nikkors

I bought a couple of old manual focus Nikkors from www.peterwalnes.com last week, to use with my D300. This has been made possible thanks to the D300's ability to setup non-CPU lenses so that you can even use matrix metering with these lenses. Amazing freedom! Suddenly the old manual focus lenses are usable again!

The first lens I bought is the legendary Nikkor 105mm f2.5 AI. I have always longed to own this lens; it feels like owning a part of history. According to Robert Rotolini, this (its rangefinder predecessor, to be exact) was probably the lens on which the Nikkor fame was built.

The second lens is also a 105mm, this time the 105mm f4 Micro Nikkor. I had always wanted to buy a micro lens, but the very high cost of the newer lenses had prevented me from buying them.

I haven't had much time to shoot with these lenses, but preliminary results show both are sharp and usable on the D300. With the f2.5, achieving accurate focus at f2.5 is tricky. Once I get a chance to take some real pictures (UK weather permitting) I will post samples.

Welcoming the Nikon D300

I finally part-exchanged my D80 for a D300. It was a pleasure to just hold the new camera. Same solid feel as the F100. I recall how disappointed I was when I took the D80 out of box, and saw its all plastic lightweight body.

First shots Nikkor 50mm AF-S G f/1.4

I got the new 50mm AF-S f/1.4 Nikkor lens this week. I have not had the time to really use it properly, but did manage to take few test shots:

www.flickr.com dibyendumajumdar's Nikkor 50mm AF-S G f/1.4 - First Set photoset

My first impressions are:

• Build quality is hard to judge; it is all plastic externally. Similar finish as that of the 60mm AF-S Micro Nikkor, but the Micro Nikkor feels like better quality, perhaps because it is heavier.
• The AF isn't very fast, slower than I expected. The Micro Nikkor focuses faster. However, this lens is brighter, which means less hunting in low light. My 50mm f/1.8 AF Nikkor focuses faster than this lens.
  
• I have mostly been shooting at F/1.4, under low light conditions. This lens is definitely more suited to night photography than the Zeiss 50mm f/1.4, which is very bad at handling point sources of light. Coma correction seems better than the Zeiss, but I can still see coma, even in the DX crop images. So much for Nikon's claim that this lens is very well corrected for sagittal coma. It may be better corrected than the older version, but I doubt it will reach the same standards as that of the Leica Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 ASPH.
• Strong sources of light cause ghosting, due to internal reflection. These can appear as ugly purple blobs of light, floating randomly across the image. Seems to be more of an issue when the background is very dark.
• Lens does suffer from color fringing (chromatic aberration) at maximum aperture, but I suspect this can be corrected to a large degree in software.
• Overall, the lens seems usable at maximum aperture under low light conditions, which is good news. However, care is needed to avoid ghosting when strong light sources are present.
  

Unfortunately, I do not have the older AF-D version to compare this lens with. I do have the 50mm f/1.8 AF Nikkor (non D version), and hope to do some comparative tests later.

AFS Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

I rented a Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 over a weekend so that I could compare its performance with my Nikkor 50mm f/1.8. The results can be found here.

www.flickr.com dibyendumajumdar's Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 AFS versus 50mm f/1.8 photoset

I wanted to find out whether the 60mm could be used as a replacement for a standard 50mm lens for general photography. The answer seems to be a 'yes', if you are happy to give up 2 stops of speed. My tests are not scientific, but they seem to indicate that the micro nikkor has the edge over the 50mm lens at comparable aperture stops. What do you think?

I also hope to try out the Sigma 70mm f/2.8, which according to some review sites, is the sharpest lens in the Sigma line-up.