Walking the Plank, part 2: It's the Glaaaaas, man! The most important tool in photography is the lens. I would walk on hot coals to get to a lens with extreme performance levels. In last month’s column, I discussed my upcoming journey in 2009 in transitioning from film to digital for my work. As a monochrome fine-art landscape photographer, I have held onto film dearly for my fieldwork, with it performing to great advantage for my image making. With modern emulsions and my Leica MP and Zeiss ZM 2/35, I have been able to produce black-and-white negatives that have yielded 50 mega-pixels (50 mp) of scanned monochrome image data. I am transitioning to the Nikon D3X Bayer matrix-based color camera for my work. In the process, I am working on new math techniques to try to tame the artifacts generated by the Bayer matrix demosaicking process that is destructive to monochrome image formation. I am hoping to get as much performance from the 24 mp Bayer-based camera as I used to get with the 6 mp digital monochrome camera I owned (Kodak DCS 760m). Over the next few months, the components of my camera system will come together. The first component, which has already arrived, is my new prime lens. I want to explain why I have chosen this particular lens, and how important it is for you with your photography to find a prime lens “that you can hang your hat on.” The lens that you use in front of your camera body is by far the most important image-processing tool for your image making. Let me reiterate: Your prime lens (and not the camera body) is the most important component of your photographic system. Your lens is responsible for converting a three-dimensional world in front of the lens into a two-dimensional iconic representation behind the lens. All this is done at optical computing speeds, making your camera lens the fastest computer in the world. Needless to say, there are tremendous differences in lens quality from different manufacturers. For small-format work, Leica has been at the pinnacle of lens design, especially in regard to its M series rangefinder lenses. But to make such highly regarded lenses, Leica goes to extreme measures in the manufacturing and assembly process in order to assure exacting performance through quality control. This is how Leica produces some of the greatest lenses in the world. Its lenses are hand-assembled by meticulously skilled technicians, truly an art form in precision assembly. Each stage of the construction is tested continuously to assure that the finished assembly performs up to the expectation of the optical engineers in its design. The high cost of this repeated testing and careful assembly is why Leica lenses have a premium price tag. It is not the components that cost a lot, but the precision of getting them all fitted together with micron precision. You truly do get what you pay for. Over the years, my experience in photographing with Leica lenses has always been a great pleasure. To my eye, I have no doubt that its lenses have contributed greatly to my image-making. Yet, two years ago, I switched from Leica lenses over to photographing with Zeiss lenses, starting with the ZM 2/35 (which fit my Leica MP rangefinder film-based camera). The reason I did so was twofold: First, the Zeiss lens does not rely on aspheric optics to create an ultra-compact lens assembly, as does Leica. I have found over the years that aspheric lens elements are wonderful at correcting the image within the focal plane and extending response deep into the corners of the lens, but they tend to create a bit of a “discontinuous sense” in the image fore and aft of the focal plane. The bokeh of the lens and the three-dimensional depth of the completed image seem a bit disturbed with the Leica aspheric lenses. They do, however, create near-perfect compensation in the focal plane. To me, the Zeiss lenses simply paint a more three-dimensional picture, and this is why I have been using them. Second, Cosina of Japan makes the Zeiss lenses for Zeiss. What the Japanese have mastered over the decades is creating precision machining systems wherein they can routinely manufacture parts with tolerance levels that are so precise it is hard to comprehend. Whereas Leica must continue to tweak and test its lens assemblies by hand with extreme skill (and cost!), Zeiss has designed lenses that Cosina can mass-produce with its automated machining systems. The tradeoff is that the Zeiss lenses are restricted to less esoteric levels of performance than Leica can obtain by hand tweaking. The Zeiss lenses are generally restricted to speeds of f2 or f2.8, not the super fast f1.4 and f0.95 lenses that Leica can make. The impact on the precision machining at Cosina has been to greatly reduce the price point of a premium-performing lens. Zeiss employees and test equipment are on hand at the plant to test and certify each lens that leaves the plant, making sure that Cosina gets it right every time. Your lens arrives with a hand-signed proof of performance from Zeiss—and a two-year warranty to back it up.
I simply would not be moving forward into the world of digital field capture with the Nikon D3X without the availability of Zeiss lenses that are ported to Nikon mounts—the Nikon ZF lens series. The lens that I will be using as my prime photographic lens is the Zeiss ZF 2/35—the actual unit pictured above. It is a sharp-looking lens, with laser engraving. I had a bit of experience with this lens design for a few days—years ago—using it with film on a Nikon F6 camera body. The image quality was outstanding, and performance superb. My only disagreement in the design of this lens is that the “throw” of the lens, the scale distance between infinity and one meter, is short. The great joy of my rangefinder camera and lenses was that they were all “long throw,” and this provides great precision in focus. The ZF 2/35 has a throw that is just about half of what I am use to, and that is of concern to me—“but not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.” My friend, Lloyd Chambers (diglloyd.com), has tested the entire Zeiss ZF lens series to an extreme for his “Zeiss ZF Lenses” report. For anyone considering the purchase of Zeiss ZF series lenses, this is a “must-have” publication. The information presented allows the reader to see the performance issues of each lens while Lloyd’s comments allow one to see them with an expert eye. The Zeiss ZF 2/35 is one of the star performers in Lloyd’s review. But this is the focal length that works best for my work, perhaps not yours. I would suggest reviewing the Zeiss lenses for yourself through the work in the report, determining what meets your needs. It is an invaluable resource. My final note in regard to the new lens is about what I have mounted up front. That is to say, my lens has a B+W 010 MRC UV filter mounted on it to protect the front element from dust, grit, and moisture. This is an optical element, not just a piece of glass to protect the lens. And so, if one is going to expect extreme performance from the lens, the filter had better be up to the task. Schneider, which manufactures some of the best glass in the world for making optical elements, makes B+W filters. The filters are held in distortion-free mounts, and have the highly regarded Multi Resistant Coating (MRC) surface that will pearl off moisture and dirt for an ultra-clean surface. Note: filter must be ordered with MRC as an option.] If you can’t clean a filter without a trace of residue, the filter is useless. My experience with B+W filters purchased with the MRC coating is that they are the best of the best in terms of optical quality and ease of cleaning. ---------------
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