Compact and flat depiction DISTAGON ZM 18
A review and photo examples of the Carl Zeiss Distagon 18mm / F4 ZM.
Table of contents
Gallery
- The photo examples were taken with LEICA M9
- The photo examples were taken with LEICA M6 +KODAK PORTRA 160
- Film was scanned using Nikon’s SUPER COOLSCAN IV.
Review
1．Overview
The CARL ZEISS DISTAGON T* 18mm F4 ZM is a Leica M-mount wide-angle lens released by Carl Zeiss in 2007.
The main specifications are as follows, and detailed specifications are listed in the table.
- Lens construction: 10 elements in 8 groups
- Aperture blades: 10
- Leica M rangefinder camera rangefinder coupling: 0.7m
- Minimum shooting distance: 0.5m
- Hood: Dedicated bayonet hood
- Lens color variations: Silver and black
2．Usability
The Distagon 18mm F4 ZM is a retrofocus lens, as the name Distagon suggests.
The title says “compact,” but it is still quite large, even though the lens barrel is smaller than a retrofocus lens with a focal length of 18mm.
The wider Distagon 15mm ZM is a lens that is used by eye and does not work with the rangefinder of a Leica M camera, but this lens, the Distagon 18mm ZM, works with the rangefinder.
If you include a blue sky, you can get a sharp, high-contrast image.
This is a good point because it is a wide-angle lens, but instead of depicting the entire screen flat, it lacks the resolution to make the subject stand out, and the depiction at first glance feels subtle.
Since a typical rangefinder camera does not have an 18mm frame in the viewfinder, you will have to decide the composition using an external viewfinder. When using an external viewfinder, it was a hassle to look through the viewfinder to adjust the distance, so I often set the aperture to F8 and just adjusted the composition by eye.
This method can sometimes result in the focus being off with a digital camera, so it goes without saying that if you’re using a camera equipped with an EVF, it’s better to adjust it properly.
I no longer have both lenses on hand, but looking back at the results I got with the 35mm full-frame sensor Leica M9 and Leica M6 film cameras, I found them to be perfectly usable for landscape photography, so I’d like to get them again if my wallet allowed.
3．Add Info.
Since I used the Leica Super-Elmar at the same time, I was not able to use this lens much because the Super-Elmar 18mm was used more frequently.
My impression of the shooting results is that the Super-Elmar produces soft and gentle images, and is a lens with a different character from the Distagon.
The reason I gave up these two lenses was because it is large for a rangefinder lens, and I obtained the PERAR 17mm from Ms-optics. This compact lens has some difficulty in depicting the peripheral areas, but it is extremely convenient to carry around. Also, if you can tolerate the size, you can use the Leica R-mount Elmarit 19mm and Super-Elmar 15mm for SLR cameras.
The lens configuration diagrams are quoted from the PDFs of each company, and the size has been adjusted by me.
Specification
| Maker | Carl Zeiss | LEICA | LOMO | Ms-optics |
| Lens name | Distagon 18mm | SUPER ELMAR 18mm | ATOLL 17mm | PERAR 17mm |
| Max aperture | 4 | 3.4 | 2.8 | 4.5 |
| Min aperture | 22 | 16 | ||
| Leaf blade | 10 | 9 | 8 | 10 |
| Lens Construction | 10elements in 8groups | 8elements in 7groups | 13elements in 10groups | 4elements in 4groups |
| A spherical lens | none | exist | none | none |
| Min distance(m) | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.25 | 0.3 |
| Lens length(mm) | 47 | 58 | 79 | 10.2 |
| Max diameter | 63 | 61 | 73 | 50 |
| Filter Size(mm) | 58 | 77mm (with filter holder) IR/UV filter for M8 available | – | – |
| Weight(g) | 350 | 310 | 400 | 60 |
| Lens hood | Build in hood | |||
| Lens mount | ZM | M | M | M |
| Release date | 2007.08 | 2009.03 | 2021.03 | – |
| Price(Yen/No-tax) | ¥145,950 | 315,000 yen (when first released) The price has since gone up. | ¥44,800-¥59,800 | – |
Reference links
- Zeiss.com lens datasheets DISTAGON 18mm
- Distagon 18mm・Shige’s hobby
- SUPER ELMAR 18mm・Shige’s hobby
- ATOLL 17mm・Shige’s hobby
- PERAR 17mm・Shige’s hobby
Update
- 2025.3.24
- 2024.04.20:Update the article
- 2024.01.18:First draft
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