Zeiss C SONNAR ZM T* 50mm F1.5

Cosina/Zeiss M-mount standard lens, C Sonar ZM 50mm review and photo examples

Gallery

LEICA M6 +KODAK E100VS reversal film
Film scanning was done with Minolta’s DiMAGE Scan Multi PRO and VueScan.

Review

C SONNAR 50mm F1.5 ZM is a Carl Zeiss brand lens manufactured by Cosina.

The standard Cosina Zeiss lens with a focal length of 50mm is the ZM lens series Planar ZM 50mm F2, which was released in 2005, and this lens was released in 2006. The C at the beginning of the lens name is probably an “Classic” C, considering previous Cosina/Zeiss brand lenses.

It is probably a Classic series because the lens structure uses the Sonnar format that Zeiss released in the past. The maximum aperture is F1.5, and the three rear elements are laminated lenses, following the Sonnar format. The CANON L39 mount 50mm F1.5, NIKON L39 mount 50mm F1.4, and Jupiter3 50mm F1.5 also use the same Sonnar format. This format was commonly seen in rangefinder lenses in the past.

Although the film used is KODAK E100VS, which emphasizes saturation, the image is more like a modern lens with a sharp contrast than a classic one, with little distortion in the peripheral areas and no suspicious atmosphere like old lenses.

The lens barrel is just the right thickness to match a rangefinder camera. Since it is a compact lens, it may look a little shabby when used with a large mirrorless camera.

The ZM lens series has an aperture ring at the end of the barrel and a focus ring in the center, which is common to all ZM lenses, so there is no problem with operability.

In the heyday of SLRs, the double Gauss type (Planar) was often used for focal lengths of 50mm, which are easy to achieve back focus, and the Sonnar type was often used for long focal lengths such as 135mm.

Until this lens was released, the only modern standard lens that had the Sonnar format was a lens released by Miyazaki of Ms-optics that developed the Sonnar format. Among Ms-optics lenses, the MS-Mode Dual 50mm F1.3 and SONNETAR 50mm F1.1 are lenses that have been developed from the Sonnar format.

Lens construction diagram from ZEISS History product PDF

Specification

Lens name	C BIOGON	DISTAGON	C BIOGON	C SONNAR	TELE-TESSAR
Focal length	21	35	35	50	85
Max aperture	4.5	1.4	2.8	1.5	4
Min aperture	22	16	22	16	22
Leaf blade	10	←	←	←	←
Lens Construction	8elements in 6groups	10elements in 7groups	7elements in 5groups	6elements in 4groups	5elements in 3groups
Min distance(m)	0.5	0.61	0.7	0.9	0.9
Lens length(mm)	31	65	55	45	70
Max diameter	53	63	52	56	54
Filter Size(mm)	46	49	43	46	43
Weight(g)	190	381	200	250	310
Release date	2007.6	2015.8	2008.5	2006.8	2009.5
Price(Yen/No-tax)	¥106,500-	¥218,000-	¥78,000-	¥105,000-	¥74,800-