ZEISSIkon Distagon T* ZM 1.4/35 Wide-Angle Camera Lens for Leica ZM-Mount Rangefinder Cameras, Black

I am a professional Leica M photographer who specializes in wedding documentaries and street/travel photography. Hence 35mm and 50mm is my prefer focal length. I guess if you are reading this and looking into this lens, you may be interested in similar kind of photography genre.I've used a few different 35mm lenses in my professional life and before this, I was using the equally amazing Voigtlander Nokton 35mm ASPH VM II with great results. However, there was one problem, mostly affecting all Voigtlander lenses, is optical correction. Despite all VM lenses good metal built quality, most lenses suffer strong chromatic aberration when shooting wide open in contrasting scene and barrel distortion. I was really happy with it but after extensive use last year on weddings, I spent a lot of time correcting these 'phenomenons' and really wasting a lot of my post production time. So a better lens was sought.I was close to getting the Leica Summilux 35mm FLE which cost twice as much as the Zeiss and three times the Voigtlander, so I kept hesitating. It just didn't make business sense abeit its superior performance. But that all chanced with the announcement of the Zeiss Distagon.I had to wait a long time for it because it wasn't available until now. I ordered it straight away and after a few photoshoots, I can tell you I am shock with its performance. Sharp wide open (even more so than Voigtlander and probably hairline better than Leica), contrasty, and very very well optically corrected. No visible distortion so straight lines stay straight and chromatic aberration is almost non existent (a little bit but I can accept it as it's way way way better than anything I've seen!)Bokeh is pleasant but can be busy at times. I do think the Voigtlander has the better bokeh though, a bit smoother in my opinion. Zeiss is a middle ground in terms of the overall feel. Pictures are more true to life and Voigltander is a little soft (good for environmental portrait) and Leica is just too abrupt (too much pop!)It's a shame that it doesn't come with a hood because I don't use filter so a hood is used to protect the front of the lens. I ordered this through Amazon and it's from a German dealer, they are very good and it comes with a 3-year international warranty after registering with Zeiss!

This lens rivals the comparable Leica 35mm f1.4 FLE lens. I've owned both lenses and can't seem to see any difference in image quality between the two lenses. I will say the Leica lens focus ring is a little tighter; the focus ring on this lens is a little lose and does tend to have small amounts of unwanted movement. Regardless of this, this lens is a top-tier performer and I highly recommend this lens. As an added bonus, this lens focus ring is the more traditional circular movement type vs. the Leica lens that uses the tab to move the focus ring. I don't like the tab which is why I sold my 35mm M lens and bought this lens.

I have many 35mm lenses to use with Sony a7 series (currently I am using the R4). This Zeiss lens is my favorite 35mm right now. There are some issues with the lens (for example, the corners are dark when shooting wide open), but overall it is a great lens, very very sharp (even on 61MP sensor) and most important - I love the rendering! It has the famous Zeiss 3D look.

Second to none for Leica rangefinder.