Getting comfortable with 28mm lenses. Two in particular....

I bought two Carl Zeiss ZM lenses in 2023. One is a 35mm and other other is the 28mm Biogon f2.8 shown just above. Both of the lenses were put onto the market to support Zeiss's short "experiment" with an M mount, rangefinder, film camera. I'm sure the camera was very good but it was launched into a roiling market at the same time digital cameras, and news about digital cameras, was just flat out frothy. I presume that the few cameras Zeiss actually made and sold are now "collector's items" but the nice thing for the lenses accompanying the camera is that they are fully compatible with all the current Leica M camera products. From M6 film camera, the new M11 to the M240 cameras I like to tote around and make odd, urban snapshots with. 

I bought these two lenses together, in a slightly used condition, and was able to get a discounted price for "buying in quantity." Compared to the same focal lengths in the Leica family the ZM lenses were absolutely dirt cheap. About on par with current good lenses from the big three mirrorless camera makers.

I use the 35mm lens a lot. It's small and light and it's an f2.0 max aperture. The image in the optical viewfinder is right at the edge of what I can comfortably see when I look through the finder. I can see the edge frame lines without too much moving my eye around while wearing eyeglasses. I've resisted using the 28mm as much because, with my glasses on, I can't see the left and right frame edge lines without moving my head around a bit to get the angles right. The finder on the M240 is not what I would call a "high eye point viewfinder." Usually, when I'm in the mood for something wide, I pick up the Leica Q2 and use that. The lens on the Q2 camera is fantastic and the EVF is easy as pie to compose in, and to manually focus with when I want to. But I sometimes like to do things the hard way and so .... I keep the 28mm ZM around. 

I thought about buying a Leica bright line finder to put in the hotshoe which might make using the ZM 28 easier. But two problems bubble up. First, putting a finder in the hot shoe would mean going without the thumb grip that currently resides in the hot shoe and I've grown used to that very convenient attachment. It makes handling the camera so much better. I'd miss its presence too much. But the biggest downside is the sheer cost of getting a really excellent 28mm finder. They are pricy. And having one would be one more thing to carry around in a camera bag. One more thing to remember and one more thing to deal with when changing lenses. 

Instead I thought I'd try a few different approaches. When I am being very capricious and illogical I just guess about the focusing distant and then set the hyperfocal distance on the lens's focusing ring. There's a nifty scale right there on the lens for depth of field when using various f-stops. I see stuff that needs photographing, point the camera in the general direction and snap away. Sometimes I glance through the finder and sometimes not. 

In bright light I have a different approach. In strong daylight the pupils in my eyes stop down a bit and this increases my visual acuity to the point where focusing with the 28mm, even without my eyeglasses, is quite easy and so much more accurate. And, if I glance through the finder and shift my eye from side to side I can also compose with a modicum of accuracy. Most of the images I'm showing below were done that way. Worked fine yesterday. In low light? Might be a bit of a crap shoot...

If I'm hell bent on using the 28 ZM on a Leica M240 and I need to get perfect focus and accurate composition I use a two step approach. With my glasses firmly on my face I use the rangefinder to achieve correct and persnickety good focus. Then I hit the live view button on the back of the camera and compose using the rear LCD panel. It's slower going --- but the dog and pony show described here works well --- mostly for subjects that aren't moving too fast. If they are moving I default to option one, described above. 

Why go to all this trouble when I can just buy a nice autofocus lens for one of my conventional mirrorless cameras? Hmm. I like the friction of the process but mostly I like that the images look different to me when they come from the combination of the older M camera and the ZM lenses. Not profoundly different but different enough to make me notice. Also, the M camera, using a 28mm profile for a similar Leica M lens of the same focal length and speed, allows for a file with no color shifting or nonlinear shading across the frame which is something I saw often when using the same lens on a Leica SL camera. Something about the filter stack on the M sensor is optimized for lenses designed for M series rangefinder cameras. 

It's so interesting to note that different styles of cameras render the colors and the consistency of images from the 28mm rangefinder lens so differently. On the Sigma fp camera, even after using the in-camera programming/profiling feature to adjust for this lens, I see a different color palette than I do with other cameras. And, like most humans, I seem to prefer consistency. 

The thing I love about the Carl Zeiss 28mm f2.8 Biogon is the jewel-like construction of the lens, the aperture ring, and the small, tactile focusing ring. The lens is absolutely tiny compared to modern AF lenses made for full frame AF cameras. So much junk has to be crammed into the bigger lenses....

Sometimes, especially when the urge strikes me to go out and photograph in black and white, I like to put this tiny lens on the front of a smaller mirrorless camera --- like the Panasonic S5, with an adapter. What I get is a very small overall package with a very lovely wide angle image rendering. The total dimensions are so compact that I can fit the system into a coat pocket. ( I never do that. I am a camera strap user...).

I like using the ZM lens on the Leica SL2 camera as well. Not as small a package but on that camera I can use the Leica M lens profiles provided to compensate for some of the optical quirks of the lens. The camera's profiles for the pre-ASPH M 28mm lenses do a good job of eliminating the color shading that sometimes haunts wider M lenses on most other cameras. 

The other 28mm lens I referenced is the one on my Leica Q2. It's a gem and the EVF makes using it easy as pie. It's equipped with the same focal length that I've always had trouble wrapping my head around but I think I'm finally getting there. The safety net for me with both cameras is that they are high enough in resolution and sharpness to allow for judicious cropping should I get skittish about using "too wide" a focal length.

Since I've been practicing I've started to use this angle of view more than I thought I would. The methodologies for use that I've described above become more or less second nature when practiced often, and for hours at a time. In an age when people have gotten use to letting their cameras take over the function of focusing and setting exposures it's actually a different process when one takes back complete control. And it's a feeling long time photographers (especially those who worked in the film era) seem to enjoy. Maybe we just like getting our hands "dirty." 

But when keeping one's hands clean takes precedent the Q2 is right there ready to go...