January’s creak from the Chair
Happy new year TLS. Welcome to January’s creak from the chair. I hope the festive break enabled you all to harvest fine work with your Leicas.
I have tried to keep busy with mine and dusted off one of my favourite lenses….and it’s not a Leica! I know, heresy…but there are actually some wonderful non Leica M mount offerings out there. And one of the best, in my view, is the Zeiss Distagon ZM 15mm f2.8.
A tiny bit wider angle of view than the widest setting on the wide angle tri-elmar, (WATE) but a stop faster and that is where its impact arrives. Used wide-open it can deliver true separation between foreground and background whilst offering that spectacular wide-angle view.
It’s fabulous for street work, when it can isolate a subject so compellingly in an urban landscape, and always so discretely. Almost no distortion makes it a gem for architectural scenes too. It can even deliver amazing results when used for still life, as its close focus of 0.3m offers real drama to even mundane subjects. It’s a wonderfully versatile device.
It is not perfect, as it is quite large and heavy, (510 grammes as opposed to the WATE’s 390) The lens does also vignette slightly, but that is super easy to fix in post if needed. (The lens is also supplied with a central graduated ND filter if required) In many cases, I choose to add more vignette as I like how it can draw the eye into the subject.
Its biggest drawback is that it is not rangefinder coupled on the M. But once you get used to zonal focussing on the DOF scale, it’s very simple to nail it. Set at two metres it is sharp from one meter to infinity. All examples that accompany this article were captured using the DOF scale and the lens wide open.
With the arrival of the EV1 M, focussing and framing the 15mm Distagon should be more of a science and less of a dark art. I love this lens and I hope the images which accompany my ramblings demonstrate why. .
Would I recommend it over the WATE? (Another in my ‘first-world dilemma’ series). My ‘jury’ is out currently so I will run a comparison in a future creak. Both wonderful offerings for sure.
Talking of festive harvests: As mentioned in my short piece in the first online magazine, our editor Phil Coomes and I are very keen to feature work from the incredibly talented TLS community. Please consider sharing images, stories, anything that could be of interest really.
Thank you so much and all the very best for 2026. Giles
Contact Giles, use the contact us page and select chairman’s corner from the drop-down
