10mm f2 Ultra Wide Lens for NEX

I bought a rather rare Carl Zeiss Jena Tevidon 10mm f2 C-mount legacy lens, and made some fast tests.

The lens was made for 16mm film cameras, so on NEX it acts like a circular fish eye, without fish eye distortion.
I found that the lens is exceptionally sharp in the center.

If you are interested to see some results and short review, please check this link:
http://verybiglobo.blogspot.com/2012/03/nex-7-carl-zeiss-jena-ddr-10mm-f2.html

Here are few pictures just to show what this lens is about, if you don't want to read more on my blog:

NEX 7

This is the lens

full size image at f8

3:2 middle crop

100% crop at f4 and ISO 400 (a bit noisy)

Strange. I can see the images in preview of the message, but when I click post, they doesn't appear ???
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/viktor_viktor/
http://verybiglobo.blogspot.com/

verybiglebowski wrote:

Don't know why the pictures didn't show-up, so here they are again...

The forum is broken... again

I can see embedded images in the preview when I reply but not in the forum messages, not even those that were working earlier.

Do I detect a tad of vignetting?

I didn't know nothing about it, and was just curious, buying it for some 50 USD. When I took a peak at eBay, it shows some ridiculous prices. For 50 USD I think it was a good deal. Impressed by its center sharpness, I am now trying to bought more of them (25 f1.4, 50 f1.8 and 35 f1.9).

35 f1.9 might be interesting, as I can compare it with a cheap CCTV 35 f1.4 to see if there is some significant difference, because the construction and design looks quite similar.

Maybe it's just the Zeiss name that created those funny prices, even if it was Eastern German Zeiss.

But maybe there is more behind it. Center sharpness on this 10mm is really something.

wll wrote:

That is a very cool lens, was it expensive, if I may ask ?

wll

tesilab wrote:

Do I detect a tad of vignetting?

Could you tell me where please, I can't see any
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/viktor_viktor/
http://verybiglobo.blogspot.com/

verybiglebowski wrote:

I bought a rather rare Carl Zeiss Jena Tevidon 10mm f2 C-mount legacy lens, and made some fast tests.

The lens was made for 16mm film cameras, so on NEX it acts like a circular fish eye, without fish eye distortion.
I found that the lens is exceptionally sharp in the center.

If you are interested to see some results and short review, please check this link:
http://verybiglobo.blogspot.com/2012/03/nex-7-carl-zeiss-jena-ddr-10mm-f2.html

Here are few pictures just to show what this lens is about, if you don't want to read more on my blog:

It would be interesting to try that lens on a 16mm sized sensor like the Nikon 1, can it use manual lenses?

Eric
--
I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object
be what it may - light, shade, and perspective will always make it
beautiful. - John Constable (quote)

See my Blog at: http://www.erphotoreview.com/ (bi-weekly)
Flickr Photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28177041@N03/ (updated daily)

viking79 wrote:

verybiglebowski wrote:

I bought a rather rare Carl Zeiss Jena Tevidon 10mm f2 C-mount legacy lens, and made some fast tests.

The lens was made for 16mm film cameras, so on NEX it acts like a circular fish eye, without fish eye distortion.
I found that the lens is exceptionally sharp in the center.

If you are interested to see some results and short review, please check this link:
http://verybiglobo.blogspot.com/2012/03/nex-7-carl-zeiss-jena-ddr-10mm-f2.html

Here are few pictures just to show what this lens is about, if you don't want to read more on my blog:

It would be interesting to try that lens on a 16mm sized sensor like the Nikon 1, can it use manual lenses?

I believe it can, as I found adapters on eBay. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=c-mount+to+nikon+V1&_sacat=0&_odkw=tevidon&_osacat=0&_from=R40

But I am not sure it will cover full sensor size, as 16mm and Super 16mm were not using the full size of the film frame.

Eric
--
I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object
be what it may - light, shade, and perspective will always make it
beautiful. - John Constable (quote)

See my Blog at: http://www.erphotoreview.com/ (bi-weekly)
Flickr Photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28177041@N03/ (updated daily)

Here are few shots with Carl Zeiss Tevidon 16mm f2.8.

It is another very sharp lens as is Tevidon 10 f2, and it also act as a fisheye without distortion. Contrast and colors are very nice.

Funny thing about this lens is that its size is very small (33mm long, (40mm with the adapter) and 45mm wide), but it seems to be heavier than NEX 7 itself !!! I have to check it, but by the feeling I think it really is. Whole body is made of brass, therefore it is heavy, but I think there were later versions of the lens made of aluminium and therefore lighter. My Tevidon 10mm f2 is I believe aluminium.

Here is what you get in camera

And here is the crop of the middle part at 3480 x2320 px

To demonstrate how sharp this lens is here is another crop at 3340 x 2227 px

And respective 100% crop

Two more crops and two original images.

While Carl Zeiss Tevidon 10mm f2 is giving unique perspective and FOV, Tevidon 16mm f2.8 has a regular option in Sony SEL 16mm f2.8. Even if you crop sometimes problematic corners on SEL 16mm f 2.8, you should end up with much higher resolution.

It seems that there are not many reasons to use this lens, but IMO, there is one... small distortion.

Using NEX 7 and this lens, can give you the chance to make some interesting close-ups, that otherwise wouldn't be possible with SEL 16 f2.8, due to the distortion usual for most wide lenses.

Tevidons has minimum distortion, and that, in combination with outstanding sharpness and lack of CA in the middle of the frame, makes them quite unique in the world of wide angle lenses.
However, there is significant color shift, that should be mentioned.

Following picture is not the best example of the effect of the low distortion, but I didn't make regular tests yet, just couple of snap shots out of curiosity. I am very close to the ornaments - approx. 20 cm.

I will put this lens in test against SEL 16, and will try to make some close-ups to demonstrate distortion benefit.

I am now negotiating to buy Tevidon 35 f1.9 and already bought 100mm f2.8 that I will test as well.

BTW, I bought 100 f2.8 and 16 f2.8 all together for 100 USD. Then I found one Tevidon 100 f2.8 on eBay and followed the auction to see where it will end up.
Here is the link, just recently sold for insane amount IMO.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/200737432096?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/viktor_viktor/
http://verybiglobo.blogspot.com/