zm lenses: build quality and wobble

[slackercrurster]

My ZM's don't feel wobbly. Some of them oooz grease out the back, near rear element. The aperture detents are more to my liking on the ZM's versus the Leica which sometimes has loose goose detents. I carry my cam by the lens a lot of the time. The Leica 35mm 1.4 has a huge focus knob that hurts my hand. I generally prefer ZM for these reasons. But if Leica made a more stable aperture control ring and reduced the focus knob to ZM proportions I'd prefer Leica. (But I have not used every Leica lens out there.)

 

[slackercrurster]

Why are you responding to 4 year old posts?

Always newcomers...knowledge never goes out of fashion.

 

[narsuitus]

This is a 6-year old thread.

Within the past 6 years, I have purchased 7 Zeiss lenses. One of them is a Zeiss ZM lens.

I have not experienced wobble in the lens mount, the aperture ring, or the focus ring in any of my Zeiss lenses.


Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 ZM lens by Narsuitus, on Flickr

 

[GLS]

I own three Zeiss ZF.2 lenses. They're all rock solid in terms of build quality, and none have developed a single mechanical issue. I don't see why the ZM series would be any different.

 

[Yes]

My Voigtlander VM's wobble. Not my Zeiss ZM's.

 

[ic-racer]

Red Loctite? That's overkill. Blue would be more than enough.

243 is BLUE medium strength. Don't be confused by the packaging.

The thread is filled with so much misinformation already, no problem re-activating it with more.

 

[etn]

I too have 4 Zeiss ZM lenses: 25mm, 35 f/2, 50 f/2 (Planar), 85 f/4, which forms a nice, light and consistent travel kit. All excellent lenses.
The 50mm at some point developed an issue of uneven resistance in the focusing ring. It was quickly resolved by Zeiss under warranty.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Zeiss glasses are great optics. Sometimes I want to buy some again and file down focus tit to instal normal focus tab.
But aperture ring is too harsh. Moder Leica aperture ring is made to be operated by one finger, because another is on the focus tab.
Zeiss aperture ring made for truck drivers. If you get used to grab driving wheel and hold it very firm, then Zeiss is your lens.
If you google Zeiss wobble it should find one forum thread where known in USA repair person explains why. He blames Zeiss on choice of wrong materials which worn out.
My rangefinder.ru buddy had Zeiss ZM as I have lenses, in a lot of use. He has to give to fix Zeiss wobble three times.
Wobble depends how lens is used. I'm not gear collector and rare in lens use. I have usually one, two lenses I use every day, if I like them. I'm on my third most used lens now and it is not Cosina made. No wobble so far.
Cosina made some lenses will develop wobble. I have two 35 viogt as every day lens. First has wobble and focus tab loose.
Second within more shorter period - wobble.
I must say, both of us are street, reportage photogs, and we are using focus tab for fast zone focusing. I guess, if you rotate focus ring slow it should last without parts unscrewing longer.
Most of them, if DIY, could be fixed by this lock lite, BUT, not red! Red is for permanent! Blue works, but only very small amount should be applied. I "lubricated" my Jupiter-3 lens block with blue lock lite and now it is non removable from focus part.
Dead Link Removed

 

[JWMster]

With one exception, I shoot only ZM glass on my M6.... and have 3 of these lenses 21, 35 and 50. The 90mm I have is a Leica. I bought a used ZM 21mm from Adorama that had some wobble. Price inexpensively enough that even after sending it to Zeiss for repair, it was still inexpensive. Zeiss charged $300 and total time from ship out to return was inside 30 days.
Folks often blame the build quality when the build quality is fine, the "problem" lies with an owner somewhere who hasn't cared for or maintained the lens. I've rejuvenated lenses and shoot a Contax CY Zeiss 135mm that is as sharp if not sharper than any Zeiss Loxia line on the same Sony A7RII.

Zeiss makes great lenses. "Reid Reviews" rates them extremely high... but continues to favor Leica lenses in most cases. Zeiss prices.... except in one or two cases are waaaaaaaaaaay better relative to new Leica. I prefer the Zeiss "look", but in B&W I think this is less critical than with color.