Zeiss ZM 50mm F/1.5 Sonnar

The Zeiss ZM 50mm f/1.5 Sonnar for Leica is an extremely compact wide-aperture lens. Key features include:

• Advanced optical design for high-quality images

• Great for photojournalism and street photography

• Smooth manual focusing

• Ten-blade curved aperture

Excellent Image Quality. This lens offers ultra-sharp resolving power and next to zero distortion. Its ten-blade curved aperture makes for smooth out-of-focus highlights. Its design and coatings provide excellent flare resistance, and its lack of geometric distortion provides useful accuracy for photojournalism and street photography. With a bit more distortion than the Biogon lenses, it may not be quite as good for architectural work, but then this focal length isn’t particularly suited to that work anyway.

High-Quality Build. An all-metal lens housing gives the ZM 50mm f/1.5 Sonnar a premium feel. Its manual focus ring offers precision focus adjustment and excellent speed. The C in its name stands for “compact”—this lens is just 2.5 inches long.

Experience: Use in field.

Take: I look for character in a lens rather than overall sharpness. This lens has character in spades. It’s also prone to focus shift and is optimized for either f/1.5 or…

Experience: Use in field.

Take: I look for character in a lens rather than overall sharpness. This lens has character in spades. It’s also prone to focus shift and is optimized for either f/1.5 or f/2.8. If you’re adapting this lens to mirrorless bodies then this won’t affect you, but if you’re using it on a rangefinder it might be something you notice immediately. When you nail focus, this lens is an absolute dream. It’s not going to have the build quality of any Leica offerings but it’s going to be significantly lighter with similar ergonomics at a much lower price.

NOTICE: our copies are factory spec and have not been altered for focus optimization at f/1.5. There will be focus shift when shooting wide open with our copies, as described in the Luminous Landscape article linked under “Resources” on this page.