Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm 2.4

I had just started reading up on lenses, brands, and manufacturers. I was struck by the mysticism and history surrounding Zeiss. I remember thinking, "Oh man, I'd love to use a Zeiss lens and see what it's all about. So many people are talking about Zeiss colours. Surely there's something special there." But, still starting out, I didn't want to spend the money to get one. Afterwards I met an old photographer who wasn't using his gear anymore. We became friends, and one of the lenses I bought from him was the Flektogon 35mm 2.4. I got home, excited I finally had a Zeiss, bumped up the ISO on my camera, since it was dark, and took a few snaps. I was stunned by the colors and rendition. I remember thinking, "This is the first time this room showed up on a picture the way it does in real life."

I used it on and off through the next year, and then for a month prior to this review.

Sadly, my copy is decentered, and the far corners on the left side are never sharp.

It's a nice lens, metal with a black finish. I love the close focusing distance. With a 0.20m minimum, you can really zone in on the details if you want to. The M42 mount is widespread, so getting an adapter is easy, and the M/A switch is always nice to have!

I love the colors. Have you ever shot slide film? It has really punchy, contrasted, well-saturated colors. They leap off the screen, as if to take a lunge at you. In post-processing I didn't even touch the colors, be it saturation or hue. It was exactly what I wanted to see. It's on the warmer side of things, which gives pictures taken with the Flek a sort of whimsical, magical feeling.

Around the internet (do you say "around" in this case?), you'll hear people praise this lens's microcontrast, making images feel a bit 3D. There is that, indeed.

You won't get edge-to-edge sharpness, especially wide open, where the centre is usable but the corners are soft.

Stop down to f5.6 and things improve quite a bit, making the lens usable for work that requires more detail. Chromatic aberrations are not that well corrected, but stopping down a few stops improves performance drastically.

I had no problems with flaring, so I'd say it's a good performer in that regard.

I love this lens. The character and the specific feel it gives out hit close to home for me. The close focusing distance provides a lot of flexibility and has spoiled me, to be honest. I like to use this lens when I have a specific subject in mind, and not so much for landscapes or cityscapes. Scenes with vivid, bright hues of red and orange give really magical results.

If anyone needed a walk-around or street-photography lens, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the Flektogon. Maybe hunt around a bit and get it cheaper, as the "cult following" it gets has brought the price up.