Shards of Reality: Zenitar 16/2.8 fisheye, Hell or Heaven?

Two weeks ago I went to the annual open air photography market in Doesburg, Holland. It's always nice to go there: it's a nice little town, my 85 year old grandma lives there, and the photography market is an opportunity for me see some "new" gear and talk to some dealers and other photographers.

This year I was looking for an extreme wide angle lens to stick on the Epson R-D1. My recent experience with the Voigtländer 15/4.5 made me decide that a 15mm wide angle lens is just the kind of lens I'm looking for. So, when I ran into the Zenitar 16/2.8 fisheye, I was sold.

I already had a M42-LTM adapter, which can easily be attached on the Epson R-D1 through an LTM-M adapter, which I also happen to have. :) The Zenitar is big, especially compared to my other lenses for the Epson R-D1. And its enormous DoF (Depth of Field) makes it, for me, quite a tricky lens to use. In the past two weeks I've been shooting with it and I'm rather disappointed with the results! I just don't seem to be able to get the focus right. I'll have to spend a weekend to really get to grips with the lens' behaviour before I'll be able to put it to good use.

As you can see from the shots below, my focussing is all over the place. Things are not helped by the facts that there's no rangefinder coupling and the Zenitar's immense range of DoF from 1.2m upwards. I'm glad, though, that my auxiliary Voigtländer 25mm viewfinder works well with the Zenitar. The Zenitar's FoV (Field of View) on the R-D1 is nearly the same as what I see through the 25mm viewfinder.