A few months ago on the PetaPixel Podcast, we did a lens draft where we had to pick our favorite lenses from a whole selection of choices. Naturally, this came with a lot of research, and as we delved deeper into reviews and ratings, we found that the Zeiss ZM lenses were some of the most highly reviewed lenses for that mount. This piqued our interest, and I was determined to find out why these lenses appeared to be so beloved.

Full disclosure This story was made possible in partnership with Zeiss.

I had quite the adventure out in the Canadian Rockies.

The ZM lenses were a series of Leica M-mount optics designed specifically to bring Zeiss expertise to the rangefinder market. Debuting in 2004, these lenses were initially designed for analog photography, but soon proved themselves on the latest digital M bodies as well.…