[Leica] 21 mm Leica lenses......

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

At 6:34 PM -0700 10/27/08, Frank Filippone wrote:
>Given the choice of
>
>21F4 Super Angulon,
>21F3.4 SA
>21 Elmarit   Version # whatever.....
>21 ASPH Elmarit
>21 Zeiss F4.5
>
>What is the order of image quality...?
>
>I remember that Henning said he liked the 21 ASPH Elmarit as #1, with the 21
>Zeiss as #2.....  And that  the 21/3.4 SA was way up there.....
>
>Forget the other choices... ( 21 F1.4 and 21 Zeiss F2,8)
>
>
>Frank Filippone
>red735i@earthlink.net
>
>

I never really compared the 21/4.5 to the others, but if I had to 
rank them now the 21/4.5 Zeiss would be neck and neck with the 
Elmarit ASPH, then the 3.4 SA and the earlier Elmarit probably last.

This is of course a broad rating, and any given lens is probably 
ahead of the one ranked above and poorer than one ranked lower on any 
given criteria. All in all, the Elmarit ASPH would still be my choice 
because it is faster than the Zeiss, and while it has more distortion 
the levels we're talking about are quite low. The ASPH seems more 
flare resistant. If speed is any kind of factor, the Elmarit ASPH is 
in front. If price is more important than speed....

The only ones I really wouldn't bother with are the f/4 SA and the 
non-ASPH Elmarit, especially since you can get better quality at 
lower prices both at f/4 and f/2.8.

There is also the 21/2.8 Zeiss. It's virtually the same price as the 
21/4.5, and performance is not very far off the other two top lenses. 
You could buy both Zeiss lenses and still pay a lot less than the 
ASPH.

I use 21mm lenses a lot and have 4 of them at the moment (hopefully 5 
before Christmas), but if I didn't use them all the time and was now 
getting into a 21 I would probably go for the Zeiss 2.8 unless I had 
the money for a good used ASPH available.

-- 
    *            Henning J. Wulff
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