21, 28 or 25 for the r-d1s?

emraphoto

emraphoto

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i swore i'd A/ buy no more gear for the rest of the year and B/ never be on eof those "tell me what to buy" types but here i am. i'm in the market for a voigtlander 21, 25 or 28 for the epson r-d1s. i pretty much shoot street 99.9 percent of the time and scale focus 99.9 percent of the time so a coupled lens is not a priority. i do however like the idea of one of the faster 28"s as i currently have nothing faster than f2. anyone have hands on experience with any of the lenses in question on an r-d1s?
any problems/concerns with any of them?
any response is greatly appreciated...
cheers
john
 
The 28 Ultron is a very good lens for the price. I use a Zeiss 25mm a lot, in fact its almost permanently attached to my R-D1 at the moment. I guess the big advantage of the 28 is that you have a built-in frameline but for me it just wasn't wide enough. I own the 21 as well and don't use it as much as I used to. Loved it for a couple of months and its big advantage for street is its ultra-compactness. Same of course goes for the 25. If you scale focus then the old snapshot skopar is a real bargain now that the M-mount version is out. The Ultron is of course much bigger than the other two Voigtlanders but not *that* big. I think its a versatile lens, fast enough for interiors and low-light situations in general.
 
I have both the 21mm and 28mm f3.5 voigtlander. Both are good scale focusing lenses. I generally prefer the 21mm for the street as the cropped 28mm is too tight for my guesstimated framing. I also have a 35mm cron, which gets used in favor of the 28mm most of the time. Both lenses are fine optically.

The 28mm f1.9 is quite a bit bigger and I don't think it has a focusing tab/post (I may be wrong) making a better low light lens but not a great street lens.
 
The 28mm Ultron is a very good lens and I do use it quite a bit (it doesn't have a tab), but at 43mm equivalent it can for my taste be a little long for general street shooting. If you don't mind scale focus the 25mm Snapshot Skopar works very well (it has a tab) and you can just about get away with the full viewfinder area beyond the 28mm framelines in the R-D1 (or the 35mm frame in the small CV 28/35mm is a good match). It is though only f4 and it does vignette slightly on the R-D1 so the larger f2.8 Zeiss is a tempting alternative.
 
I love my 25 on the Bessa or the M2, but on the R-D1 I find it too narrow. I've never been able to get accustomed to 35s.

I went for a 15, to get in the same VoF as the 25 on film.
 
hmm

hmm

...a 15 hey? jeez now we've thrown another one into the fray. well i appreciate the comments folks.
as far as the 15 goes... i'll take a peek at one on sunday (uh, today).
cheers
john
 
Terao said:
I use a Zeiss 25mm a lot, in fact its almost permanently attached to my R-D1 at the moment. I guess the big advantage of the 28 is that you have a built-in frameline but for me it just wasn't wide enough.
Click to expand...

Terao, do you use an external viewfinder with the 25mm and R-D1? I've always wondered if just using the whole viewfinder wasn't "good enough" if you're not that picky.

Best,

-Jason
 
nice shot EMRA!
I have the 15 also but found I dont use it as much. The 28 1.9 ultron has become my permanent glass on the RD1.
I think I will eventually look into a 21 or 25 provided they are faster than f2. That has become my limit these days. I like to shoot a lot at night /dim.
 
As usual I vote for the CV 28/1.9. After some trial I have settled on this lens as the best for this camera an my taste. Fast and very good for b/w. I bit long but I have got used to it.

tah
 
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