21mm,f/4 CV

[kully]

Silly me, I bought this for a holiday I leave for first thing Saturday morning and work has meant I havn't used it to get used to it.

Are there any owners here with any tips and tricks? e.g. vignetting at f/4, optimal aperature, refraction at f/16 & f/22 &c.?

cheers,
kully

 

[rbiemer]

The biggest "issue" I've had with this lens is that I need to be very careful to pay attention to horizontals and verticals so I don't tilt them unintentionally.
If I'm shooting in "sunny 16" weather, it becomes easy to set for hyperfocal distance and not worry about focusing much(if at all) and use the VF and shoot.
For such a wide lens, I've not had much flare trouble.
I like mine quite a lot; it is one lens I won't be parting with. Enjoy yours!
Rob

 

[rpinchbeck]

My SC 21/4 is fairly soft around the edges at f4 and 5.6. It is not the sharpest lens I've seen. Maybe mine is just a dud. Despite this I still love this lens.

Yes, getting your verticals and horizontals untilted is a challenge.

Russ Pinchbeck

 

[thafred]

Silly me, I bought this for a holiday I leave for first thing Saturday morning and work has meant I havn't used it to get used to it.

Not silly! this is a stellar lens IMHO! I bought one some months ago and it´s a lens I won´t part for a loong time!

The only issue I had was that when I´m using it on my Leica Standard (what I do most of the time).. the Viewfinder seems to sit too close to the lens, I´ve learned to compensate (I tilt the camera a little)...on the Bessa R framing is pretty accurate (remember to add a little safety space for framing and be good)

Optimal aparture I can´t say, I´ve used it at f4 too and had no problems with sharpness..its better stopped down a little i guess but I don´t care that much....vignetting is not too strong I think....seen far worst 😉

Enjoy your Holiday!!! (where do you go to?)
Maybe you should use it in a light dose and only for subjects you know wider lens works good..otherwise you come back with a lot of experimental holiday pictures (not that there is something wrong with it!! my girlfriend would kill me, thou 😉 )

regards

 

[szekiat]

i used the lens a lot for portraits actually. The distortion is a bit of a bummer for me in that respect but it does have a nice close MFD. I love the fact that the corners are not sharp at F4 since this gives me extra fake DOF to play with when doing my street portraits. Its hard to use any other lens for environmental portraits when your back is to the wall in the cramp streets of venice, etc. Really depends on what your shooting style is but i think u will love this lens.

 

[kully]

Cheers everyone, the tiny little lens is now all packed up and ready to go.

I'm off to Asturias and Galicia in the north of Spain. I don't normally tell anyone how astounding that area is - don't want to run into any tourists 😛