Advice: 25 or 28 ZM for my RD1s?

[Moto Mark]

Hi Guys,

I want to round out my lens array for the RD1s. I currently have a 21mm Biogon 2.8, a 35mm Biogon 2.0, 50mm Planar F2 and a 85mm Tele Tessar F4 and I want to fill the gap between the 21 and the 35.

I'm looking at the 25mm and the 28mm Biogon and I'd like some feedback on both of them. Both look promising to me since I do alot of landscapes and some street shooting.

In addition to the RD1 I'll most likely have a micro 4/3 camera (Oly or Pan) by year's end so I can use the Leica M adaptor on them.

Thanks in advance...

 

[pagpow]

So -- just a thought. Is your shooting and carrying equipment around such that you 1) need to fill that gap and 2) will end up using that many. And I don't mean to be a scold; just asking from the vantage point of someone who has gone on a buying spree and has yet to use some of the lenses acquired.

The 28 has the advantage of being almost in a 1.4X sequence with the 21 and the 35, so that each will take exactly 2x the image area of the next longer lens, and that the RD-1 has framelines for it. The 25 could be used with the whole framefinder w/o an aux VF.

So from an ergonomic point of view, I would go for the 25 if the 21 really was too wide or I wanted to use the internal VF. Otherwise I might be tempted to use the 21 and crop . All to be worked through the filter of what and how you shoot and what you want to do now that you can't do conveniently w. what you have.

 

[Moto Mark]

Thanks for the input pagpow, I tend to only take 2 lenses at a time depending on what I want to shoot. If it's landscapes it's the 21 and the 35, street shooting it's the 35 and 85. I don't use the 50 all that much but it came with camera so I'm hanging on to it.

I use the viewfinder as a rough guide so the for the 21 I set it to 28 and use the whole viewfinder. My thinking on going to a 25 or 28 is in street shooting it would work better than the 21 as I can estimate . On my soon to be sold Canon 5D I use the 24-70 2.8 L and I find I spend most of the time between 24 and 50mm so that's why I'm leaning towards the 25/28 ZM.