THanks to Avotious for the Photo-Essay!! well organized and thoughtful. I was also relieved to just see ANYthing about this Biogon 28/2.8 on the forum, unless I missed it. It seems to be s/w undervalued. I really like the color shots provided. I bought this lens in 2005 and immediately took it out on a 2 month trip in Asia without really "studying" its signature. I shot mostly B&W that trip, but I have come to feel that I do like it better w/color.
I also saw the post about a month ago re: a guy on a trip in Vietnam with a Biogon 35/2. His color shots were really nice, the color renderings with these Biogons is just impressive, and he was only shooting Reala. I use the Zeiss hood with the 28, its a great hood, strong and light with a quality spring tension push and twist mechanism, without filter.
About 6 months ago I picked up the 21/2.8 Biogon and was floored, for its price point. I have mostly shot color with it: its a quality and typical "modern" lens: sharp and contrasty, and still fast for a WA lens. I keep reading that the f4.5 version is even sharper, but I see now need for more sharpness, I would just recommend the faster 2.8, especially for digital: the crop factor for M8s and the RD-1s which I use it on.
Finally, the 28/2.8 has been my grab-n-go lens on my RD-1s, since it puts into the 42/2.8 category:--> pretty slow for a "normal" lens, so I was considering the CV 28/2 to pick up some speed and DOF. Would be nice to see a direct comparison of these 2 lenses on RFF. We'll see, the Biogon is a pretty sweet lens, hard to give up. But Im moving toward narrower lenses rather than wider, and the heritage Leica collapsible Summicron and Summitar are my current test projects..........
