Help Me Choose A Wide

[dcsang]

I'm enjoying my R3A and 40mm nokton but, being the type of guy I am, I've got a hankering for something really wide.

The 25mm Skopar is a deal but not rangefinder coupled - it's definitely useful at 25mm but then I think the 21mm Skopar may be a bit more what I want.

I've "eliminated" the 15mm and 12mm for now since they are uber wide 😀
I may long for these at some point but for now, I think I'll be happy with one of the lenses in their 20's .

Does anyone have any good shots from these wide lenses that would sway me one way or another? 🙂

Cheers
Dave

 

[Doug]

28mm is a good step down from the 40mm, a nice combination. And both focal lengths are very versatile. A potential benefit is that some cameras have 28mm framelines built-in, such as some Leicas, the Minolta CLE, and the forthcoming Zeiss-Ikon. Further, if speed is or gets to be an issue, Leica does offer an f/2 28mm and Voigtlander has an f/1.9.

Wider than this, you're limited to f/2.8 for the more expensive Leica and Zeiss glass, and f/4 with the Voigtlander.

I do have the Voigtlander 25mm and like it a lot. A bit of practice can "calibrate" your eyes as a rangefinder, and the lens has handy click-stops on the focus ring. Take a look at Bertram2's online Gallery here for some lovely work done with the CV 25mm (Well, I now don't see his larger body of b&w work with the 25mm, or maybe I just don't know how to search the Gallery). For an extra stop of speed, and RF coupling, Zeiss now offers a 25mm Biogon.

I think 21mm is a lot of fun, and it's right on the edge, I think, of usability as a walkaround lens. For some amazing samples of 21mm street photography, see Alan Soon's shots from Istanbul: http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=322503

Having experienced the 90-deg angle of view with medium format and 35mm SLRs, early this year I got more serious about shopping for a 21mm for the 35mm RF cam. I decided I needed something faster than f/4, but that essentially left only the bulky Avenon and the expensive but exquisite Leica Elmarit... And the wild-card choice was the 21mm f/2.8 Biogon for Contax-G. Quality competitive with Leica, and even when including the required Contax G body, still 'way less expensive. So I got a used G1 and the fast 21mm to dedicate to it, and I think that was a good compromise.

Here are a couple of so-so shots interesting perhaps because they're the same scene, old duplex slated for demolition, first with CV28mm Skopar and next with the Contax 21mm Biogon-G...

 

[Theo-Prof]

Were I to make a suggestion based on focal length alone I would have to recommend a 24mm/25mm focal length. I always thought a 28 was not quite wide enough to be really useful and a 21 was a little too wide for certain shooting situations. The Voigtlander 25 is not rangefinder coupled so that might make me think twice if I frequently had to shoot wide open.

All this being said, I have to say that I REALLY like the CV 15/4.5. I have never enjoyed shooting so much with a lens as I do this little wonder. (I got a great bargain on a used one in mint condition for $240 plus shipping.) However, the next lens purchase for me will be the CV 25 to split the difference between the 15 & the 35.

Kevin

 

[djon]

Thanks for pointing us to Alan Soon's images...he make especially good use of that 21...he doesn't use it to make weird graphics (usually) or to squeeze more into the frame...he uses it in the course of getting closer and to capture space, depth. There's no evidence of distortion in most of his images.

He also makes great use of the 50, which shows he's into images and the relationships that can go into them more than in optical effects.

 

[rover]

Perhaps not good 21mm shots......but.......

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=4788

 

[dcsang]

Thanks so far folks 🙂 it looks like that 21mm is what I'm looking for .

At one point I had a contax G2 and the 21mm Biogon so it looks like the 21mm Skopar is similar 🙂

Cheers
Dave

 

[Tin]

Let me put my 2 cents worth for the 25mm. I think there is too wide a gap between your 40 and the 21. Besides, you can use a 25 as your one-lens outfit, whereas I wouldn't feel comfortable with using a 21 in such a way.

Having to zone focus shouldn't be a probelm. I almost always use zone focusing with lenses at or shorter than 35mm, whether I am using a RF or a SLR. You will enjoy the speed and the freedom very soon once you got used to it. As a matter of fact, I have always used my Olympus XA by zone focussing for more than 10 years before I realized that it had a rangefinder. I was always puzzled by those camera specs that describess the XA as a rangefinder camera. (Of course it turned out that the rangefinder patch on my XA was so faint that I didn't even noticed it ever since I acquired the camera used.)