Upgrade of lens

[Ivan]

Hi,

I use a Contax G1 with 28/2.8 and 90/2.8. I also use a Rollei S 40/2.8.

Am thinking of getting either a 16mm or 21mm Zeiss for the Contax. Would like to give some interesting perspective to my landscapes. Question is is it worth the extra cost to get a 16mm or is the 21mm enough?

Thanks

 

[Doug]

The 16mm is awfully expensive, has a fixed f/8 aperture that drops to f/16 if you also choose to use the expensive center-grad, and as I recall it doesn't couple with the camera's AF. Of course manual focus is not all that critical with such a wide lens at f/8 anyway! So, you might consider as an alternative the 15mm f/4.5 Super-Wide Heliar, a fine performer and very econimical even if you add a Bessa-L body to put it on for $69 more!

The 21mm Biogon is another matter, I think. This lens was THE main reason I got a used G1 early this year... Fast, and with a lovely character, compact in size, surprisingly reasonable cost much less than the Leica Elmarit, I think the only quality competition.

It seems to me that the 21mm focal length is right on the edge of mainstream usability; any wider than this gets into very limited use for special applications. While it is a super-wide, the 21 can (with care) still be used as a walk-around lens, as proven by Alan Soon's remarkable Istanbul pics at http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=322503

Here are a couple of B&W shots with my 21 Biogon. The third one (color) is with the 15mm Super-wide Heliar on a Bessa-L.

 

[NoTx]

Actually, I often use a my Biogon 21 G as a walk around lens. Very nice🙂 However... tilt it and you get some very... weird... artistic (?)... oddities🙂