Zeiss 18mm and 21mm discontinued?

Too Bad

Too Bad

The 4.5 21mm is one of my favorites!

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Well how about that.
Circumstances at the moment preclude buying another 21mm lens and I had my eye on Zeiss's little F4.5. 21mm and I get along great, I love my 21mm F3.4 Super Angulon but it's quite a drama queen. Sometimes I want a dead-on-predictable photo and for me, Zeiss is where that's at.

Certainly one will show up later in the used market when circumstances improve on the personal front.
 
I fully understand that they dicontinue lenses that only work well on a film body. With the 21mm I experienced myself how bad the corners are. I read similar experiences with the 18mm on digital.
 
Re tom.w.bn post on the zeiss 18mm...he read...she read... I don't know what you've read but the pic I uploaded at the top of this thread was taken with a Leica ME...no bad corners there.
 
Peter Wijninga said:
Re tom.w.bn post on the zeiss 18mm...he read...she read... I don't know what you've read but the pic I uploaded at the top of this thread was taken with a Leica ME...no bad corners there.
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Ok. Then it was wrong with the 18mm. But the 21/4.5 is really bad. The 21/2.8 is really good.
 
They've been discontinued for about 12 months now. Likely a combination of not playing well on digital and poor sales (18mm).
 
Glad I have the 18 for architecture. And I love the f4.5 C Biogon for lots of things. I can see the prices second hand going up when Leica is the only option new. When the square 21 ZM hood for my Biogon gets to $600 on eBay (see the 1950s f5.6 Summaron hood) I'll sell it as the 25 hood works fine. The two great product miracles of the last 20 years for me have been these Zeiss M mount lenses, and the M9.
 
I'm not sure where people are getting that the 18mm is (was?) bad on digital. It has better corner sharpness than most M lenses. Not much color shift; almost unnoticeable.

The 21/4.5 is actually a killer on the Monochrom cameras.

Dante
 
Dante_Stella said:
I'm not sure where people are getting that the 18mm is (was?) bad on digital. It has better corner sharpness than most M lenses. Not much color shift; almost unnoticeable.
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About two years ago I wanted to have an 18mm lens and did some research. I found two or three reviews that were not so great for digital and found almost no positive rewiew because 18mm is not a common lens. So I made my buying decision on that. Maybe I payed too much and the 18mm Zeiss would also be good, but now I'm happy with the Leica lens.
 
My 18mm ZM works very well on M8 and M9.....I like the 17-18mm lens range on full frame camera. Never tried the 21mm F4.5 as I have 21mm Biogon. Totally agree with Richard G. On ZM lenses and M9 in the last twenty years but I'd have to add the M8 somewhere. Both cameras provide a Leica digital platform for every ancient and current LTM or "M" mount lens I have.....and the ZM lenses put an outstanding affordable alternative out there for many of us.
 
I have the f/4 18mm and recently sold the f/4.5 21mm. I agree the f/4.5 C-Biogon is "impossible" on full-frame sensor due to strong corner/edge color tinting. I can't get CornerFix to remove it all.

But I would say the 18mm, 21 Elmarit ASPH, and the f/2.8 35mm C-Biogon all are roughly similar in having a bit of that pink edge issue with full-frame digital. Easily corrected with CornerFix. I may be more picky than some!

All of these lenses, even the lovely f/4.5 C-Biogon, are great on the M8 with no "repairs" needed in post.
 
But note that the Zeiss 18 mm has been out of production for a while already. New copies must be getting thin on the ground.
 
Dante_Stella said:
I'm not sure where people are getting that the 18mm is (was?) bad on digital. It has better corner sharpness than most M lenses. Not much color shift; almost unnoticeable.

The 21/4.5 is actually a killer on the Monochrom cameras.

Dante
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I compared the ZM 18 and Super-Elmar 18 when in the market for super wideangle a few years ago. Despite the price difference I went for the Leica lens. I liked the rendering that much more, but the Zeiss was certainly not bad.
 
I'm semi in the market for a 21mm (for kind of special occasion use) and everything I've read (which ain't much but enough) seems to point to the Voigtlander 21/4 as having the best cost-performance of the 21mm M-mounts. Comments?
 
kiss-o-matic said:
I'm semi in the market for a 21mm (for kind of special occasion use) and everything I've read (which ain't much but enough) seems to point to the Voigtlander 21/4 as having the best cost-performance of the 21mm M-mounts. Comments?
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The Color Skopar is the best buy in slow 21mm lenses, yes. The ZM 21/4.5 is probably a better lens, but it's way more expensive and not THAT much better. The little Skopar leaves budget for the external finder too. Neither the C Biogon or the Skopar are great on digital of course. For that you need the Nokton.
 
I bought the Voigtlander 21 and 25 many years ago. Both are good performers. My favorite super wide angle Voigtlander is the 15mm, both the II and the III models. I am curious about the recently released Voigtlander 10mm lens but I find it too expensive.
 

A7.mod w/ZM18 by unoh7, on Flickr

You need the thin-filter mod to make it work well on the A7. On M9, the ZM18 is fantastic, if coded as pre-asph 21/2.8. I shoot it alongside the SEM21, and I cannot tell which is the better lens.


Sawtooth Lake by unoh7, M9

Zeiss doesn't know what they want to make. They release the 35/1.4 and stop making the 18 LOL. But it's OK there are plenty and they are as cheap as 600USD.

The only bad thing I can say about the zm18 is it's kinda big and heavy compared to Sem21.


Tarn in the morning by unoh7, on Flickr


Late Dawn by unoh7, on Flickr
 
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