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24mm Elmarit or 25mm Zeiss Biogon ?


doublep

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First of all, let me take this opportunity to wish you all a marvelous 2010!

 

As a lurker on this forum and Leica User for the past 18 months, I'd like to ask for your advice. I am a happy new user of an M9 and considering buying a wide angle lens in order to photograph landscapes and some urban scenes. I shoot mostly in colour.

 

I am hesitating between a 24mm Elmarit and a 25mm Zeiss Biogon.

 

There is an obvious difference in price, but could you tell me what your choice would be ? I read Steve Huff's reviews on these lens - he runs a great site.

 

Many thanks.

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First of all, let me take this opportunity to wish you all a marvelous 2010!

 

As a lurker on this forum and Leica User for the past 18 months, I'd like to ask for your advice. I am a happy new user of an M9 and considering buying a wide angle lens in order to photograph landscapes and some urban scenes. I shoot mostly in colour.

 

I am hesitating between a 24mm Elmarit and a 25mm Zeiss Biogon.

 

There is an obvious difference in price, but could you tell me what your choice would be ? I read Steve Huff's reviews on these lens - he runs a great site.

 

Many thanks.

 

I have the Zeiss and it is a superb lens. Very sharp. I think the general sense is that it is more contrasty than the Elmarit but others may have made direct comparisons, including I think Sean Reid. Having never had the elmarit I don't miss it. The Zeiss is the only non Leica lebs in my kit now but it spends a lot of time on my camera.

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Welcome to the forum! I had two Elmarits and sold one recently. The Elmarit is a wonderful lens and I really love the focal length. I'll probably be getting a Zeiss 25mm in 2010 to try it as I know a number of people who like it a lot. The one thing that concerns me is the Zeiss developing the "wobblies". It happens to quite a few of them. I'd suggest going to flickr and looking at sample shots from both lenses to see if you have a preference there, you can't tell completely with online pix but they can give you pointers. Also if you live within range of a dealer try the lenses out, personally I'm big on ergonomics as I have to be comfortable with my equipment and you may find you don't particularly like using one or the other.

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The Zeiss lens is very good indeed and my 'standard wide angle' (in my use, 35mm not 50 is 'normal'). The lens can be had with a 'for Leica' bayonet that codes for 28/90mm finder frames, as it must do for proper recognition, and late specimens come with a bayonet that is slightly relieved where you would put a 'marker pen coding'. I did pull the bayonet however and sent it to John Milich for machining, and then I coded the lens as a 24mm Elmarit. Works just fine.

 

The alternative is to use manual identification by menu choice. I do not advise that. Going into the menu every time you mount or remove the lens is a real hassle, and one fine day or night, you will forget doing it. Using the lens uncoded is NOT an option. You will have lots of vignetting. Coding does markedly improve the image quality of even 35mm lenses. The menu is for experimentation, and for lenses you use so rarely that coding is too much trouble.

 

The old man from the Age of the 3.5cm Elmar

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Let me piggyback on here and mention the Voigtlander 25mm. Anyone tried it on an M9? "Red edge" vignetting - or not? I know it is overall a very good lens - just wondering how it plays with the Mine.

 

I love my 21 f/2.8 Elmarit, but a smaller, slower lens would have its place, too (since someone pointed out the Nikkor 25).

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Have only the Elmarit and Elmar as the Zeiss is sold (did not like the handling, but a fine lens). Consider the 25mm Nikkor also for a less modern look. Tiny too!

The lens does indeed look less modern. I presume that the pictures too look considerably less modern. Do you have any examples?

 

The old man from the Age of the Contax II

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Hi There

 

The Zeiss is a lovely lens (I have one). BUT it does have red edges on the M9 when coded as a 24 elmarit. You can code it as a 28mm elmarit asph, which does largely solve the problem, but of course it then shows as a 28mm in the exif information.

 

My feeling is that it's worth paying the extra to get hold of the Leica 24mm unless you really are prepared to fiddle about with the colour.

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I have the Elmarit, which gives a little red/green edging if you turn lens recognition off on the M9, but cleans up nicely even in very warm light with lens ID on automatic. It's a very impressive lens, leaves me with no lust for the newer two models.

 

Jono, does your Zeiss 25 bring up the 35 or the 28 frames. With the M8's system, you had to sharpie code the base to be a 24 Elmarit and have the base lug bring up the 35 lines to get the firmware to apply the 24 Elmarit corrections, and sharpie code the 28 Elmarit and bring up or hold the 28 frame lines in view to have the stronger 28 corrections applied. Has the manual table entry eliminated the lug/framelines checking?

 

scott

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I have the Elmarit, which gives a little red/green edging if you turn lens recognition off on the M9, but cleans up nicely even in very warm light with lens ID on automatic. It's a very impressive lens, leaves me with no lust for the newer two models.

 

Jono, does your Zeiss 25 bring up the 35 or the 28 frames. With the M8's system, you had to sharpie code the base to be a 24 Elmarit and have the base lug bring up the 35 lines to get the firmware to apply the 24 Elmarit corrections, and sharpie code the 28 Elmarit and bring up or hold the 28 frame lines in view to have the stronger 28 corrections applied. Has the manual table entry eliminated the lug/framelines checking?

 

scott

 

HI Scott

Mine was converted to the 24 framelines on the M8.

This means that despite several hours trying, I couldn't code it as a 28 elmarit asph. I have to use the manual coding system.

The manual table over-rides the framelines, but the coding system doesn't, which means that my current version can only be coded as a 24 or 35. I do have the old lens mount though, and when things settle down I'm hoping to change the mount and code it permanently as the best lens.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I do not know WHY you want to use coding for 3rd party lens... Why not using CornerFix?

Its results are better than in-body software.

 

Using the lens uncoded is NOT an option. You will have lots of vignetting. Coding does markedly improve the image quality of even 35mm lenses.

 

Using 3rd party lenses is normal in photography world. It can be more forgiving to your money. Why to pay twice for Leice lens, if it is not better optically? You only need to remember eg. about using CornerFix and that you can not use TTL flash, only in flash AUTO or MANUAL modes (because of BUG in Leica firmware). Your choice.

 

Coding doesn't improve IQ. It only removes incorectness created by body+lens combination. You can do the same with better control in post processing (CornerFix, LR).

 

Unless you are JPG shooter.

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It's a very impressive lens, leaves me with no lust for the newer two models.

 

Scott, the Elmar is very impressive, I would give it the edge over the Elmarit. But the Elmarit has that pleasant murky color look. Pity the Leica 24mm lenses are all very huge. Take a look here:

 

4278480310_b40a1580d9_o.jpg

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I recently had the opportunity to handle the 24mm Elmarit, 24 Summilux and 25 Biogon.

All lenses were lovely, and generate wonderful results.

The Zeiss certainly represents excellent value for money. If I could afford the Lux I would have bought it, no question, it is a beautiful lens.

 

In the end I purchased an Elmarit for the following reasons:

-Focussing tab - I personally find this a massive advantage to the Elmarit

-6 Bit coding - one less thing to think about

-Size - the Elmarit occupies less of the viewfinder than the Zeiss with or without the hoods.

-I got a good deal on one

 

To be honest, I really don't think you could go wrong with any of these lenses, or the new Elmar. They are all outstanding performers.

The one cool thing about the Zeiss is its 0.5m close focussing distance, of course you lose rangefinder coupling with this, but with some experimentation, you can get great shots with lovely bokeh.

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In the end I purchased an Elmarit for the following reasons:

-Focussing tab - I personally find this a massive advantage to the Elmarit

-6 Bit coding - one less thing to think about

-Size - the Elmarit occupies less of the viewfinder than the Zeiss with or without the hoods.

-I got a good deal on one

 

The Zeiss Biogon does also have a focusing tab. Its shape is different from that of the Elmarit, and you may of course dislike it, but it is there.

 

Also, filter size is a good indicator of front end size, and thus of viewfinder blockage. The Elmarit uses a 55mm filter. The Biogon uses 46mm. Which is bigger?

 

I am not dissing the Elmarit. But do use arguments from reality.

 

The old man from the Age of the 2.5cm Nikkor

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The Zeiss Biogon does also have a focusing tab. Its shape is different from that of the Elmarit, and you may of course dislike it, but it is there.

 

Also, filter size is a good indicator of front end size, and thus of viewfinder blockage. The Elmarit uses a 55mm filter. The Biogon uses 46mm. Which is bigger?

 

I am not dissing the Elmarit. But do use arguments from reality.

 

The old man from the Age of the 2.5cm Nikkor

 

I wasn't using 'arguments'. That is one thing I have noticed a lot of you like to do here.

It has a focussing bump, yes, and I really did not find it useful, it may as well have not been there! That is my opinion.

Regarding filter size, the Biogon lens simply is physically longer than the Elmarit, and protrudes more into the viewfinder, filter size is irrelevant.

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