24mm Elmarit or 25mm Zeiss Biogon ?

[Hacker]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

The old man from the Age of the 2.5cm Nikkor

 

Lars, the Nikkor 2.5cm is a wonderful lens. Wonder why Leica equivalents are all so huge, heavy and expensive (Still, I kept all 3 Leica 24mm lenses and the Nikkor 2.5cm, but gave up the Zeiss 25mm). Pity the viewfinder does not mount on the M9! The M9's flash shoe mount is again, too small. (Big lens, small shoe).

 

Edited January 16, 2010 by Hacker

[horosu]

"One advantage of the elmarit is the focusing tab. It is much faster to focus a tabbed lens. You always know where it is focused and can reflexively move it very close to the correct distance."

 

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

 

Not to hijack this thread, but I find it very interesting to hear that people find tabs more quick to use. I had the Summicron 35 ASPH and sold it due to its tab.

 

Why? Try to focus a tabbed lens closer than 1.5 m very quickly....I found it extremely difficult and this is a major disadvantage, as one will have the tendency to work closer to the subject when using wideangles.

 

I hope the next incarnation of the 35 Summilux will not have this accesory.

 

Regards, Horea

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[robofc]

A focusing bump doesn't function as a tab. You cant nestle the pad of your forefinger into it and know that for a given extension of your forefinger you will be focused at a certain distance. After a while, it becomes almost as fast as autofocus, and in some circumstances, with smaller apertures and with the depth of field of the 24mm, faster than autofocus.

[horosu]

Robofc,

 

I just wonder if you tried focusing a tabbed lens in the near range?

 

As for your explanation, I had some 7 Leica tabbed lenses to date, so I think I know how that works.

 

Regards, Horea

[jaapv]

"One advantage of the elmarit is the focusing tab. It is much faster to focus a tabbed lens. You always know where it is focused and can reflexively move it very close to the correct distance."

 

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

 

 

Not to hijack this thread, but I find it very interesting to hear that people find tabs more quick to use. I had the Summicron 35 ASPH and sold it due to its tab.

 

Why? Try to focus a tabbed lens closer than 1.5 m very quickly....I found it extremely difficult and this is a major disadvantage, as one will have the tendency to work closer to the subject when using wideangles.

 

I hope the next incarnation of the 35 Summilux will not have this accesory.

 

Regards, Horea

I just ordered third-party tabs to add to my untabbed lenses - it is so much more convenient. For one thing you can feel where the focus is approximately, and it is faster and more precise. There is no reason to sell a lens because you dislike the tab - any competent technician can easily remove it and if you want to sell the lens at a later stage, it is just as easily replaced.

Edited January 18, 2010 by jaapv

[becker]

3,8 24 excellent lens, not too heavy, not too expensive, not too bad.

 

here on m8

 

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/architektur/106905-pora.html

[thrice]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I'm a huge fan of Leica glass, but the 25mm Biogon ZM is just amazing. Such a clarity and sense of "being there" I've never seen presented by another wide angle. If you're looking for a painterly look this lens is not for you.

 

Landscape

Candid Portrait

Heavily processed band promo

[schmolinski]

Hi,

I just got my Biogon yesterday and yes I was also hesitating for the Elmarit and even lux 24.

I will show you two shots I've taken yesterday just after I got it and I can say i like it. All open aperture 2.8

Nevertheless, I feel it is not as small as expected with about 71mm of length. THe last picture is very sharp.Perhaps due to reduction it looks not that sharp?

Cheers

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[doublep]

Wow ! Great insights from everyone, thanks. I think I am going to go with the Biogon.

[raphael]

I was also vacillating between the Elmarit 24mm and the Biogon 25mm and read every review and every comparison on the web.

I don't feel tied to Leica lenses, so eventually I ordered the Biogon which is my first Zeiss lens and, man, I'm rather disappointed.

 

Here are my thoughts. I manually coded it as 11809.

 

 

First of all, the ergonomics:

 

Having a 35 Cron Asph. and a 50 Lux Asph., I find the Biogon ergonomically quite odd.

 

Its focus ring is really stiff compared to the 50 Lux. As the Biogon lacks a focus tab (only has this little mound) focussing gets even harder to accomplish. Only between 0.5m and 0.7m it's slightly easier to move, but I think that's because of the Leica rangefinder mechanism.

 

Also the focus ring is out of metal with waferthin notches which feels not as comfortable as the Leica focus rings.

 

Secondly the aperture ring has 1/3 stops instead of 1/2 stops, which doesn't go well with the half-stops on the Leica M's shutter speed ring.

 

Viewfinder blockage is not a big problem though.

 

 

 

Image quality:

 

I found it hard to find any images that properly show the bokeh / out of focus area of both lenses.

 

Here is a shot with the Biogon 25mm. Not very interesting stuff going on there, just want to give you an example of the bokeh rendering. No editing. Focus is at 1.0m, shot wide-open. The sharpness is impressive indeed.

 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

 

I really don't like the doubling effect in the out of focus area. Makes me feel drunk.

 

 

 

Also there is a lot of chromatic aberration going on that I would not expect from a non-aspherical lens.

 

 

 

 

Overall I am not happy with the Biogon 25mm and will send it back.

 

Can anyone post some bokeh shots from the Elmarit 24?

Edited September 29, 2017 by vtckon

[raphael]

This thread should be moved into the Leica M Lenses forum.

[silverchrome]

I was also vacillating between the Elmarit 24mm and the Biogon 25mm and read every review and every comparison on the web.

I don't feel tied to Leica lenses, so eventually I ordered the Biogon which is my first Zeiss lens and, man, I'm rather disappointed.

 

Here are my thoughts. I manually coded it as 11809.

 

 

First of all, the ergonomics:

 

Having a 35 Cron Asph. and a 50 Lux Asph., I find the Biogon ergonomically quite odd.

 

Its focus ring is really stiff compared to the 50 Lux. As the Biogon lacks a focus tab (only has this little mound) focussing gets even harder to accomplish. Only between 0.5m and 0.7m it's slightly easier to move, but I think that's because of the Leica rangefinder mechanism.

 

Also the focus ring is out of metal with waferthin notches which feels not as comfortable as the Leica focus rings.

 

Secondly the aperture ring has 1/3 stops instead of 1/2 stops, which doesn't go well with the half-stops on the Leica M's shutter speed ring.

 

Viewfinder blockage is not a big problem though.

 

 

 

Image quality:

 

I found it hard to find any images that properly show the bokeh / out of focus area of both lenses.

 

Here is a shot with the Biogon 25mm. Not very interesting stuff going on there, just want to give you an example of the bokeh rendering. No editing. Focus is at 1.0m, shot wide-open. The sharpness is impressive indeed.

 

M2627126.jpg

 

 

I really don't like the doubling effect in the out of focus area. Makes me feel drunk.

 

M2627126-3.jpg

 

 

Also there is a lot of chromatic aberration going on that I would not expect from a non-aspherical lens.

 

M2627126-2.jpg

 

 

 

Overall I am not happy with the Biogon 25mm and will send it back.

 

Can anyone post some bokeh shots from the Elmarit 24?

 

Are you sure the lens isn't faulty?

 

The focusing on mine is as smooth as anything that Leica has to offer.  In fact, It's one of the nicest and smoothest focusing lenses in my collection.  I have the 50mm ASPH as well, and I would say the Biogon is just as nice to focus, if not nicer, because there is less resistance.

 

I was quite surprised at how good it was for the price, and while I haven't used it on my full frame Ms (mainly because of the absence of correct frame lines), the image quality on my M8.2 was brilliant.

 

It was my favourite lens on my M8.2

Edited October 4, 2017 by silverchrome