21 Lux or Voigtlander ?

[CheshireCat]

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I love my SEM21, but too often I desire a much higher subject separation.

I am considering the Voigtlander 1.8 and the Leica 1.4.

Law of diminishing returns makes unlikely I will be shelling out six time as much for the Lux, but before pulling the trigger I would really appreciate any feedback from anyone who has actually got the chance to compare bot lenses. Especially interested about color rendition and subject separation.

Thanks in advance.

[Guest malland]

There is a detailed comparison of four 21mm lenses, including the Summilux-21 the Voigtlaender-21/f1.8, the SEM-21 and the Zeiss Biogon-21 at this link.

 

—Mitch/Bangkok

Bangkok Obvious [WIP]

Eggleston said that he was "at war with the obvious"...

[jaapv]

Regarding the Summilux. Don't forget there is a 24 Summilux as well. I had to decide between the 21 and 24 and went with the 24 for the following reasons:

 

1. The 21 is a more specialized angle, the 24 will be useful for reportage as well, whilst still retaining the "extreme wide-angle look" if used properly

 

2. Subject separation will be more pronounced on the 24.

 

As to colour rendition, at least on paper it is more consistent between lenses if one sticks to one brand, but in this Photoshop age it is easily corrected.

 

So I decided that I would use the 24 more often than a 21, a not unimportant consideration when shelling out this amount of money and went for the 24.

[Guest malland]

Jaap, your reasoning obviously makes sense; but I was thinking that I use the Summicron-28 a lot and the 24mm FOV is too close to that so that the Summilux-21 would make sense for me, particularly considering that I could always crop a bit if I needed the 24mm FOV. However, I have an Elmarit-21 ASPH that I like, so I'm not sure that I would get the Summilux-21. My main consideration is that I would like the f/1.4 aperture no so much for subject separation but for allowing me to shoot at ISO 640 at night.

 

—Mitch/Bangkok

Bangkok Obvious [WIP]

Eggleston said that he was "at war with the obvious"...

[jaapv]

Mitch, I see your point and my case was different. At the time I bought the lens I did not even have a 28 and I decided to sell my Zeiss 21. Later I added the Super-Elmar 18 to take care of care of the extreme wide end. (And got an old Elmarit 28 vers.iii as I do not use that angle too much).

Obviously if one looks at it from a purely focal length point of view we have different basic series of lenses, i.e. either 18-24-35-75 or 21-28-50-90.

[Guest malland]

Bingo on the second one!

[CheshireCat]

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There is a detailed comparison of four 21mm lenses, including the Summilux-21 the Voigtlaender-21/f1.8, the SEM-21 and the Zeiss Biogon-21 at this link.

 

Thanks, that review is what made me think it's time for a new 21

[CheshireCat]

Regarding the Summilux. Don't forget there is a 24 Summilux as well. I had to decide between the 21 and 24 and went with the 24 for the following reasons:

 

1. The 21 is a more specialized angle, the 24 will be useful for reportage as well, whilst still retaining the "extreme wide-angle look" if used properly

 

2. Subject separation will be more pronounced on the 24.

 

As to colour rendition, at least on paper it is more consistent between lenses if one sticks to one brand, but in this Photoshop age it is easily corrected.

 

So I decided that I would use the 24 more often than a 21, a not unimportant consideration when shelling out this amount of money and went for the 24.

 

Makes sense.

I am more on the 21 though, as I am waiting for the 28 Lux

For ultrawide, I summon the drastic Voigt 12, which is good enough for me (with a little CornerFix magic).

[pfhrased]

I tested both briefly in my local camera store. If I really wanted that sort of speed on a 21 I'd go for the Voigtlander. It had great mechanical feel, the bokeh at 1.8 was lovely (as it seems to be with all their recent fast lenses), and the picture quality was so close to the Leica that I doubt anyone would be able to really tell them apart, without looking at things like sunstars.