Summicron-T 23mm f/2 ASPH vs Super-Vario Elmar-T 11-23mm f3.5

[can-photo]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Apart from the specification, I am more interested in real world usage comparisons.

 

Do you find the lenses overlapping each other? Or do you have different usage scenarios for both?

 

How would you compare focus speed, image quality and other aspects of it? I read many reviews, but none with comparing and contrasting them.

 

I am just considering 11-23, and basically wondering will make my 23 redundant or not.

[Guest]

Depends on your photography basically. If I had both these lenses I think I would prefer the 23 fixed only. However my photography revolves around Classic cars, travel and people.

 

My lens are the 18-55 and 56-135. The latter I use at zoos and for sailing shots. The former will be the lens I use for Classic cars.

 

There are other times if I had both, I want to be very light and unobtrusive, so the 23mm would be perfect. There would be occasions when I would not be happy to leave the 11-23 at home!

 

It is entirely dictated by what you like to photograph, how much weight and bulk you want to carry at any one particular time and day. It is that fuzzy and I can never imagine it being otherwise.

[bencoyote]

I don't find them redundant at all. The way I tend to use the 23mm it is fast and light and for low light where that f/2 matters. Street shooting, clubs, concerts, events and the like. Times when I want to be able to get a good shot above and beyond an iphone but I'm not really there to take pictures. I'm there for the event or the music or some other reason. 

 

I use the 11-23mm mostly at the wide end. At 23mm it is a f/4.5 but wide it is f/3.5 for something that amounts to a 16mm. Your not exactly doing bokeh that wide but you do need light when shooting indoors. I mostly use that lens shooting for my friend whose an architect. It is a comparatively big lens and yeah you can carry it around but it isn't the small light 23mm. In retrospect, I'd say that it could have been a fixed 11mm and it'd have just about as useful to me. Only occasionally do I move it toward the longer focal lengths.

 

The other use is the odd astrophotography shot -- again most of the time at the 11mm end.