Back in time or Back to the future: A 21mm Lens Dilemma

[pico]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I am particularly fond of the later Biogon design for medium and up to 4x5" (and in one case, 5x5").  I am not familiar with Biogons for 35mm!

 

I see that we have photographers who use both 35mm and larger formats. Can any of you enlighten me of the real differences between Biogons and Super-Angulons? My LF Biogons do not (cannot) improve coverage by stopping down while my LF Super-Anglons do. The Biogons have outstanding performance wide-open, too. The Super-Angulons are slow from the start. Do the 35mm format versions perform the same wide-open?

 

I've just finished yet another 4x5" Biogon lensed camera. Waiting for the weather to cooperate.

Edited February 19, 2018 by pico

[lct]

As far as my lenses are concerned, the Biogon-C 35/2.8 is indeed sharp on the whole frame at all apertures whereas the Super-Angulon 21/3.4 needs to be closed to f/8 or f/11 for the highest quality throughout the field. Both are sharp at all apertures at the centre of the frame though.

Edited February 19, 2018 by lct

[Abram]

I know the SEM will be a superior lens when I inevitably get one later, but I definitely did miss the rendering of the SA21 and got myself another one. I'll probably use it on this M4 most of the time but I did do a quick test on my M10 and honestly it wasn't that bad at all. The color shading only seemed to be on the right side and looked very correctable, but even with just converting to black and white I couldn't find any fault. 

 

It'll primarily be a film lens though

 

Leica M4 + 21mm Super Angulon by Abram Goglanian, on Flickr

[Ko.Fe.]

This thread is very inspiring. Yesterday, I purchased one famous 20mm viewfinder. . No lens, yet. I like to have it on film. But not only M, also LTM.

And I like to have it on M-E and in color. Color Skopar seems to be the only choice, I guess. But OP story about this lens been de-centered  three times, three copies...

I never read about it before elsewhere.

Edited February 21, 2018 by Ko.Fe.

[lct]

21mm i use most on FF and APS is the tiny Skopar 21/4. Flares a lot but works fine otherwise on Sony A7s mod, M8.2 and digital CL, less so on M240 due to red edge issues. I have no experience with the M-E but i suspect it has the same red edge problems as the M9 with the Skopar 21/4. See https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/162504-21-cv-color-skopar/.

[Ko.Fe.]

21mm i use most on FF and APS is the tiny Skopar 21/4. Flares a lot but works fine otherwise on Sony A7s mod, M8.2 and digital CL, less so on M240 due to red edge issues. I have no experience with the M-E but i suspect it has the same red edge problems as the M9 with the Skopar 21/4. See https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/162504-21-cv-color-skopar/.

 

Yes, I read this thread multiple times and for some time already.

According to these posts red edge it is not an issue with newer fw.

https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/162504-21-cv-color-skopar/?p=1800966

https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/162504-21-cv-color-skopar/?p=1804457

and this:

https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/162504-21-cv-color-skopar/?p=1801050

 

or this:

https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/274514-cv-21mm-f4-color-skopar-on-leica-m-e/

 

 

Same lens on M240:

https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/259498-what-do-you-think-about-the-voigtländer-color-skopar-21mm-f4/?p=3030603

 

I'm confused. Is it due to de-centering of particular lenses? 

[lct]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I have no experience with this camera sorry better ask M-E users.

[Abram]

This thread is very inspiring. Yesterday, I purchased one famous 20mm viewfinder. . No lens, yet. I like to have it on film. But not only M, also LTM.

And I like to have it on M-E and in color. Color Skopar seems to be the only choice, I guess. But OP story about this lens been de-centered  three times, three copies...

I never read about it before elsewhere.

KoFe, I truly wanted to love the little Voigtlander. It is clearly a very good lens when one finds a good copy, I just have been unlucky in doing so. In all three copies I tried (over the past few years) either the left or right side would be remarkably less crisp than the other side. I just chalk it up to bad luck in this scenario, but short of having the lenses essentially re-calibrated and re-collimated I saw no way of fixing them (and that procedure would be rather costly to do).

 

Ironically if it was just soft in the edges of the frame (but equally so) I would have been far less concerned, but when the right (or left) side and center of a flat plane is clearly sharp and in focus and the opposite side is very clearly off it made it challenging to use the lens effectively unless I only had a central subject and they were nowhere near the background. But if you get a good one then it’s absolutely a keeper for how tiny it is and how sharp it is!