What is best wide lens ?

[Kamyar]

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1 minute ago, james.liam said:

If you’re looking for a single lens below 35mm, you might find 21mm too limiting (because of a too great angle of view) and 28 not wide enough.  
24mm may be the best compromise. For a more modern look and a better corrected lens, the 24 Elmar is still available new at some sellers. If the f/3.8 is too slow, a 24 Elmarit or Zeiss 2,8/25 are great options. The Zeiss is a particularly brilliant lens; high contrast, very high resolution, saturated colors and much less expensive than the Leica alternatives. 

I do not know anything about 25mm zeiss.  The amount of distortion (which is felt more in open views, etc.)

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[james.liam]

You can find information about distortion on Zeiss’ website for the lens. 
This link will have additional links for the measured distortion: 

Zeiss 2,8/25

Edited September 15, 2020 by james.liam

[tommonego@gmail.com]

Another lens that doesn't get enough appreciation is the Canon 25 f3.5, just a tiny lens that makes nice images for little money. The Nikon 25 f4 is maybe a little nicer but pushes into Leica prices.

[agencal]

Once i was in weltzlar for the SL' s first day.I saw Karbe and asked ''i am in love with your 50mm apo,what is the wide of it?'' He said 24mm elmar without any hesitation.Makes sense?

[james.liam]

6 hours ago, agencal said:

Once i was in weltzlar for the SL' s first day.I saw Karbe and asked ''i am in love with your 50mm apo,what is the wide of it?'' He said 24mm elmar without any hesitation.Makes sense?

..and then he killed the Elmar.

[agencal]

5 hours ago, james.liam said:

..and then he killed the Elmar.

People don’t want to buy 24mm especially a slow one.This is business you know your product is great but without demand you can not keep producing.

[pedaes]

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14 minutes ago, agencal said:

People don’t want to buy 24mm especially a slow one

I did! Why do you want a 'fast' wide angle lens?

[agencal]

5 minutes ago, pedaes said:

I did! Why do you want a 'fast' wide angle lens?

I did as well.It was an answer for James.

[Kamyar]

2 hours ago, agencal said:

I did as well.It was an answer for James.

So.21 lux is too much?

[pedaes]

20 minutes ago, Kamyar said:

So.21 lux is too much?

For my use, depth of field is more important, so f1.4 not much help. The wide 'lux's are no sharper than the Elmars. When would you use a 21mm at f1.4?. 

Edited September 16, 2020 by pedaes

[Einst_Stein]

WATE, 16-18-21mm

[newnew]

On 9/14/2020 at 7:34 PM, Kamyar said:

I need a lens wider than 35 mm.  That I can use it both on the street and in the landscape.  What is your best suggestion, what brand?

After touring different options , it looks like the Summilux 24 mm will provide you what you are looking for. It is a lens designed to cover the wider application range you mention. I have one that gives me full satisfaction for both purposes. Only If you want to blow up pictures to over 33 inch wide for a landscape you may prefer the SEM 21. But besides that, it will give you much higher creative possibilities, for which you, yourself will be the only limitation. It looks like you are targeting a wide angle larger than 28mm , so , the missing Leica frames or using an external viewfinder will be the same problem , which is just resolved by practice.

[RayD28]

16 hours ago, agencal said:

People don’t want to buy 24mm especially a slow one.This is business you know your product is great but without demand you can not keep producing.

I have been window shopping used 21mm SEMs and finders and it seems used 24mm elmar prices are falling slightly.  I don't have written price tracking so this is a casual observation but at one time I believe they were both about the same price and now the elmar is a slightly less.    

[Kamyar]

3 hours ago, newnew said:

After touring different options , it looks like the Summilux 24 mm will provide you what you are looking for. It is a lens designed to cover the wider application range you mention. I have one that gives me full satisfaction for both purposes. Only If you want to blow up pictures to over 33 inch wide for a landscape you may prefer the SEM 21. But besides that, it will give you much higher creative possibilities, for which you, yourself will be the only limitation. It looks like you are targeting a wide angle larger than 28mm , so , the missing Leica frames or using an external viewfinder will be the same problem , which is just resolved by practice.

So, maybe tri emlar 61-18-21 is better 

[KASHMIR]

For me, Tri Elmar 16-18-21 mm

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L1001421 by kashmir19751, en Flickr

[marcg]

If you are shooting Street, then maybe a 24 mm lens could be the best because you don't need an external viewfinder because if you squint into the corners through the optical viewfinder then you are pretty well – what you see is what you get.
If you're shooting Street then you really don't want to attract too much attention and you certainly don't want to start mucking around with external viewfinders

The depth of field of course is huge because it is wide-angle and so you can set your distance – and then forget it.  For Street, marginal inaccuracies in focusing will be forgiven for the quality/interest value of your images.

However, using a wide-angle lens need some understanding. It's really not just a question of getting more in, but exploiting the particular perspective characteristics of this kind of lens.

Many of the images which you find displayed here really don't do that at all. I'm afraid that most of the wide-angle shots tend to see here – and elsewhere are simply Pano shots – and a wide-angle lens is certainly not to be used as a Pano lens.

Even at 24 mm – but certainly if you go any wider, then perspective comes disproportionately affected by the slightest off-horizontal positioning of the camera and that may produce effects which you don't want. The wider you go, the more sensitive the effects are.  Of course once you get to understand how these effects are achieved, then you can put them into good use for quite dramatic and surprising effects in your photographic street art.

Although he tends to be much derided – especially on this forum, Ken Rockwell has written a very useful piece on wide-angle lenses and you could do worse than have a look through it and see how much of it is interesting to you. https://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/how-to-use-ultra-wide-lenses.htm

Edited September 17, 2020 by marcg

[oldwino]

The 24 Elmar is an amazing lens - sharp from wide open.

The 25mm Zeiss is also very very good. 

Everything else gets too big.

[BradS]

1 hour ago, KASHMIR said:

For me, Tri Elmar 16-18-21 mm

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This view somehow reminds me of the Miraflores neighborhood of Lima, Peru.

 

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[KASHMIR]

It´s the mediterranean sea, from the castle of Peñiscola (Spain)

[BradS]

Just now, KASHMIR said:

It´s the Mediterranean sea, from the castle of Peñiscola (Spain)

Thanks. Someday, I hope to visit Spain again. I've only been to Madrid for a long weekend. I've been thwarted from returning each of these past five years (for various reasons).

Maybe, next year...sigh.