Compare 24 and 21

[Woofer]

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I'm interested to hear from anyone who uses both the 21 and the 24 , a comparison and is it a case of , one or the other , or both.

 

The frame lines are not an issue for me. (I have a 21 and just use the entire view finder)

 

Regards

 

Leslie

[Shootist]

Well the 24 is one of Leica's best lenses. I went with the CV 21 M-Mount for a little wider.

[tom0511]

Subjective:

I find the 24 to have more "pop", contrast, saturation

 

I find the 21 to deliever "smoother" graditions, easier to manage contrasty scenes

 

My samples are both very sharp.

 

Than there is the angle- 21 a little wider, maybe 24 more universal if you dont have 28mm.

 

Depends what other lenses you want to use it with.

 

I would say the 24 to be a little like the 50/1.4asph (in color and contrast etc.) and the 21 to be more like the 28/2.0asph (in color and contrast)

[Mauribix]

Yep,

the 24 is one of the finest lens ever produced from Leica and one of the forum members' favourite.

Sean Reid at reidreviews.com then commented if i'm not wrong the 21 to be the best 21mm lens ever made in the market.

I think it's just a matter of taste, in particular case on M8, where you get a 28mm with your 21mm lenses, and a strange 31mm-and-something with the excellent 24elmarit.

 

greets

 

Maurizio

[glenerrolrd]

I have and use both but prefer the 21. With that said the 24 is in a special class..exceptionally sharp and similar to the 50 summilux in contrast color etc. The 21 does have a smoother look ..I would guess its slightly behind the 24 in image quality . I tried both and the 21 FOV is perfect for my on the camera wide angle. I like it with the Zeiss 25/28 finder ...using the 28 frame for closer subjects and the 25 for infinity..seems to work perfectly . I enjoy Street Shooting and use the 21 on one body and the 35 1.4 on the other . So it will also depend on what you typically shoot and if you use one or two bodies.

[Daniel Ortego]

As a newbie’ I opted for the 28-Cron' and the 21-Elmarit is my next wide choice. These two, combined with a 50-Lux' will round-out my lens set and pretty much clean out my disposable income. Of course, I’ve already second guessed by decision, as I may have been better off with the 28-Elmarit, with consideration of weight & obstruction of the Cron’. In the event that I stall ($) on the 21mm, I figure I can get by on the 28/50 combo. For what it’s worth, I notice some who had the 24mm have traded to the 21mm.

Regards,

[fotografr]

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I prefer the 24 because combined with the 35 and 50 it gives me a great working spread if I just want to carry 3 lenses with the M8.

[ken_tanaka]

I'm interested to hear from anyone who uses both the 21 and the 24 , a comparison and is it a case of , one or the other , or both.

 

The frame lines are not an issue for me. (I have a 21 and just use the entire view finder)

 

Regards

 

Leslie

I've had my 21mm f/2.8 Elmarit for a few years. I've found it to be a very sharp lens with excellent contrast on the M8. The only issue I've found is that it produces some heavy cyan overcasts at the short edges of the frame on the M8, despite the lens being coded and the camera set for lens detection. My Zeiss 28mm, which of course is not coded, does not produce this effect. So the Zeiss 28, also a much lighter lens, gets most of the wide work on my M8 these days. I'm waiting to see if the next M8 firmware update offers any remedy to this 21mm problem (Bwahahah) but may sell the lens if it does not.

 

BTW, although I have a 21mm viewfinder (which really doesn't work for the M8's cropped frame anyway) I use the same whole-viewfinder frame approximation with the 21mm.

 

I am sorry that I've no experience with the 24mm but comments above are putting lust in my heart (to quote Jimmy Carter) .

[Jamie Roberts]

{snipped}The only issue I've found is that it produces some heavy cyan overcasts at the short edges of the frame on the M8, despite the lens being coded and the camera set for lens detection.{snipped}

 

Ken--not to be contrary or anything, but I have the 21 Elmarit pre-ASPH, coded, and filtered with a Leica filter, and I don't see anything like a heavy cyan drift in the corners. Are you using a BW filter? The difference is enormous to my eyes; I had one on an uncoded 24 ASPH and replaced it with the Leica IR filter and the difference was quite astounding.

 

Anyway, I love the 21 Elmarit on the M8. I find I go back to that lens more and more, though everything everyone has said about the 24 is true too. It's undoubtedly a more contrasty, sharper and wonderfully designed peice of glass.

 

Problem is, I sometimes like the lower contrast and wider FOV on the 21.

 

So to my eyes, they're both great, and it just depends on what you shoot. For some reason, I find myself at events shooting

 

21--35--75

 

and not

 

24--50--90

 

Interesting, no?

[nryn]

Having just acquired the 28 cron ASPH and much preferring the lower contrast and subtle transitions that lens offers, the 24 is (still) sitting pretty unused. My lens kit will probably either be (21 elmarit, 28 cron, 50 lux) or (24 elmarit, 35 lux, 75 cron). But quite frankly I don't feel I want both the 21 and the 24 in the same way I feel I want both the 28 cron and the 35 lux.

 

If what's said earlier in this and other threads--that the 21 is closer to the 28 in the way it draws and the 24 is closer to the 50 lux, I'm definitely more interested in the 21. I know everyone sings the 24's praises, and optically, I agree, it's a fantastic lens, but it's either a focal length or a look with which I never really clicked.

 

Just thought I'd bring up that I'm still trying to find someone to swap their 21 ASPH for my 24, and that my 24 is black, coded, and in excellent condition.

[sean_reid]

Yep,

the 24 is one of the finest lens ever produced from Leica and one of the forum members' favourite.

Sean Reid at reidreviews.com then commented if i'm not wrong the 21 to be the best 21mm lens ever made in the market.

I think it's just a matter of taste, in particular case on M8, where you get a 28mm with your 21mm lenses, and a strange 31mm-and-something with the excellent 24elmarit.

 

greets

 

Maurizio

 

The 21 is certainly one of the best of its kind. The Zeiss ZM 21 is another. Between the two...I'd really choose by which focal length works better. Both are somewhat lower contrast than the comparable Zeiss lenses (I prefer the contrast of the Leicas) and they both draw very much as lenses from "the same family". One could argue for the virtues of either one.

 

BTW, if one keeps his or her eye centered, the full view of the M8 frame is about the same as the 24 (focused at some distance). Some people kind of scan their eyes around to see a wider FOV but I could never work that way myself. So I always use an external 28 mm finder with the 21. So, for me, the 24 has the advantage of being able to focus and frame all in one finder.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

[ken_tanaka]

Ken--not to be contrary or anything, but I have the 21 Elmarit pre-ASPH, coded, and filtered with a Leica filter, and I don't see anything like a heavy cyan drift in the corners. Are you using a BW filter? The difference is enormous to my eyes; I had one on an uncoded 24 ASPH and replaced it with the Leica IR filter and the difference was quite astounding.

 

That's interesting, Jamie. Yes, indeed, I am using a Leica IR filter on my 21mm, the lens is Leica-coded and the M8 is set to detect the lens. It's been a mystery to me. The cyan cast on my 21's images appears mostly (but not exclusively) in 5600-5900K images and is heaviest on the right short edge of the image frame. I will revisit this puzzle in the next few weeks, as I need to use the 21 soon for a project.

 

As this subject is outside of this thread I'll not elaborate further.

[Woofer]

Thank you for all the thoughtful replies , I think Ken put it well "Lust In My Heart" , I'll stick with the 21

 

A further point. Yesterday I asked a Leica dealer about the IR filters , he said , absolutely no difference between the BW and the Leica ????

 

Does anyone know for certain

 

Leslie

[Mark Pope]

I'm mulling over what my next lens purchase might be in the Summer and I'm thinking of the 24mm Elmarit - partly because I have the CV21 and partly because the lack of a need for an accessory viewfinder makes it quite a neat looking package.

 

One question that I have is how much of the viewfinder is obscured by the lens and its hood? As it has a 55mm filter thread and appears to be a similar length to the 28mm ultron, I would imagine it does suffer from viewfinder cutoff...Now if Leica were to bring out an f4 version...now that would be an interesting package on the M8...

 

Thoughts?

[Jamie Roberts]

{snipped}BTW, if one keeps his or her eye centered, the full view of the M8 frame is about the same as the 24 (focused at some distance). Some people kind of scan their eyes around to see a wider FOV but I could never work that way myself. So I always use an external 28 mm finder with the 21. So, for me, the 24 has the advantage of being able to focus and frame all in one finder.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

 

Hey Sean, though I have the 28 Leica finder, I rarely use it with the 21mm lens on the camera. Though this sounds a little wonky, and I'd never have expected this, my "secret" way to use the 21 is to use the framelines

 

I find that whatever framelines the 21 brings up mark almost exactly 1/3 point of the entire frame. So, compositionally, the 21 becomes actually very easy to use, though I admit you lose the air around the frame (and have to watch what's going on carefully!

 

@ Ken--I'm going to look hard at the cyan response of the 21. I'll let you know if I find anything like what you describe.

[Jamie Roberts]

{snipped}

Does anyone know for certain

 

Leslie

 

Yes, I do, and anyone who subscribes to Sean's site does In a nutshell, though, I found cyan vignetting appreciably worse on wides (under 35mm) with BW--as opposed to Leica--filters.

 

Let me guess: your dealer didn't have Leica filters in stock

[Woofer]

Yes, I do, and anyone who subscribes to Sean's site does In a nutshell, though, I found cyan vignetting appreciably worse on wides (under 35mm) with BW--as opposed to Leica--filters.

 

Let me guess: your dealer didn't have Leica filters in stock

 

True , none in stock , but he knew that I wasn't buying , he believed because they both came from the same source that they were identical

 

Leslie

[sean_reid]

That's interesting, Jamie. Yes, indeed, I am using a Leica IR filter on my 21mm, the lens is Leica-coded and the M8 is set to detect the lens. It's been a mystery to me. The cyan cast on my 21's images appears mostly (but not exclusively) in 5600-5900K images and is heaviest on the right short edge of the image frame. I will revisit this puzzle in the next few weeks, as I need to use the 21 soon for a project.

 

As this subject is outside of this thread I'll not elaborate further.

 

If there's a cyan cast then this is a WB issue. If it's cyan drift you're noticing, the 21 (coded and using a Leica filter) will not get perfect correction from the M8 under some lighting conditions. I covered this in the "Beating the Blues" article. The same is true for the WATE. How noticeable this all might be will depend not only on subject lighting but also on the subject itself - some subjects hide a bit of cyan drift better than others.

 

If the M8's processing can't give you what you need right now, try turning the code detection off and using Cornerfix.

[KJB]

Having just acquired the 28 cron ASPH and much preferring the lower contrast and subtle transitions that lens offers, the 24 is (still) sitting pretty unused. My lens kit will probably either be (21 elmarit, 28 cron, 50 lux) or (24 elmarit, 35 lux, 75 cron). But quite frankly I don't feel I want both the 21 and the 24 in the same way I feel I want both the 28 cron and the 35 lux.

 

If what's said earlier in this and other threads--that the 21 is closer to the 28 in the way it draws and the 24 is closer to the 50 lux, I'm definitely more interested in the 21. I know everyone sings the 24's praises, and optically, I agree, it's a fantastic lens, but it's either a focal length or a look with which I never really clicked.

 

Just thought I'd bring up that I'm still trying to find someone to swap their 21 ASPH for my 24, and that my 24 is black, coded, and in excellent condition.

 

I have a black 21 asph that's out for coding at the moment. I've been thinking of the 24 asph. Thought of just buying the 24 as well but a swap would be easier on the wallet.

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[StS]

One question that I have is how much of the viewfinder is obscured by the lens and its hood? As it has a 55mm filter thread and appears to be a similar length to the 28mm ultron, I would imagine it does suffer from viewfinder cutoff...Now if Leica were to bring out an f4 version...now that would be an interesting package on the M8...

 

Thoughts?

 

The viewfinder is obscured a bit by the sunshade for the 24mm, Leica has cut a hole in the left upper edge (seen from the photographer) in the sunshade to give some more visibility. Personally I do not find this disturbing.

 

I do not know the 21mm.