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Where are all the Reviews of the 21 APO?

jplomley

By jplomley
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Ken Abrahams

Ken Abrahams

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22 hours ago, Dr. G said:

The distortion I was referring to is volume/volumetric distortion:

https://www.lifeafterphotoshop.com/its-the-distortion-youve-never-heard-of-and-the-only-tool-ive-found-to-fix-it/

Even the uncorrected image above doesn't seem to show a lot of this.  it's one of the main reasons I'm considering the 21 APO over some other choices in the same focal length range.

Thanks, I didnt know about volumetric distortion nor that Leica applies a correction to be seen in the viewfinder. 

Ken 

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helged
helged

Among the WA lenses I have experience with, SL21APO is  optically at top. And that by quite some margin. As with the other SL-APO-Crons, quality is already outstanding at f2, and I  find the close foc

mello
mello

I have the 21mm SL APO. It matches well with the other APOs. The optics are what you'd expect, so nothing to worry about there. The lens hood is small/light. It's smaller than the one that comes with

jrp
jrp

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Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

  This is edited but, that's sort of the point of a wide angle lens and a high-res body: you can manipulate the photo because you have the real estate and res

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Geoff C. Bassett

Geoff C. Bassett

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On 2/6/2024 at 11:24 PM, PeterBoyadjian said:

I shot a birthday on Saturday with the 21 APO in rotation. What a nightmare, the room was blood red - red draped walls to the ceiling. I still bounce flashed and corrected skin tones in Lightroom. The step and shoot was small, I was like four or five feet away, so any 4 person lineups I had to use the 21. 

APO SL performance in a 21mm, how they did it not sure, but it's a keeper. 

 

 

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May I ask which camera did you shoot this? Leica SL2?

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scott kirkpatrick

scott kirkpatrick

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I recall that when the 21 APO for the SL came out there was a flurry of attention given to the other 21 APO, for the M, which appeared at he same time and got all the publicity.  (just in case anyone is still interested in the original question.)

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Dr. G

Dr. G

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14 minutes ago, PeterBoyadjian said:

SL2S

I still can't decide on a wide option for my SL3.  I'm trying out the Sigma 20 Art 1.4 DG DN and it's very good, but I have to crop in a little bit to avoid stretching on the edges - which basically makes it a "normal looking" 24mm.  My current kit is 35 APO, 75 APO and I carry either the 50 APO (for close up work) or 50 Lux SL as a third lens.  I'm still thinking that from what I'm seeing in terms of minimal edge stretching compared to other wide angle lenses, cropping to 32mm in a pinch and having the ability to either crop to 24mm (or use perspective control to end up closer to 24mm) without much resolution loss on the SL3 could make this a very versatile lens.

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PeterBoyadjian

PeterBoyadjian

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1 hour ago, Dr. G said:

I still can't decide on a wide option for my SL3.  I'm trying out the Sigma 20 Art 1.4 DG DN and it's very good, but I have to crop in a little bit to avoid stretching on the edges - which basically makes it a "normal looking" 24mm.  My current kit is 35 APO, 75 APO and I carry either the 50 APO (for close up work) or 50 Lux SL as a third lens.  I'm still thinking that from what I'm seeing in terms of minimal edge stretching compared to other wide angle lenses, cropping to 32mm in a pinch and having the ability to either crop to 24mm (or use perspective control to end up closer to 24mm) without much resolution loss on the SL3 could make this a very versatile lens.

Get the 21apo, 

21-35-75 is all you need. Cropping power of a APO and SL3 is amazing. 

Close focus is a beauty too. 

I want to sell my 50 APO, 24-90, 90-280 but work is busy so we'll see when things slow down. 

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jrp

jrp

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Depends on what you shoot.  Unless you need the $£... you will regret it, at your leisure.  I love my APO lenses, but have just come back from a trip where I didn't want to carry the extra weight, so took the 24-90 (and 50mm SL Summilux + 135mm f3.4 APOish M) and they did the job on he SL3 as well as it used to on the SL. 

But this is where the Sony competition is fierce: their 24-70mm is light, as are the 50mm f1.4, 35mm f1.4 and 24mm f1.4.  The longer options are more limited / heavier, however.  But their 20mm f1.8, 14mm f1.8, and 16-35mm f2.8 are also light.

 

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Dr. G

Dr. G

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3 hours ago, BB1 said:

Has anyone compared this to the sigma 20mm f1.4 dg db art? 

I did…. sort of.  
 

It’s a very good lens.  Sharp to the corners with good contrast/microcontrast.  Plus, it’s 1.4.  
 

I need to see if I still have any of the photos I took with the Sigma 20 1.4, but I was primarily testing it to see how it handled stretching at the right and left edges of the frame.  The only test shots I took to determine that were in my living room about 12 feet back from my front wall.  I figured this was close enough to evaluate it and, since it was a flat field, I would be able to see if any stretching outside of objects closer to the camera along the edges would occur.  I had a door on the right side of my frame.  With the Sigma 20mm the door was clearly much wider than what it should have been.  With the 21 APO it pretty much just looks like a door.  It’s been reported that there is some in camera correction happening with the 21 APO.  That may be the case.  In fact, when Red Dot did their recent video on ultra wides they compared the 21 APO to the 14-24 zoom at 21mm and the Zoom was slightly sharper in the corners.  This may be because whatever correction is happening in the camera on the 21 APO is creating a perceived decrease in resolution.  I’m just speculating, though.  
 

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Sohail

Sohail

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1 hour ago, Dr. G said:

I did…. sort of.  
 

It’s a very good lens.  Sharp to the corners with good contrast/microcontrast.  Plus, it’s 1.4.  
 

I need to see if I still have any of the photos I took with the Sigma 20 1.4, but I was primarily testing it to see how it handled stretching at the right and left edges of the frame.  The only test shots I took to determine that were in my living room about 12 feet back from my front wall.  I figured this was close enough to evaluate it and, since it was a flat field, I would be able to see if any stretching outside of objects closer to the camera along the edges would occur.  I had a door on the right side of my frame.  With the Sigma 20mm the door was clearly much wider than what it should have been.  With the 21 APO it pretty much just looks like a door.  It’s been reported that there is some in camera correction happening with the 21 APO.  That may be the case.  In fact, when Red Dot did their recent video on ultra wides they compared the 21 APO to the 14-24 zoom at 21mm and the Zoom was slightly sharper in the corners.  This may be because whatever correction is happening in the camera on the 21 APO is creating a perceived decrease in resolution.  I’m just speculating, though.  
 

Would love to see those images at 21mm side by side.

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Dr. G

Dr. G

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3 minutes ago, Sohail said:

The 14-24 holds its own! They say it distorts more. I'm not seeing it.

It's a very slight waviness in the vertical lines towards the edges.  I would think it would only matter if you're doing super critical architecture photography, urban landscapes, etc.

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Sohail

Sohail

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12 minutes ago, Dr. G said:

It's a very slight waviness in the vertical lines towards the edges.  I would think it would only matter if you're doing super critical architecture photography, urban landscapes, etc.

Also, the results are for lenses stopped down.

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lightsourcekauai

lightsourcekauai

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On 12/1/2023 at 5:15 AM, Sohail said:

I'm curious to hear what buyers of the 21 APO are pairing it with. How will it sit with your other lenses? How do you intend to use it so it doesn't end up becoming redundant or making some other great lens redundant?

I have 2 SL lenses: 21 APO and 90-280. I like to photograph seascapes and night skies with a 21mm. I previously used a Zeiss 21mm Milvus on Canon 5DSR and Canon R5. I can’t speak to the image quality of either SL lenses as my SL3 hasn’t arrived yet. But I’ll be ready when it does. 😀

I also have the Q2 Reporter. 

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