LFI: Summilux-M 21mm f/1.4

[hydet]

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Wow, Brett. Nice image. The lens is now on my list.

[Rolo]

So what DO you want Lars?

 

Brett posts a shot taken with a new 21 lux and you are questioning his integrity, or the validity of his shot.

 

I don't think that Lars was intentionally calling the only forum member with extensive experience of the 21mm Summilux a liar and creator of ho-hum pictures.

 

It just reads that way.

 

Rolo

[lars_bergquist]

Of course I do not call Brett a liar. I do not doubt for a second that the picture in question was actually taken with a superwide lens (Brett does not say expressly that the lens was the 21mm Summilux, and do poppies blossom at this time of the year? But I will not dispute it.) That was not the issue. What I wrote was that you cannot see that it was taken with a 21mm Summilux, or any superwide lens, so what was the point of it?

 

The point of using a superwide at close focus must be that the background is patently a superwide background. In other words, it must be such that the very wide angle of acceptance is obvious, because the geometry of the space behind the main subject is obvious. That was not the case here.

 

And that does lead directly to the 'ho-hum question'. Here I stand by my words, and I note that I am not alone in my opinion. By his own admission, Brett is "not a wide-angle person". There is nothing wrong with that. I am not so hot with a tele. But maybe Leica should have chosen a 'wide angle person' to demonstrate their new super wide-angle lens.

 

The old man from the Age of the Biogon 1:4.5/21mm

[andybarton]

Don't forget he had the lens months ago.

[lars_bergquist]

Don't forget he had the lens months ago.

Yes. So he had been playing around with it for quite some time. And looked at the pictures he took.

 

Now here's the problem. When I look at a picture I have taken (unless it was half a century ago) I look at it with prior knowledge. "Gee, that house was just twenty meters away and here it looks so small and distant, like a hundred meters!" But we do not know that it wasn't a hundred meters away. There is nothing in the image itself that tells us that fact. The trick of superwide photography is to make the image tell the naive viewer that the house was a hundred meters away. If that is what we want.

 

I do not particularly want it. It is in fact quite a difficult trick to pull off, even in the Old Town of Stockholm with its medieval street plan. It does just look a bit more spacious than it is; and how would a non-stockholmer know how spacious it is?

 

The old man from the Age of Standard Lenses

[k_g_wolf ✝]

On the M-8 a 21 mm lens does shrink to >>only<< 28 mm.

 

This focal length you can easily detect in the above samplepicture,

IMO. I like the result a lot !

 

 

 

Best

[lovinglife]

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Brett the 1.4/21 images on your flickr site are awesome.

My 1.4/21 should be arriving in a few days and i look forward to posting pics on my M8..

I really enjoy 21mm on the crop sensor.

 

From what I've heard its a fabulous lens.

[bybrett]

Interesting that this one has resurfaced... thank you for your kind comments and I hope you are inspired to create fabulous images on M8,9,7 whatever!