Re: [Leica] 21 or 24 mm M lens: advice sought

[Ben Ho ^_^ <longjohn@netvigator.com>]

Hello Christer,

I cannot agree more to Alan's comment below.

Just to add one more point - 21mm has a gigantic depth of view.  Very often, I
just set the hyper focus to infinity and shoot without  further focusing.  Just
let the camera hang at the waist level and shoot pictures without raising the
camera at all permits me to get some amazing candid shots!  Great feeling and
great certainty (almost like sure shot). ^_^

Happy shooting.


Regards,
Ben




Alan Ball wrote:

> Christer,
>
> 21mm is great for street scenes, especially in non-US cities where the
> streets are narrower (think of small casbah streets in Essaouira or
> Marrakesh for example, or medieval towns and villages in Europe). It
> gives volume to the smallest settings and is irreplaceable in the
> numerous 'vis-à-vis' situations one does encounter (people at the same
> cafe or restaurant table as the photographer, any type of cabin -cars,
> train compartments, cable-car, whatever-), shops, etc. The 21mm is also
> ideal for close shooting and very lively pictures of crowd scenes (from
> within the crowd), market scenes, interior shots, etc.
>
> Besides those uses, the 21mm allows very spectacular near-far landscape
> images and provides many of the strenghts of ultra-wides, while
> remaining useable in less extreme situations.
>
> OTOH, I find 24mm a little too tame for those uses: it feels like a
> slightly wider 28mm rather than like a very wide angle. Since you own
> the 35mm, you will be more tempted to switch to another wide angle lens
> if you feel it will be really wortwhile. And 21mm makes the switch
> obviously worthwhile. I would treat the 24mm as a 'radical' complement
> to a 50mm, and the 21mm as a sister to the 35mm....
>
> Friendly regards,
> Alan
>
> Christer Almqvist wrote:
> >
> > I am getting myself a 21 or a 24 mm lens for my M6 and would like to hear
> > what you folks think is the "better" one for me.
> >
> > I shoot black and white only, have a Tele-Elmarit 2.8/90mm and a Summicron
> > 2/35mm. (Yes the physical size of the lens is of a certain importance to me
> > and I would always go for the smaller one if there is a choice.) I am a
> > fine grain and sharpness fetischist, but I do not think I need the new ASPH
> > lenses as I am very satisfied with the performance of my current 35mm and
> > 90mm lenses. Does that limit my choice to 21 mm lenses because the only 24
> > mm lens is the new ASPH?
> >
> > I am into available light photography, street photography and portraits
> > (but portraits is not what I am primarily going to use the new lens for, I
> > am rather thinking of something like certain Jean Loup Sieff pictures). I
> > would  be interested in hearing opinions on the
> > price/(practical-usage-)performance relation of older type 21 mm lenses
> > provided they can be used with the M6. (I have read what Ervin Put has
> > written.)
> >
> > (...and yes, don't hesitate to email me privately if you are a seller.)
> >
> > --
> > christer almqvist
> > eichenstrasse 57, d-20255 hamburg, fon +49-40-407111 fax +49-40-4908440
> > 14 rue de la hauteur, f-50590 regnéville-sur-mer, fon+fax +33-233 45 35 58