Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/08/13

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Subject: Re: [Leica] 21mm vs 24mm
From: Mark Rabiner <mrabiner@concentric.net>
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 12:43:35 -0700

Austin Burbridge wrote:
> 
> Jean-Claude, Greg, Eddie, Wilbur
> 
> Thank you! Your comments are VERY helpful.
> 
> There are plenty of numbers about 28-24-21 lenses but surprisingly
> little subjective prose about their application. That the
> focal-lengths and angles of view are so close to one another makes
> evaluation  -- without making photos with each -- hard.
> 
> I found Eddie's remark 'BTW, I use this lens without the additional
> finder attached on my M6' and Jean-Claude's 'IMO, a 24 mm is still an
> ordinary lens.' to be particularly useful in understanding what the
> difference might be between the 24 and the 21.
> 
> I am indeed looking for an 'ordinary' lens (albeit very wide) for
> general use, mostly for photos of people with lots of context.
> 
> I haven't been able to find photographs of similar views taken with
> each lens -- the Brian Bower book's photos are not very helpful in
> this regard since they are landscape/architecture. Can anyone point
> me to good examples for comparison among 28-24-21mm M lenses, either
> online or in print?
> 
> AUSTIN.
> 
I would rent them for a Nikon or Canon for a weekend or a week. All three should
be easily rented at a pro place that rents stuff. Of course there are places
somewhere that would or could rent Leica M but who knows where or for how much.
Then you could run your own tests and "feel" for yourself. Have the body that
you rent if you do not have with the lenses be a very simple mechanical one like
an FM2 which would be the most Leicalike though off my a long shot.
Then factor in the fact the Leica lenses would be much more highly corrected
among other things. I should expect our Leica 24 to distort less than a Nikon 28
on the edges.
Mark Rabiner