21-35mm R zoom

Does anyone have this lens? I have been waiting for 3 weeks now for

the shop to get mine in. Anyway, what's it like (not too late to

cancel!). I have also ordered the R8 body.

Yes Andy, I've been shooting with it for a couple of months now.

I use it on an R 6.2. Very nice lens. Maybe the besy WA zoom I've

ever used. There is a thread in the archives ( probably under R

equipment) with some images attached. Just a few vacation

snaps, nothing special, but it'll give you an idea of how wide and

color saturation. Hope yours' comes in soon so you can use it

yet this summer. Good luck.

Marc - do you find it to be superior to the Nikon/Canon equivalents? My wife uses the Nikon 17-35 which is very nice. The Leica seems to be quite reasonably priced, given it's a Leica lens.

Andy: I sold my 35-70/4-R lens because I found it very difficult to focus at the wide end on any R body including the R8. I have the 21/4 S/A and it is also very hard if not impossible to focus on the R8 except in very bright conditions. I don't use a 21 with the R that much, but when I do it's usually on the SL.

 

You might want to reconsider the purchase of the R8. If indeed there is an R9 coming at Photokina, and if it isn't a horrible disappointment (two big "if"s ), the stock of unsold R8's is likely to be rebated and discounted a lot. Of course, Leica will say the R8 will continue in production, just like the M6TTL (wink, wink).

Jay - I suspect we're spoiled with M bodies for wide angles. Anyone would think focussing a 24 or 21 was easy, but I used to get so many out of focus shots with the R6's that I decided to move over to M - which is where I am now.

I can manual focus my 21/4-R easily on the SL and any EOS including the el cheapo Rebel 2000. Ditto the 20-35/3.5-4.5 USM. The finders in the R bodies are not so much darker as they are grainy, like a piece of silk screen was stretched across them. And they have an annoying (to me) bluish cast as well. And I don't see one bit of difference in the brightness between the R8 and R6.2 or R7, but the R8 has a lower magnification which actually makes focusing harder. The 28/2.8 is easier to focus, as long as I use the split-image. Unfortunately with the 21/4, it blacks out if I am not very precise in my eye position.

Rob,

I like it a little better for color than the 17-35/2.8 AFS I just sold,

and a LOT better for B&W. IMO it is way better than my Canon

17-35/2.8 which suffered from horrible distortion. I can't say how

it compares to the Canon 16-35/2.8 which I sold to Jack. I don't

seem to have a focusing problem with the Leica using the split

circle. Does Leica make a flip up magnifier? That would be

helpful for darker focusing situations. I would sell my Hasselblad

if I didn't have a flip magnifier to focus W/As in dark churches and

reception halls.

Marc, don't know about a flip-up magnifier but Leica do offer an

angle finder for the R system. This has an option to magnify 2x. I

have no experience of this particular angle finder but I did buy a

Canon equivalent for my (now departed) EOS system. It was

simply awful - literally made my eyes hurt. I'd imagine the Leica

offering would be better but by how much?

I use an R8 with a 19 Elmarit and have no problem focusing the lens. It could just be me since quite a few of you mention difficulties.

 

I have not used the 21-35R and am very interested in this lens too. But I think comparisons with Nikon's or Canon's lens (those huge 2.8 lenses) are off the mark since they are faster and hence will incurr more optical problems. A fairer comparison should be with the slower zooms from N n C of similar speed. But then the price of the Leica zoom becomes silly if the performance is not way above the competetors'. I am really hoping that the R lens will be 'much' better than the Japanese equivalent. Cheers.

Steven, from what I can tell to date, the Leica zoom exhibits that

sort of German characteristic look we all love from our Ms. Not

that I'm comparing it to a prime M lens, it just has that hard to

quantify look, at least in my B&W work. I had the Contax 17-35 N

for a couple of days and hated the look it produced. It was sharp

alright, but there was something missing in every shot under all

kinds of lighting conditions, so I returned it. Hard to be definitively

scientific about it, it's just a feeling you get with the end pictures.

Well we are all different. No problems focussing with the R6.2. But 21mm are always a little tricky to focus on any MF SLR. I use the central microprism only screen which I find much better than the split image screen. In my opinion the coarser but bright R screens are easy to use and easier than the dimmer but fine screens on the EOS system. It is possible that there will be a new R camera at Photokina, so you might want to wait to see, but if you like the R8 the price will not drop after the event and the newer camera will undoubtedly be more expensive. All I have heard about the w/a zoom is good and a priori I would expect it to be very fine - in my experience the f2.8 aperture on most of the Nikon and Canon zooms are not all that good but they are there to help you focus and to command "bragging rights". I think the Leica zoom is a very reasonable price by Leica standards.