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Fun with the 21mm Loxia
- Thread starter Barry Haines
- Start date
The Ute
Well-known member
I like #1 the best because of it's superior composition.
#2 also.
RiversPhoto
New member
A7MkII, Loxia 21mm
Michael
Guy Mancuso
Administrator, Instructor
I have one on its way to me. Yahoo
Barry Haines
Active member
That’s excellent news Guy :grin: I really do hope you enjoy it.
It’s a great little lens IMO that helps offset in your camera bag some of the larger faster lenses (just as you have mentioned previously with your CV15 III).
John, I won’t do a review but I will list some quick Pro’s and Con’s which I hope will be of help to you.
Pro’s
Small, compact and reasonably light with solid build quality.
Excellent IQ IMHO, with low CA and distortion, with nice star effects on highlights when stopping down.
Decent quality bokeh WO (It’s a 21mm f2.8 with a nice OoF rendering) and it works great also for doing close-ups...Razor sharp in the centre and on stopping down (I personally prefer to choose f/8 generally with my 21mm as opposed to f/5.6) the corners are bitingly sharp with no smearing as long as you choose the correct point for the hyperfocal distance.
Vignetting is about what you would expect for a compact 21mm....In camera jpgs are well corrected but the raws need a profile to get the best from it.
Flare is well controlled but watch out for it when not using a hood.
Buttery smooth focusing and click stops that actually click unlike some of my more recent Leica M lenses.
An engraved DoF scale is always welcome on WA lens like this...In fact it’s critical IMO
Lens hood is included free (unlike the Zeiss ZM range).
The lens hood can be reversed to keep the lens compact in your camera bag and it can also be fitted (rotated at 180 deg) so the overly bold writing “Loxia 2.8/21” is on the underside.
It has a nice snug fit on the A7R2 with the blue rubber weather proofing band acting as a good seal...I have been out in extreme rain and it seems to work very well!
Con’s
Price is high for many.
The petal lens hood is a bit of a pain in that it does not have a very good fitting IMHO...I have already had one experience of it being very slightly offset twisted where the petal hood showed up in my images in the corners (I’m sure Guy won’t bother with the Zeiss Hood).
Not enough not rotating meat on the lens to grab hold of when attaching or dismounting the lens to the camera (especially fiddly with gloves on in the cold)...Your default settings (Aperture ring and focus point) will get knocked out of place every time.
Some Pre-Testing is “DEFINITELY” advisable to find your hyperfocal point for keeping everything sharp near to far when doing stopped down landscape photography.
The focus throw between 2m and infinity is way, way too compressed and needs spreading out IMO, it rotates only about 5mm and this is where most people will probably be using this lens I expect.
I still haven’t tested properly for coma and also if my lens reaches infinity, as still too many cloudy nights to see any stars.
Bottom line is I really love this little gem of a lens, no real need IMO for AF on a FF 21mm lens, that’s if you are into doing landscape photography, It’s a definite keeper in by books
Barry Haines
Active member
Many thanks Lucille and tbhv55
Well spotted....It's about a miles walk down a track from Merrivale (Foggin Tor, Quarry)...Cheers Barry
Well spotted....It's about a miles walk down a track from Merrivale (Foggin Tor, Quarry)...Cheers Barry
Thanks Barry - I was fairly sure of the location, but I couldn't remember the name of the quarry...:facesmack:Many thanks Lucille and tbhv55
Well spotted....It's about a miles walk down a track from Merrivale (Foggin Tor, Quarry)...Cheers Barry
seb
Member
Back from holidays in Uruguay (pics will follow in the fun thread), I had an appointement to pick up my copy of the loxia 21. As others can confirm, this lens is delivered with bad weather. :toocool: So, my first shot was made as my wife bought some whool and the second at home while sorting the new sea shells, we brought home.
I'm so excited to have it on my camera at last!
I'm so excited to have it on my camera at last!
seb
Member
seb
Member
Yesterday I was at my favorite cinema called Filmpodium. They show only reprises, but have also a lot of special events too, as it was yesterday. They showed an old movie from 1922 called "Nathan der Weise", which is an adaption of a famous german novel of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. A band called Pussywarmers setted the film to music. I really like this band, they make sounds from rockabilly to something equally to the music of the tv serie twin peaks. The film is an old silent movie and the text were written in green on a green background. :shocked: I did not had a tripod with me (I'll hardly take it to the movies! ) and the shot isn't worth to go deep into postprocessing. It's about the story:
live band to a silent movie
The theater is very special and has nice light concept. I made some shootings there in the past and I remembered, that it was almoust impossible to bann that light concept into a picture. With that in mind, I whitebalanced all the shots, except this one:
the bar of filmpodium
And here are some shots I tried to get in touch with the loxia 21:
the wall in the entrance hall
the cinema itself has a asymmetric layout
the cinema itself
every week a nearby flower shop arrange a spray for the bar.
(closest focus distance)
flowers
they change the reprises every two month and combine two together. A grafic designer creats a poster for it, which is sold also as a postcard.
postcards
) and the shot isn't worth to go deep into postprocessing. It's about the story:live band to a silent movie
The theater is very special and has nice light concept. I made some shootings there in the past and I remembered, that it was almoust impossible to bann that light concept into a picture. With that in mind, I whitebalanced all the shots, except this one:
the bar of filmpodium
And here are some shots I tried to get in touch with the loxia 21:
the wall in the entrance hall
the cinema itself has a asymmetric layout
the cinema itself
every week a nearby flower shop arrange a spray for the bar.
(closest focus distance)
flowers
they change the reprises every two month and combine two together. A grafic designer creats a poster for it, which is sold also as a postcard.
postcards
Quentin_Bargate
Well-known member
A quick test today between my new Loxia 21mm F/2.8 and Zeiss 16-35 F/4 has persuaded me that the Loxia is superior. Better contrast, lower C/A (backlit branches in particular) better edges and generally a tad sharper. The 16-35 is good, but not quite as good at 21mm.
seb
Member
With the bad weather, I was forced to shoot indoors again. So I made more tests with the loxia and an extension tube. I'm quite impressed how good the result is. With the used 10mm extension tube, the last glas was only around 1cm from the shell away. as the clamps for the lens cap stands out at the front of the lens, the light was quite a challenge.
This is around 1:2 macro, so the whole scenery is around 5cm x 7cm. You can find the full resolution on flickr.
loxia 21/2.8 with extension tubes (10mm). Around 1:2 macro by seflick, auf Flickr
This is around 1:2 macro, so the whole scenery is around 5cm x 7cm. You can find the full resolution on flickr.
loxia 21/2.8 with extension tubes (10mm). Around 1:2 macro by seflick, auf Flickr
seb
Member
I was in Hamburg for a business meeting and took a day off to visit the city. Of course the free hours were also used to get more in touch with the new lens. I had pouring rain to sun and close street sceneries to harbor landscapes. So anything to test the lens.
I will switch to the fun with sony thread with my loxia pics afterwards. But I think, it's a good addition to the primarily landscape shots here to get a good overview.
All in all a wonderfull lens in any regard! I can't add something new to the already made reviews. the only thing I'm struggling at the moment are the colors. They are quite different to my native Sony lenses.
I will switch to the fun with sony thread with my loxia pics afterwards. But I think, it's a good addition to the primarily landscape shots here to get a good overview.
All in all a wonderfull lens in any regard! I can't add something new to the already made reviews. the only thing I'm struggling at the moment are the colors. They are quite different to my native Sony lenses.