Color saturation, shadow detail, sharp even wide open, well constructed, compact.

Fiddly auxiliary rangefinder.

The 21mm Biogon is, in a word, astonishing. Part of my astonishment has been in learning the joys of a very wide angle lens (my first this wide), but the balance is all Carl Zeiss. I have all the G prime lenses save the Hologon, and the 21 is my runaway favorite, getting roughly 50% of my film (the balance shared among four others). My previous "chosen" G lens had been the 28mm Biogon.

Chromes (esp. Kodachrome and Velvia) pop in dramatic fashion. Blue skies saturate beautifully, as though through a polarizer. Flare is well controlled, which it needs to be in a 21 that is constantly hit directly by light sources. (I shoot the lens "naked"--w/o hood or filter.)

There is no evident barrel or pincushion distortion. Careful levelling minimizes/eliminates rectilinear distortion in architectural shots, or tilt for dramatic convergences.

My challenges have been with using this lens on a rangefinder camera. It's not always easy to switch between the main and auxiliary finders to meter & compose. It's possible to drop the finder if mounting it in a hurry. And it's easy to catch one's feet, the camera strap, a stray hand in the shot, since it's not on an SLR. But folks, the point is that for the G system we get the Biogon and not a Distagon as the SLRs do. The Biogon is clearly the superior lens design, but with an intruding rear element that no SLR mirror will ever clear. If the mythical G3 hits the street with a viewfinder that zooms to 21mm, I'll mount this lens to one and never take it off.

Customer Service

First shot at repairing a 45mm G-series Planar problem was unsuccessful.

Similar Products Used:

Zeiss 25mm 2.8 Distagon for Contax SLR, Zeiss 50mm 4.0 Distagon for Hasselblad

* The best 19/20/21mm f/2.8 lens ever made (strong enough?)

* took 'way too many years to get here.

Best 19/20/21 ever made? Yep. This lens beats the pre-ASPHeric Leica-M 21, by a tad in the center and by maybe triple the resolution at the corners, wide open. The Leica beat everything else, including Nikon, Canon, and the R-Leica 19 and 21 retrofocus designs. So by concatenation the Zeiss 21 beats all the others, too.

The new Leica ASPHeric 21mm has much sharper corners than their old 21, and may tie the Zeiss. Tests will tell.

The real magic for the Biogon 21, and what finally got me into rangefinders, is that with the G1/G2 you NOT LONGER HAVE TO SWITCH BETWEEN FINDERS TO FOCUS AND EXPOSE!! With the camera on AF and AE, you just keep your eye to the 21mm finder and shoot and shoot and shoot!

Considering that the Leica 21 costs roughly twice as much, this should rate at least 7 thumbs up for value. I'm not sure there's a overall scale long enough to handle the best 21 in the world...

Customer Service

Not used

Similar Products Used:

Leica 21 (non-ASPH), Canon 20mm f/2.8, Nikon 20mm 2.8, Zeiss 18 f/4, 25 2.8.

Extremely sharp and super saturated colors.
Almost no noticeable distortion.

none

You absolutely couldn't do any better than this as far as I am concerned. Especially for the relatively low price.

Customer Service

none needed yet

Similar Products Used:

I have all the lenses for the G12 camera

great wide angle lens for $
looks cool with finder
takes punchy pictures

parallax sucks. focus in window, meter in window, lock, recompose.
finder needs a spirit level.

this lens is it! buy it NOW
little bro to the hassy swc (both are biogons) this is the reason to use the semi-klugey g2 (or totally klugey g1.)
hologon is a little too freaky of an angle.
tip for all g2 users:
make yourself a dof scale in excel, stick it on the back of your g2 and prefocus the lens. on the 21, you will have hyperfocal distance at 1.3 meters at f8, essentially making this the PERFECT street shooter.
sharp at 2.8, best at 8. not too good at f16.
it's usable for street, definitely landscape. not so good for glamour portraits (duh.)
i only use the 28 for flash now. even then i get bored with 28, and that used to be my favorite lens.
another tip: get a 55-67 stepup ring for a hood/filter holder. no vignetting, even with the thick-rimmed b+w filters.

Similar Products Used:

nothing's similar!

Light, small, sharp

No DOF scale
Some vignetting

I used this lens for an essay on the changing world of tobacco growing and marketing shortly after getting it. The results were stunning. I can't address lines of resolution, but landscapes and unusual perspective shots with extreme sharpness are this lens' forte. The only drawback is the exposure falloff at the corners of the frame, giving a straight print the look of having been burned-in from the corners. Since the 16mm lens requires a graduated filter, apparently the 21mm has similar characteristics. At least one other shooter I know has mentioned this. Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad effect, just something to be aware of. An additional factor was that the chips in early G1 bodies were not programed to use the 21mmm lens. Even though my G1 body was used, Contax reprogrammed the camera without charge. Due to the inherent but unmarked depth of field, the 21mm mounted more or less permanently on my G1, requires little in the way of focussing. It is, as someone else remarked, the perfect street camera.

Customer Service

Contax serviced G1 promptly and well

Similar Products Used:

Canon FD 20mm
Quantaray 18mm

I've become spoiled by the G cameras real image viewfinder for the 28 to 90 lenses, and was a little hesitant to go with an accessory viewfinder lens. After using this wonderful lens and the viewfinder, the images that this combination deliver are very special. It is really not a problem to make a quick look through the camera viewfinder, check exposure,PRESS FOCUS LOCK, compose through the 21 viewfinder and shoot. It is effecient, effective and a lot of fun!

I need to purchase some Kodak,Ilford and Fuji stock, as my film usage is never ending since I purchased my G2 and the unbeliveable lenses.

Just when I thought I could'nt enjoy my G2 and its incredible lenses (28,45,90 and the 35-70 zoom)any more than I do, I purchased the 21mm, and the fun started all over again!
I keep challenging these lenses with images that I was always afraid to shoot with my other system, but they just go about their business of excellence no matter what you give them.
The 21mm has it all, great perspective, a true image wide open all the way to the corners,and resolution and saturation it abundance. I still think the 45mm is the best lens I have ever used, but the 21mm will probably become my favorite.

Customer Service

Not needed

Similar Products Used:

The Leica lenses are the only 35mm lenses that can come close. But the value, brilliant results and compact nature that the G series Zeiss lenses bring to 35mm photography makes them truly in a class by themselves.

Sharp as can be, minimal distortion for this focal length, wonderful saturation, small size and fair price.

Separate viewfinder takes some practice, slight vignetting.

I was astonished when the first prints came back from this lens! The color rendition is fantastic, it's tack sharp, and it's just SOOO fun to use! The remark I like to hear is from people who were there when I took the photo, and they say "wow! how did you get that shot?"

Wonderful lens.

Customer Service

Not used

Similar Products Used:

Olumpus Zuiko 28mm f/2.8

None

None

All the Zeiss lenses for the Contax G I have used are superb. (21mm, 28mm, 45mm, 90mm) There are extremely sharp and saturated and have very good control of flare. But for me the most visible difference is in the shadow details. I used to have several Canon L lenses, and the G lenses win hands down when it comes to shadow details. Relatively speaking, images taken with the Canon L's look less emotionally involving and more artificial. I have tried showing my portfolio to people, and most of them were able to identify images taken with the G lenses.

The construction of these lenses is superb. They are very compact and the aperture ring feels very smooth on each lens. And it's great that most of these lenses take same size filters. The optional lens hoods are very effective, and one can also buy hood caps, which are very convenient.

Most of the G lenses are not expensive for the image quality and construction that they offer. I have yet to see better lenses for 35mm photography.

Similar Products Used:

None