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Contax superwides

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I have some experience with a couple of the Contax SLR superwide lenses, but don't own one now. The 21mm is a marvelous but oversized lens, I've heard wonderful things about the 15mm but it's ungodly expensive, and the 18mm f4 doesn't seem to get a lot of attention or respect. I "need" to add one, and would enjoy hearing from anyone who had tested and compared two or all of these lenses and came to some conclusion as to how good they were (relative to the high standards of the entire Contax lens line, of course).
 
I have an 18mm and a 25mm Zeiss for my RTSIII. The reason for purchasing these 2 lenses has a lot to do with the angle of view (check the specs) compared with the 50mm 1.4 lens.
The 18mm is a cracking lens, with virtually no distortion, and very consistent colour rendition compared to the other Zeiss lenses.
You have to be careful with the in camera metering because it is such a wide view, and I often cross check the meter reading with an incident reading from a hand held meter.
If there is a problem, it's getting a filter to fit the front to protect the front element - if you thought the lens was expensive wait till you see the price of the filter - it has to be big to stop vignetting.
In summary, it's a great lens, and gives excellent results. Check out some of the photos on www.cvscotland.com for more of this and other Zeiss lenses.
 
I have used the Distagon 21mm/f2.8 and it is the sharpest wide angle lens I have used. With this lens you can shoot wide open and still have very sharp pictures. The lens does not feel oversized when you work with it. The filtersize is 82mm. I sold my C/Y system and bought the N-system, but I really miss the D21mm/f2.8. I will buy the lens directly when it is released with N-mount!
 
Hi Patrik,
I like the 21mm/2.8 so much that this is the most important reason for me to keep the manual system in favour to the N-system. Although the new 17-35mm 2.8 N is a good lens,it can only focus down to 0.5m. 21mm/2.8 C-Y can go down to 0.22m.Focusing in close range is interesting with wide angles.Joseph
 
Specifications of the 21mm Distagon were so impressive that I ordered one -- and I'm a Canon D30 user! Quality wide-angles from Canon don't exist, and the 1.6x of the D30 just multiplies the problem.

I now have an RTS III and the 21mm performs like a dream. Plus, I get free bicep exercise! I'm turning into a Contax fanatic: film scanner arrives tomorrow.
 
> > > > very much so, the 21mm Distagon is probably still the best, only Leica 21mm > Emarit-M come close or equal. > Brgds/Kaisern > > >
 
> I now have an RTS III and the 21mm performs like a dream. Plus, I get> free bicep exercise! I'm turning into a Contax fanatic: film scanner> arrives tomorrow.

It aint the lightest combo around to be sure , but it just doesnt get any better than this........ Steve
 
Any experience with a Yashica 15mm Fisheye? Is it a quality optic?

Thanks,
Dave
 
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