Reader Feedback on Zeiss 21mm f/2.8 Distagon
Related: Live View, Zeiss, Zeiss 21mm f/2.8 Distagon, Zeiss Distagon, Zeiss DSLR Lenses, Zeiss Lenses
(ZF.2 version for Nikon)
Of course I’m a fan of Zeiss lenses for Canon and Nikon, which is why I wrote my Zeiss Guide. But it’s always great to hear this kind of excitement from readers.
The Zeiss 21mm f/2.8 Distagon (about $1843) is what I call an “anchor” lens, meaning it’s so good that you might well build the rest of the kit upwards in focal length from it. This is especially true for Canon users; my Canon 16-35/2.8L II would be covered with dust were it not for being in a drawer where dust won’t settle.
Subscriber Michael U writes to say:
I picked up my new Zeiss 21 this morning from UPS and headed out to Fort Washington on the Potomac to try it out...just now going through the images in Lightroom back home. As the images began downloading and appearing in Grid view, I just about fell out of my chair! WOW. The color saturation and detail of the images was apparent just from looking at the thumbnails (set to "minimal") as they appeared on my screen. Once I got into 1:1 views, holy toledo! I am a Zeiss convert!
I used Live View (for the first time and loved it, no more MLU for me - also used silent mode as recommended in Making Sharp Images, worked perfect), remote shutter control and tripod. And I simply love manual focus! That is what really intimidated me, or so I thought. I feel much more connected to what is going on in my camera now, between Live View and manual focus. I turned off Live View to see how the 5D2 auto focus lock would work with the Zeiss manual focus, although it beeped and showed the green dot, not in focus most of the time.
My 16-35L images are muddy and contrasty compared to the Zeiss. What a difference a lens can make - I actually got excited about photography again today.
DIGLLOYD: nothing wrong with mirror lockup, but using a remote release with Canon Mode 2 in Live View is vibration free.
Get the Zeiss 21mm f/2.8 Distagon for Canon at Nikon for about $1843 at B&H Photo.
