{"id":6246,"date":"2016-02-18T19:53:03","date_gmt":"2016-02-19T00:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/?p=6246"},"modified":"2024-09-05T16:34:42","modified_gmt":"2024-09-05T21:34:42","slug":"review-zeiss-loxia-21mm-f2-8-distagon-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/review-zeiss-loxia-21mm-f2-8-distagon-t\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Zeiss Loxia 21mm f\/2.8 Distagon T*"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Zeiss has been pushing out lens after lens for the full-frame Sony E-mount, with three distinct lines of lenses. They have the Sony-Zeiss lenses where they co-design lenses with Sony, the autofocus premium Batis line, and the compact manual focus Loxia line.  The latest lens in this manual focus line is the ultra-wide-angle Loxia 21mm f\/2.8 Distagon T*. The Loxia 21mm is a totally new design that aims to replicate the outstanding optical properties of their legendary 21mm Distagon for SLRs in a more compact package for mirrorless. The 21mm follows the well-received 35mm f\/2 and 50mm f\/2 Loxias that were first introduced in late 2014.  Let’s get into the Loxia 21mm review:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a>
The Zeiss Loxia 21mm f\/2.8 Distagon on the Sony A7 II<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Construction and Handling<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Zeiss had a challenge on their hands with regards to designing the  Loxia 21mm.  First of all, they have a reputation at this focal length for legendary excellence.  The Contax\/Yashica mount Zeiss 21mm Distagon was widely regarded for many years as the finest wide-angle lens ever made.  Even today, used copies of this lens are regularly sold for around $1,500 US.  Second, they needed to fit in with the size design goals of the Loxia line, a challenge made more difficult by the very short registration distance of the E-Mount.  The short flange distance combined with thick sensor cover glass cause issues for ultra-wide lenses designed for rangefinders, such as the ultra-wide Zeiss Biogon lenses.  As such, Zeiss went with an entirely new Distagon design while retaining the compact size that is representative of the Loxia series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a>
The Zeiss Loxia 21mm f\/2.8 with its included hood<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Loxia 21mm is a bit larger than the 35mm and 50mm lens that came before it, but it is still impressively small.  The lens is slightly smaller in diameter than the outside of the E-mount itself, but is longer than the other Loxias.  The lens is dense, packing 11 elements into its solid metal body. Zeiss claims the lens is weather sealed, and as part of that features a very well-fitting blue rubber ring around the lens mount that provides a tight seal with the mount on the camera body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 21mm features a fine ribbing on both the smoothly damped focus ring and the aperture ring.  Both rings move beautifully, with excellent manual focus feel and fairly accurate depth of field markings etched into the lens barrel.  The aperture ring moves with light but satisfying clicks that can be turned off by switching a small screw at the rear of the lens for video use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Loxia 21mm comes with a nice metal petal hood that reverses for storage.  The hood is the same design that I didn’t enjoy on the Loxia 35mm, but I didn’t have a problem with it on the 21mm because of the extra length of the lens, such that it didn’t encroach on my fingers when focusing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lens feels fantastic on my A7 II and should handle well on the earlier A7 bodies as well. In use, however, there are a two issues I have with the way the lens operates in the field, and both concern the close proximity of the aperture ring to the focus ring.  There is barely any space at all between the focus and aperture rings.  As such, it’s difficult to mount and unmount the lens, as there is no place to grip the lens where it doesn’t rotate. When mounting and unmounting, you’ll often rotate one of the two rings until a hard stop, at which point the rotation can occur to twist the lens into or out of the camera mount. I’m assuming the infinity stop and aperture ring stop are solid, so this shouldn’t cause an issue with lens operation, but I’d prefer for the focus ring to be a bit smaller so as to provide a place to grip the lens when mounting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Zeiss<\/a>
Zeiss Loxia 21mm f\/2.8 on the Sony A7 II<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another issue with this close proximity comes when shooting the lens stopped down. The Loxia line has electronic connections, but they are used entirely for transmission of EXIF data and to let the camera know the aperture position and whether the focus ring is in use. As such, the lens operates in stop-down mode like any adapted manual focus lens.  For critical focus, you will generally focus wide open, then stop down the aperture and take the picture.  With the Loxia, it can be difficult to turn the aperture ring without also turning the focus ring.  This is especially difficult when shooting in the winter months when you’re wearing gloves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One final nitpick: the focus ring has around 90 degrees of rotation from minimum focus distance to infinity, and I wish it had a longer throw.  The difference between focusing at 2m and infinity is around 1\/8 inch of travel in the focus ring, so hitting hyperfocal distance is more of a guessing game than anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, these minor issues aside, I loved the way the Loxia 21 felt in my hand during shooting.  There’s something inherently satisfying about the lens.  But the real meat is in the images, so let’s get to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue: Image Quality<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Image Quality<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

So the big question: did Zeiss succeed in packing outstanding optical quality into a small package?  The answer is an unqualified YES.  As you’ll see in the images and in my description, the Loxia 21mm is a phenomenal optic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharpness<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

For landscape shooters, having an ultra-wide that provides excellent edge to edge sharpness is of great concern, and the Loxia 21mm delivers in spades.  The lens is very sharp across almost the entire frame right from f\/2.8.  Just a hint of edge and corner softness shows at this aperture.  Stop down a bit and the Loxia 21 sharpens up to produce truly excellent sharpness from extreme corner to extreme corner. It’s remarkable to see that level of performance in a lens this wide.  When I reviewed the excellent Fuji 14mm f\/2.8 (which has the same angle of view as this lens, as it’s an APS-C lens), I remarked that it was the finest wide-angle lens I’d ever used.  I directly compared the two, and one thing was immediately clear: the Loxia is sharper.  Notably so at wide apertures, but it even outresolves it in the corners stopped down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Scioto<\/a>
Scioto in the Snow – Sony A7 II with Zeiss Loxia 21mm f\/2.8 Distagon @ f\/13, 25s, ISO 100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is one thing of special note: the lens does exhibit some field curvature at landscape focus distances (though I found the field to be rather flat when focused between around 4 feet and closer). In most cases, it’s not a big deal, though if you want critically sharp edges at infinity focus, you’ll need to focus to the hard infinity stop (with slightly reduced center performance).  When focused for maximum front to back sharpness in the frame, you’ll have outstanding closer field sharpness at the edges and amazing center sharpness at infinity, but the edges at infinity will show some minor softening.  However, I found this to be very minor in actual field use, but it’s something to be aware of as you shoot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bokeh<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

You wouldn’t think that bokeh would be a major concern with an ultra-wide lens, but for close-up work, the Loxia 21mm can definitely create plenty of blur.  The bokeh of the 21mm f\/2.8 is actually fairly good.  Specular highlights are neutral and while the bokeh is high in contrast, it falls short of nervous, creating a predominantly pleasing rendition of out of focus areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Snow<\/a>
Snow Berry – Sony A7 II with Zeiss Loxia 21mm f\/2.8 Distagon @ f\/4, 1\/80s, ISO 100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Color, Contrast and Chromatic Aberration<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

While the sharpness was outstanding, the area where the legendary C\/Y 21mm Distagon most excelled was in the exceptional contrast and color that the lens could produce. I’m happy to report that the Loxia 21mm fits that same mold.  The Loxia 21mm has exceptional micro-contrast, astounding macro contrast and amazingly rich color.  The first shot posted on this page shows all three in their glory.  This shot had a minimum of post-processing, with some minor curves adjustment and virtually zero saturation adjustments.  If you enlarge that image, you’ll note the astounding micro-contrast in the snow on the left side, while the buildings simply pop.  On a few of the other night images in the Image Samples, I actually had to lower saturation, as the default RAW setting looked almost fake.  While this won’t be the case with most scenes, you can expect a contrasty, saturated look out of the Loxia 21mm.  In my opinion, the images almost leap out at you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Loxia 21mm can show some very slight lateral chromatic aberration if you look for it, but overall performance in this regard is excellent for a wide-angle.  Longitudinal CA is also not a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distortion, Flare and Vignetting<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Loxia 21mm performs fairly well with regards to distortion. The native optical properties of the lens show some barrel distortion with a mustache character (barrel in the center, pincushion at the edges), but the lens also has a distortion profile for JPEGs as well as application in most RAW converters.  The distortion correction works extremely well, and impact to sharpness is exceptionally minimal.  If it helped increase the performance in other areas, I’m more than happy with the tradeoff of some digital distortion correction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Loxia 21mm also shows some vignetting at wide apertures that can also be corrected with a profile, though stopped down this mostly disappears.  Overall, not much to worry about here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With flare, the lens itself performs admirably. There is no loss of contrast with bright lights in the frame, including mid-day sun in a clear blue sky.  It also produces almost no ghosting whatsoever.  However, there is something about the construction of the lens that does cause reflections off the image sensor to be visible in the final images, at least on the A7 II. Going back through all my other images, I was able to spy subtle hints of reflections with a few other lenses, but nothing like the blatant ones present with the Loxia. The original A7 had a fairly major issue with sensor reflections, and the Mark II tempered that quite a bit.  However the Loxia brings out the worst in the A7 II with regards to sensor reflection, so if using it on that body (or the original A7 or A7R), you’ll really want to watch it if the sun is prominent in the frame.  From talking with other photographers, the issue is minimal to non-existent on the A7R II.  See the shot below for a typical presentation of these sensor reflections<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sensor<\/a>
Sensor reflections show with the Loxia 21mm on the A7 II<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You’ll also notice in the shot above and in the night shots, that the Loxia 21mm also produces rather spectacular stars with point light sources.  Some people don’t like sunstars, but I think they look rather cool if they are presented nicely, and the Loxia 21mm does so.  Its 10 bladed aperture produces stars with 10 points that show very defined spokes from light sources, even wide open (the aperture blades never fully open to a circle).  If you like sunstars, you’ll really like the Loxia 21mm.  If you hate sun stars, you may want to look at other options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all, the optical performance of the lens is simply phenomenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue: Conclusion and Image Samples<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Pros<\/h4>\n\n\n\n