Review : Carl Zeiss Loxia 21mm

Equipment Review

4 Feb

Brecon Beacons National Park. Sony A7ii + Loxia 21mm, Pol Filter

Here is the 20s version : If you happen to own a sony mirrorless camera, need (and can afford) a wide angle lens, just buy this lens. You won't regret it.

This is a series of articles about alternatives lenses I've used and I recommend. This is a lens people were waiting for. Many tried the old 21mm Carl Zeiss adapted for Canon, Sony etc. It was a pain to use it. And then Sony introduced Loxia line.

In the early days of Sony Mirrorless camera offerings (A7 Gen 1) there was a lack of a decent wide angle lens. Carl Zeiss 21mm from Contax was always a gold standard for the earlier Canon DSLRs however it became very expensive once it became a legend. Adapating it to Sony cameras was still difficult though. LIke many, I resorted to using Canon FD offerings such as 20mm and 16-35L. Everything changed once Loxia line was introduced. It is near flawless on the full frame mirrorless except perhaps Gen 1 cameras due to the internal reflections issue.

Why this lens -

This is a torture test. The sun is directly into the lens however the color, contrast and sharpness is absolutely stunning. Click to view large.

Small, sharp edge to edge, takes 52mm filters and just works. I have stopped worrying about depth of field bracketing. This lens just magically is sharp from nearest element to the far afield mountains. f11 and be there.

Operation

Being a native mount lens there is nothing special to mention about the lens operation. I’ve declicked aperture on both the lenses as I often use it for video work as well. However lens is sharp from wide open to around f18. I’ve never needed to stop it down any further. In fact I mostly use it between f11 and f14. All the images on this page are from single shot for the DoF.

For the following image I made in the Brecon Beacons National Park. This is stitch of a two vertical images then cropped for a rough 4x5 ratio which I prefer.

What is Good -