Just Got My Loxia 21

[WhiteTrefoil]

I slowly realized only in recent years that SONY / Zeiss' new lenses usually ship earlier in China than US & EU...

 

Very very impressive slogan.

 

Since there are a lot of similar tests / reviews around internet, and I'm not even an amateur level tester, I'm not going to do any detail test / review.

 

But since what I do care seem to be different than many others, I'm going to share some of my first impressions, in case there's somebody similar to me.

 

1. It's small but quite heavy, a little bit heavier than my expectation. It will be a little too heavy for wristbands, but quite acceptable for common straps.

 

2. Focus ring seems a little bit looser than Loxia 35 & 50. I like it.

 

 

3. Because of the much closer closest focus distance, even with a 90deg of rotation angle, the DOF ruler is still much tighter than ZM lenses. I feel I need some time to be familiar with it. I'll be much happier if it's 180-270deg.

 

4. Actually the whole barrel (include the glossy part) above the DOF ruler is the focus ring.

 

5. I saw somebody said the aperture ring is too loose and very easy to be operated mistakenly. I feel it's indeed loose but since I'm used to rotate the front part of lens, I rarely touch the aperture ring mistakenly, at least till now.

 

6. It's really pretty. But if without the hood, it will be a little uglier. Anyway, it's still prettier than many other lenses (to me). And I won't use the hood unless in rain.

 

7. The hood will cover almost 1cm on the barrel. Although it's not officially declared to be weather sealing, with the hood and the nice blue sealing ring, I feel confident to bring it into rain (not too heavy). Actually it's now raining in Shanghai, so my Loxia 21's first mission was in rain.

 

8. BTW, since the barrel feels like a piece of solid iron, I guess the rubber sealing ring may become the first part to break...

 

9. And about the distortion, although the official whitepaper declares a terrible -2.0 distortion (that even curve appear all around internet are with in-camera correction set to ON), it's quite acceptable to me. It's much much much better than the FE28 "Fisheye".

[Fapertur]

How is the sound with yours when you quickly focus manually? Mine sounds like a gear turning. Very different to the 35 and 50 Loxia.

[padam]

Does it hit infinity focus precisely at the hard stop?

I've read that other Loxias don't.

 

Thanks.

[Fapertur]

Does it hit infinity focus precisely at the hard stop?

I've read that other Loxias don't.

 

Thanks.

[Fapertur]

Nope. There is some spare room to focus at infinity to accommodate temp compensation and inconsistencies in mount dimensions. You need to look through the finder to precisely focus at infinity. Same as 35 and 50 Loxias. This is all described in the manual that comes with the lens.

[WhiteTrefoil]

How is the sound with yours when you quickly focus manually? Mine sounds like a gear turning. Very different to the 35 and 50 Loxia.

My one has some noise. wuu~~~ like the sound of wind...

[WhiteTrefoil]

Does it hit infinity focus precisely at the hard stop?

I've read that other Loxias don't.

 

Thanks.

 

 

Nope. There is some spare room to focus at infinity to accommodate temp compensation and inconsistencies in mount dimensions. You need to look through the finder to precisely focus at infinity. Same as 35 and 50 Loxias. This is all described in the manual that comes with the lens.

Like Fapertur said. No. But it's quite close compare to my ZM lenses and M28/2.8. It's like M50/1.4.

 

Actually I've never got a lens has prefect hit at infinity. Even my native FE35, 55, 28 won't.

[WhiteTrefoil]

I just realized a wired thing... When I tried to shoot through office window just to kill time...

 

It seems the aperture of Loxia 21 is NOT round even at f/2.8...

 

[seb]

Did you made more tests with the bokeeh? How is it, after a week in use?

[WhiteTrefoil]

Did you made more tests with the bokeeh? How is it, after a week in use?

No... To me it's very rare to use bokeh with this lens. Actually I use hyper-focus in most cases.