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I took a Sony A7 with one lens, a Vivitar 17-28mm f.4. to Switzerland. I tried out the panoramic setting. Pretty cool automatic stitching.

Background: Photography is a hobby, not my profession. But, I still want to do as well as I can. To that end, I'm a perpetual student/question-asker (and a lover of technology:-) I presently shoot raw mode using: a7R Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS (SEL2470Z) Sony FE 70-200mm F4 G OSS (SEL70200G) and already plan to buy: Sony FE 90mm F2.8 Macro G OSS My post-processing is presently done in Lightroom 5 and Photoshop Elements 13 on my calibrated-display Mac. Now I also want to buy a rectilinear "super" wide angle lens for my a7R. My list of candidate full-frame lenses includes… Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35mm F4 ZA OSS (SEL1635Z) Voigtländer 15 mm Super Wide Heliar, version III Samyang 14mm f/2.8 Question (1): Should other candidate lenses be added to my list? Question (2): How do my candidate lenses compare? (A rather open ended question :-) Thanks in advance for your thoughts and comments. Marty

Owning most of the beautiful Contax C/Y lenses, I could never really decide to spend the massive $$$$ for the 21mm Distagon. I might have gone for it if it wasn't so heavy and bulky too and it seems it's distortion is even more than the 18mm. I think nobody denies that it took the crown in 21mm in it's time, and most others in that range didn't even get near. Nevertheless, there are a few other mothers with beautiful daughters. So, what about alternatives in vintage glass? Recently, I tested two other famed ones side-by-side on my Sony A7R, the Minolta MC W. Rokkor 21mm f2.8 and the tiny Olympus Zuiko 21mm f3.5 (the later multicoated version). They can both be bought for a fraction of the C/Y Distagon. Both are floating element designs, the Rokkor is focusing down to 25cm and the Olympus to 20cm, and both have a front thread that doesn't rotate. My Rokkor is in good, used condition and the Zuiko is a limited edition version and like new, a true collector's item. Observations: stopped down the Rokkor has the lead in corner sharpness, both are sharp from the start in the center. Remember, this is pixel peeping on A7R FF with 36 mpx, you may have difficulties to see a difference anything less. Distortion is complex mustache for both, but a bit less with the Zuiko. CA is visible in the corners on both, but manageable. WO, the Rokkor has more vignetting, at f8 both are excellent. The colors are warmer with the Rokkor. Conclusion: You can't go wrong with these, they are head-to-head, choosing one is more about personal preferences. I like the colors of the Rokkor better, but it's heavier, built like a tank. The Zuiko ist tiny for it's performance. I checked a Rolleinar 21mm too. While many Rollei lenses were built by Zeiss and just had a different coating, Zeiss never gave their 21mm design away. The 21mm Rollei is identical (apart from the mount) to the Mamiya Sekor, so let's see: Not too bad either, but a bit weaker than the Olympus 21mm f3.5 in most categories: A tad softer in the corners, more vignetting, a bit more distortion and a tiny bit less wide. Worst point though: T stop seems to be much weaker (or they are lying about f-stop): wide open @3.5 the Olympus is a full stop faster than the Rollei/Mamiya at f4! So, if you are looking for a cheaper, much smaller and lighter vintage alternative to the Zeiss Contax Distagon in 21mm, the Olympus is it! It's only fault is the red ring that can show up on rare occasions with heavy backlight. Check this site: http://www.stefanrohloff.de/20_olyspecial.php?en=1 The Zeiss (Jena) 20mm Flektogon is another interesting alternative, but I didn’t test it here – sample variation of these lenses from former East Germany is massive and a test of a single one wouldn’t give you really useful info.

Just had a day of testing with the brand-new, improved 15mm prime from Voigtländer. They call it the 'Aspherical III'. This lens is the improved version of the older 'Aspherical II', which had a lot of problems on a full-frame camera's like the A7: heavy vignetting, and lack of detail and a lot of chromatic aberration in the corners. So I was very curious about how this lens would perform. The results are absolutely positive: there is still some vignetting, but nothing that cannot be easily corrected in PS or Lightroom. But the good news is that sharpness is excellent, even in the corners of the image, and at wide open aperture (4.5), and also the colorcast problem has been solved almost entirely. Moreover, this little lens is very well built and finished and very compact. A treat on the A7, even for long walks. It can hold a filter in its thread, but the lens hood is a fixed one. The in-body stabiliation of the A7 mk II works flawlessly, although at this focal lengt that is not such a big deal. This could very well become my favorite lens for my A7 mk II