2.03.2024

I've been shooting more in black and white. Sometimes I think wide angle views benefit the most from that format.

 



A while back I bought a cheap, TTArtisan 21mm f1.5 lens for the L mount systems. I used it a couple of times but I thought, at the time, that I just didn't see well with very wide angle lenses. I usually have a wide angle "limiter" in my brain that cuts off anything wider than 28mm. But last month I came across the lens again at the back of a drawer and thought that I should either give it another try or move it out and along to someone who might appreciate it more. What a difference a sunny day can make...

I used the lens in conjunction with a Leica SL2 camera and I could see that setting the camera to "monochrome" did more than just desaturate the colors. Leica seems to have created an invisible (as in: not in the menu) preset for monochrome Jpegs that takes into consideration the way black and white film works. Panchromatic black and white film. I also noted that they seem to have tweaked the way the camera responds to different colors. Almost as if when using it this way you are getting the result of a yellow filter or maybe even a weak orange filter. Skies get dramatically darker and contrasts seem to pop. 

My earlier dismissal of the lens was premature. I paid less than $300 for the lens, new, and when I looked carefully at these more recent results I was much more impressed than I was with my first outings --- which were on cloudy, winter days. The lens has some geometric distortion. Yes. And it has some smearing of details in the corners. Sure does. But it delivers a good level of sharpness in the center of the frame and when shooting in black and white I love the way the lens, at least in the center 2/3rds of the frame, renders things like clouds and hard lines of buildings. 

Since I'm not a power user of wide angles, and since I don't attract clients who would be best served by ultra-wide angle photographs I find this lens is more than adequate for my casual/artsy use. But, of course, when I get good stuff from a focal length like this one my thoughts immediately go to how much better the results might be if I invested in something like a Carl Zeiss 21mm f4.5 ZM. A much smaller and much slower lens. And maybe a much better corrected lens. Chances are I'll stumble across one when I least expect it and I'll mistakenly take its abrupt appearance as a sign from the photo gods that I should snap it up and try it out. Bad wiring, I suspect. 



11 comments:

Travis said...

I, too, am not very wired for wide angle. But man, I love these black and whites.

Biro said...

Nice work, Kirk. I hope you find the Zeiss 21mm soon. But, in the meantime, don’t forget the Sigma 17mm f/4. It belongs right up there with the 24/3.5, 45/2.8 and 90/2.8. Compact size, autofocus, aperture ring and all.

Kirk, Photographer/Writer said...

Thanks Travis and Biro.

Also, Biro, a second "thank you" because I had forgotten about the Sigma 17.

JC said...

KEH has a new 21mm ZM (silver) for $899. (I look at KEH a lot.)

JC said...

An addition to the comment above: The ZM reviews are great.

Eric Rose said...

I love my 17mm on my D800e!

Anonymous said...

Don't know about B&W, but David Muench was/is magic with a 75 Super Angulon and 4x5 Linhof Technika. Absolutely stunning images in color from that combination.

James Weekes said...

I set my cameras to square 90% of the time and that seems to cure a lot of the vignetting in lenses like this.

karmagroovy said...

Love those puffy white clouds against a dark sky. Reminds me of the days when I never left home without my red filter.

jw52tx said...

Did you notice that those buildings are all leaning to the center?

Kirk, Photographer/Writer said...

never noticed. Not even once. That's exactly the way they looked to my eyes when I looked through the camera.

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