Zeiss ZE 21mm f2.8 Review

Built like a tank is the first thing that comes to mind when I started looking at the Zeiss ZE lens line. I was never used to lenses that felt so well built, I’d always been on a budget with my school coming at the tail end of the film days and always having to upgrade the camera body during the early days of digital I just never got to use the truly great lenses. This I feel is one of those lenses in both it’s build, the mechanical control of the focus ring and the quality of the images it shoots. It’s not without it’s trade off’s however so we’ll take a look into what you’ll get with these lenses and what you should be thinking about if your thinking of a Zeiss purchase.

Build Quality

A few things you’ll notice in the first minutes you have this lens are the materials, the weight, the overall size and how solid it feels. The materials, the lens barrel is built entirely from metal without the normal plastic that you see in most lenses these days. This total metal construction feels great but also contributes to a weight much higher than you would see from most 21mm lenses.

Focus Type

Growing up in the auto focus world for the most part it was hard thinking about jumping back into the world of manual focus. It takes time to get used to not just pushing the button down half way to get a good focus. You have to think and adjust and adjust some more to get it just where you want it. It’s also not a fast focus system, if you pick up a Canon USM lens and focus it’s a very fast throw normally from close to far but picking up a Zeiss you have a much longer distance to travel. At first this seemed like a deign flaw but those of you using manual focus alot will know this is actually great. By expanding the distance you have to turn the ring to change the focus they have made it infinitely easier to obtain tack sharp focus.

Pro’s and Con’s

Manual Focus – Depends on the User.
Weight – Depends on the situation
Size – 77mm lens is very big and bulky, this is my biggest complaint.

Overall

This has fast become my favorite lens and is leading me to build up my Zeiss lens collection. The image quality from wide open to stopped down is of superb quality. If you are on the lookout for a good wide angle lens and have the money I would look no further than the Zeiss 21mm.

Purchase the Zeiss 21 for Canon or Nikon
(Knowphoto receives a commision on this but you get the lens for the same great Amazon price).