Worlds Quickest Review: Leica Leitz Elmarit-M 21mm f/2.8.

This is going to be a very short review.

I bought the Leica Elmarit-M 21mm f/2.8.

I used it once.

I sold it.

The lens was excellent. The problem was 21mm.

There. Review finished.

But since you're already here, I suppose I should explain.

I wanted a 28mm. Obviously, I bought a 21mm.

My favourite focal length is 40mm, and that's where most of my photography happens.

Back when I shot Fujifilm, I also had a lens equivalent to 28mm on full frame. It wasn't something I used every day, but it was useful. Mountains, landscapes, travel, or simply those occasions when 40mm wasn't wide enough.

So I thought I'd eventually get something similar for my Leica M11.

A 28mm would have been the obvious choice.

Then I went on eBay.

This is generally where sensible plans go to die.

I found a Leica Elmarit-M 21mm f/2.8. It wasn't the focal length I was looking for, but the auction price was ridiculously low — something like two or three times below the normal market price.

So naturally, instead of buying the 28mm I actually wanted, I placed a bid on a 21mm I wasn't sure I wanted.

And won.

I had accidentally become a 21mm photographer.

How different can 21mm really be?

Quite different, as it turns out.

I put the Elmarit on my M11 and walked down to the little port in my village.

Normally, shooting an M is all about framing. That's a big part of why I like rangefinders in the first place. You're constantly making little decisions about what stays inside the frame and what gets excluded.

With 21mm my first impression was:

Oh. Everything is in the photograph.

Everything.

The boat is in there.

The harbour is in there.

That building over there is in there.

My shoes are probably in there.

And because 21mm gives you so much depth of field, focusing hardly felt like much of an event either.

I had brought my Visoflex 2 and obviously the M11 has live view, but I quickly realised I didn't really need either.

Point camera vaguely towards Estonia.

Press shutter.

Photograph achieved.

I'd somehow turned a Leica M11 into a very expensive point-and-shoot.

The lens isn't the problem

Here's the annoying part.

The Elmarit itself is lovely.

It's beautifully made, the focusing feels smooth and the images have the saturated colours and contrast I'd hope for from a Leica lens of this era.

And 21mm isn't inherently a bad focal length either.

Used well, an ultra-wide can produce fantastic photographs. Architecture, landscapes, environmental photography — there's a reason these lenses exist.

I just don't know how to see at 21mm.

And I don't particularly want to learn right now.

With 40mm, I see the photograph before I raise the camera.

With 21mm, I raise the camera and discover that I've apparently agreed to photograph the entire surrounding municipality.

That's not the lens's fault.

It's mine.

21mm is not a slightly wider 28mm

This was probably the useful lesson.

I had convinced myself that 21mm wasn't that far away from 28mm.

It's only seven millimetres, right?

Unfortunately, focal lengths don't work according to how small the numbers look when you subtract them.

Going from 40mm to 28mm feels wider.

Going from 40mm to 21mm feels like somebody removed a wall from the room.

You don't simply fit a little more into the photograph. The entire way you compose changes.

Foreground becomes enormously important. Things near the edges stretch away from you. You need to actively manage all that extra space instead of simply enjoying the fact that you've managed to fit everything in.

That's a skill.

I didn't have it.

So I sold it

And that's basically the review.

The Leica Elmarit-M 21mm f/2.8 is beautifully made, feels great to use and produced absolutely nothing that made me question the quality of the lens.

I just didn't enjoy photographing at 21mm.

Maybe one day I'll come back to it. There's something appealing about forcing yourself to work with a focal length that doesn't immediately make sense to you.

But this time?

I wanted a 28mm.

I found a cheap 21mm.

I convinced myself they were basically the same thing.

They weren't.

I sold it.

Sometimes a bargain is just a cheap way of discovering what you don't want.

Sample Photos

Want to See More?

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👉 www.mpb.com

Thanks for reading—and let me know in Instagram if you’ve had a different experience with this lens. I’d love to hear how it’s working for you!