Voigtlander 21mm f/4 Skopar Leica users love wide lenses, and I'm no exception. I also love to keep money in my pocket whenever possible, so when I started looking for a 21mm ultrawide for my M6, the famed Leica 21/2.8 Elmarit certainly wasn't an option. Costing over $2000, I simply couldn't justify the cost of a lens that I won't be using THAT much (I love my 35mm Summicron... it's my workhorse, and the only lens that I purchased new). So with Leica out of the equation, I promptly started hunting elsewhere, and the Voigtlander name popped up. The 21mm f/4 Skopar from Voigtlander comes in black and silver (as all good lenses should... right!?). I went for black, to match all my other Leica lenses. The packaging from Voigtlander is done very nicely, and the first thing you notice upon removing the lens from the box is how SMALL it is! It's tiny... as in, as small as a roll of film. If you're going to be mounting the Skopar on a Leica M Bayonet mount camera, you also need to purchase the screw to bayonet adaptor from Voigtlander. Both the lens and the adaptor are of top notch fit and finish. Once the lens is screwed into the adaptor, you can mount and unmount it just like any other bayonet mount lens, using the cap supplied with the adaptor as a rear lens cap. There's also a very handy little focus tab, which makes life much easier if you actually want to focus rather than use the decent, although not as good as the Leica's, depth of field scale on the lens. The 21mm accessory viewfinder supplied with the lens sits nice and snug in the accessory hotshoe of my camera, so I don't worry about it falling out. However, I do worry about scratching the large front element, since no case is supplied for either the lens or the finder. However, for under $500 including the adaptor, I can't complain too much. Looking through the accessory finder, you'll be astounded to behold a scene that's even brighter than what you're looking at with your eyes. This is the brightest viewfinder I've every used (yes, even brighter than the M6 finder... you really need to look through it to understand). I noticed an odd coating on the finder, which undoubtedly has something to do with this phenomenon. So, I've now got the lens mounted, the finder sitting in the hotshoe, and film in the camera, when I hear, "Honey... time to go grocery shopping!". Fantastic... but wait! I'm a daring street photographer, and I've just purchased a lens with incredible depth of field (just to give you an idea, at f/4 which is wide open for this lens, depth of field extends from around 6 feet to infinity. Pretty impressive!). I'll just head over to do some shopping with the camera around my neck, the 21mm Skopar mounted, and some Delta 3200 rated at 1600 in the camera. So we get to the store, and I take a quick meter reading... f/8 and 1/60th. Great! At f/8 my depth of field extends from 3 feet to infinity. That pretty much covers me for some undercover hip shooting in the grocery store. So how sharp is it? Well, I don't have any MTF chart comparisons for you, but here are some samples of what I ended up with at the grocery store. As you can see, focusing with a 21mm lens isn't really necessary, especially if it only opens up to f/4. At f/8, which is what these were taken at, you REALLY don't need to worry. After doing some more shooting with this lens, I have to say I'm very impressed. Even shooting into the sun on several occasions, I haven't had any problems with flare. Sharpness is excellent, and I can see no light falloff in the corners of images. While it isn't as sharp as any of my Leica lenses, it's by no means a bad performer. I highly recommend it! **** Update 10/5/02 I've sold this lens. Not due to any fault of the lens, but simply because I don't use it all that often. Just not my favorite focal length. I still say it's a great buy for the money (but only if you use it!). Want to read some of my other Equipment Reviews?