[Zig]

There is a long story to this but I won't bore you with it here.
After some grinding sacrifices, saving hard, getting rid of the Canon16-35mm f2.8L MkII(ouch) and simply taking a step of faith, I received a Distagon 21mm f2.8 in the post today.
I, probably like yourselves, have read all sorts of exuberant, well- and ill-informed hormonal responses to this lens that range from informative to knee-jerk mouthings of greed, envy and sour grapes that someone got the lens before someone else did.
I tried it out for an hour tonight and truly my most sensible and restrained summation includes so many superlatives that I fear I'll be deemed as emotional as anyone else.
I'll keep my comments brief. I may have led a sheltered life by not having experienced Canon's 17mm TSE or 24mm f1.4 MkII, Nikon's 14-24G and many others. Be that as it may, this is to date for me the best by far of any 35mm-system lens that I have ever experienced. The only way I can sum up my (highly subjective) response is thus: my very best shots with my best Canon lenses occasionally succeeded in being extremely exciting representations of what I saw. The Zeiss feels capable of bringing the entirety of the experience away with me.
Here is a shot I took tonight: handheld, ISO 100, f8, 1/100s. It is merely a totally untouched raw conversion: no cropping, no sharpening, no polariser, no added saturation, contrast, sharpening or anything at all. There was a great deal light reflecting from the limestone building but I didn't add any exposure compensation. All is as it was.
It's not sheer sharpness or acuity(and f8 is, so pixel-addicts tell me, not as sharp as f5.6); it's partly because I have instant confidence in the edges and corners; but there's a complete sense of wholeness across the frame for me too, a sort of connectedness and shimmer that is not so much visible as perceived.
Hmmm. Anyway, before I lose myself, here's a shot.
It's not a brilliant shot, more of an undisciplined point and shoot. If this were the Canon 16-35mm Mk2..heck, even the rest of my Canon L lenses..I would be computing how much to allow for crop, what size it could go to, what's the best compromise so as to minimise the uneven acuity across the frame. It just cuts me more slack and gives me confidence to step out.
First there's the whole image, followed by 100% crops right into the corners and edge, just so you can get a feel for the lens.

[Toad]

Very impressive!! Can't wait to see more.

[matthew]

Man.

Nice.