I’m renting an old Zeiss 21 mm lens for 14 days to see what it’s like and whether or not I should bid to buy it. I’ve been looking for this lens for a long time and it just came on the market of a used lens site.

Zeiss lenses have the best glass of any lenses I’ve ever used. I have one 50 mm used Zeiss lens I got online for $250.  That was a long time ago.

When I first started looking for this lens, it cost more than $1,000 and I didn’t buy it.

This one is much older and somewhat damaged, but the glass is intact and the color and depth of field, and clarity are supposed to be special.

We’ll see.

The bidding would start way lower than the first one and it’s been a while since I did something for my trusty old Canon, which has been somewhat supplanted by the camera on my iPhone.

If I can get it for a few hundred dollars, I just might go for it, but I am also realistic. It is likely to go for more than that, I’ve tried this before. Still, I’ll enjoy using it for a few weeks.

And I am happy with the photos I’ve been taking.

Apple hasn’t completely closed the gap.

There are some photos only a full-frame camera with German glass can take. It’s well known in the phone world that the German glass was perfected for the Nazi military and some people are uncomfortable buying it at any price.

I don’t hold the history of this wonderful glass against the lens. And I will have fun figuring it out either way.

I liked the precision of this photo, the coloring in the sky, the way the lens handled the bright sun. As I fiddle with the settings (no autofocus on this lens), I’ll see what this lens can do that my other lenses can’t do. I love doing that.

In many ways, I’d rather have special lenses for a couple of weeks than keep them for years.