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General Lens overview?


itsjakob

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Hi there (again),

 

Thanks to everyone who helped on my other thread. I will soon be investing in a M8 and am starting to look at my 1st lens. Is there a site with a overview of the various lenses? I can find specific info on a Lens pretty easily but not a general overview of the various families, Summicron, Elmarit, Noctilux etc.

 

I think I'll go for a 35mm (50mm) or 50mm (67mm) for my 1st lens but not sure (other than price) why to go with a Cron over a Elmarit?

 

Thanks

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Voigtlander is okay too.

 

But indeed. I prefer the 28mm (37mm) or the 21mm (28mm) of leica. The benefit of the 28mm is the viewfinder shows it. So I only use the 28mm, 35mm and the 90mm (so no 50 or 135).

 

I only use the Summicron. The focussing it's much faster than the Elmarit.

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The above linked site (Ken Rockwell) is not too complete... given that you are approaching your FIRST Leica M lens, probably the first of a certain series (CANNOT be otherwise... :)) , may be you deserve a massive immersion on Leica glass :

Home

Erwin Puts... apart many articles on specific lenses in his download area you can access the pdf text of his famous Leica Lens Compendium ("llcforweb").

Puts tests are very "scientifically" oriented... with a style of their own... as a more "user oriented" set of lenses'tests, you can go to Reid Reviews ( Welcome to ReidReviews) : a payment subscription which, expecially for a new Leica M user, is definitely worth its cost.

 

Personal advices from a happy M8 user for 3 years (but M user for 24...):

1) take a 35 as first focal - then a 75 or 90 - then a 21 or 24

2) take a Leica lens as your first one , even used if you prefer to spare something.

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Lens qualities are pretty much the same within the same design era and only a very experienced person can see differences.

 

Base your decision on lens speed that you require, nothing else. My usual kit is 35 2.0 version 4, new 50 2.8, new 90 4.0. I have faster lenses and older ones which I like for their image quality, ie 125 2.5 Hector, 50 2.0 rigid and DR.

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You can't do better than subscribe to Reid Reviews for this kind of thing.

 

Chris

 

How much is it? It is a very "HTML 1.0" site! I couldn't see the price of the subscription although I didn't look very hard. Seemed odd to not make it easy to find.

 

Regarding the lenses it seems that the aperture is the main difference between the groups and that's about it.

 

I did look at the Zeiss 2.8 but opted for a new 28mm f2.8 Leica M 6-bit. I'll be scooping it up tomorrow.

 

Thanks everyone for your input. The 28mm (37mm ish actual) seemed like a nice balance for a 1st lens.

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Regarding the lenses it seems that the aperture is the main difference between the groups and that's about it.

 

I did look at the Zeiss 2.8 but opted for a new 28mm f2.8 Leica M 6-bit. I'll be scooping it up tomorrow.

 

.

 

Good choice, but you will discover over time its not just the aperture thats the difference. In this respect Reid Reviews is a must read, it doesn't use graphs but real images, and discusses the upsides and the downsides of different lenses with no favouritism. Its all good common sense.

 

Steve

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These may help - they're a little out of date, but still useful.

 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

 

 

 

 

Regards,

 

Bill

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