new Leica User, quest for optics

[maxofrome]

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Good afternoon to all the people that are in this great forum.

My name is massimiliano and I am an italian photographer who took the passion for Leica one year ago and now after having completed my project funding I can afford my 1st Leica M9 and Summicron 35mm .

Now I ask your help to choose a second optics being planned a long travel to Japan, and I would like to select a second lens for streets and portraits.

Coming from DSLR (aps-c word) I am a bit confused if 50mm summicron is too close to the 35mm as focal range.

 

Thanks to all!

[bill]

Welcome, Massimiliano.

 

50mm is only too close to 35mm if you feel it is so. I along with many others regard the two focal lengths as being very different. There are many choices of 50mm lens, both old and new and a lot depends on how you see the world and how you want to depict it. The Summicron is an excellent "general" choice.

 

Regards,

 

Bill

[jaapv]

Personally I would go for a 75. Whether a 50 is "too close" I won't go there, but it is certain that 35-75 is more versatile if funds are tight the Voigtlander 75/2.5 is an excellent choice (Cameraquest, also for the adapter)

[Delcredere]

Welcome!

 

These things are very personal but I would go for the Leica Apo-Summicron-M 75mm f/2 ASPH.

 

Have a great trip.

[nik_nik9]

Hi Massimiliano,

Right now I just am on a photo trip in Japan and I'm enjoying it a lot! My standard lens on the M9 is the 35 Summicron as you have. And my other two lenses are the 50mm Summilux and the 75mm Summarit. I do a lot of street photography. With the 35mm you can act very quickly and don't have to focus so precisely, actually I guess the distance often and don't look through the viewfinder. For more precise shooting I love the Summilux and the Summarit I use about in the same manner, just a little bit more narrow angle. For street photography I would rather skip the 75mm than the 50mm. You still can crop, the M9 gives a lot of quality reserve.

In no way I find 50mm and 35mm are too close. For me there's complete different shooting with the two focal length. With 35mm you get on your picture about what your eyes see. So if you want to capture a scene as you see it, 35mm is ideal. With 50mm you make already a selection of what you see. Actually I find it more challenging to get a good picture with 50mm, but good ones are then really good

By the way, if you're for a 50mm think of the Summarit. That lens is amazingly good!

 

Enjoy your trip to Japan - you will love it (I've been there now 10 times in the last 6 years )

Nik

[lars_bergquist]

I have always maintained that 35mm and 50mm (actually, 52mm) are different enough to make it a reasonable choice to own both, and even, on occasion, to carry both. But as your only two lenses?

 

Both the 35 and the 50 are really 'standard lenses' – the short and the long, respectively. The classical supplement to the 35mm has always been 90mm: 35mm for the overview, 90 for detail. I admit to being biased: I have no use for the 75mm length. But in that case, we are all biased against or for some focal length. I will not force my own preferences down your throat however.

 

The old man from the Age of the Super-Angulon

[ramosa]

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If you're planning to use just these two lenses for a while, I would definitely go 35-75 or even 35-90. I would way rather have a tele lens, instead of a 50, with a 35. The 35 and 50 do vary in perspective and distance, but distance can be overcome by moving a couple steps forward. (I have been recently trying to figure out this exact thing and am coming to this general conception of what would be a good 2-lens kit.)

[maxofrome]

thanks all to your support!

@nik_nik9 : I am very happy to receive a feedback from whom is on field. I was in Japan already 3 times and that time I want to catch the essence of the country with the support of Leica lenses. About summarit I am happy to listen a nice feedback from this lens. I have to admit that my local reseller aware to do not choose summarit version of any lens being the cheap Leica lens. I appriciate such information. I have to talk back to my reseller.

 

@bill : thanks for the feedback I will ask my reseller for a "street test " in Rome being able to verify personally if is too close to 35mm.

 

@lars_bergquist: I will carry with me a DSLR system too, based on Pentax body and remarkable FA 43mm and DA70mm. But In understand that a 2nd Leica lens should be in the range of 75mm.

 

Thanks everyone for their time!

[Voigt]

My first two lenses were Summicrons, 35 and 50. I consider the 35 a mild wide-angle lens and the 50 a mild telephoto. I have nine Leica lenses now, but if I had only two to keep, they would be my first two.

[250swb]

A second lens is always going to be a difficult choice if the first lens is already a 35mm. Its like that joke where somebody stops a local to ask directions, and the local replies 'well I wouldn't start from here'. Whichever way you go the next logical choice is close, either a 28mm or a 50mm.

 

I often carry a 35mm and a 50mm and sometimes they are too close together, sometimes not, it depends on the scene. Same for 35mm or 28mm, although here there is a more dramatic change in perspective so the lens has a very different feel than simply walking closer or further away from the subject. So given the OP wants to do some portraits I would go for a 50mm, a nice Summicron perhaps, it has to be done sooner or later, and after that the logic makes more sense because the next could be a 28mm.

 

Steve

[pico]

Summicron lenses. That's the final answer.

[maxofrome]

Summicron lenses. That's the final answer.

 

thanks for the tip! I fin that lens fantastic an in line with my budget. Summilux are even great but really not affordable for me right now.

[Christoph13]

What Lars said. If you talk about the next lens being the second lens in a two lens arsenal, you may want to go longer than 50. Personally I have started with the 50 Summicron and find it is a wonderful lens. That said, if I owned a 35 as my wide lens I would choose 75 or 90 as the long second lens.

I have the 90 Elmarit which is both affordable second hand and very good, I also hear very nice things about the 90 Summarit. Both lenses are lightweight enough to carry all day.

The 75 Summicron may be more expensive than you have planned, but it is technically the best lens I have tried so far, extremely sharp and focusses down to 0.7m which is nice for close-ups. Framelines are a bit off, though, at least in my M8. Still, a very capable lens.

If you favour 75, again don't dismiss the Summarit, only two-thirds slower than the Summicron but a lot less expensive.

Enjoy your trip

 

Christoph13

[lars_bergquist]

If 75mm is for you, I agree that the Summarit is an excellent buy. While I had a M8, I also owned a 75mm Summarit. I was really impressed, not least by its excellent resistance to flare. But while 75mm on the M8 was equivalent to 100mm, with the M9 it is just 75mm, which I don't care for, so I sold it, going back to 90mm.

 

The old man from the Age of the Super-Angulon

[lars_bergquist]

Summicron lenses. That's the final answer.

 

Once I read (possibly even on this forum) about somebody who long ago asked an old grumpy Hungarian-American photo dealer what lens he should buy for his new Leica M. The fellow just growled, in his thick accent, "Summicron". When asked to nuance his advice a bit, he just continued to growl "Summicron".

 

The teller of the story thought that was a very wise old man. I would say that he was a remakably dumb specimen (unless of course he had a couple of Summicron lenses on his shelves that he wanted to sell). For ever since the middle of the 1950's, "Summicron" has not been the name of a specific lens design, or even less of a special quality. It means just "lens speed f:2". Period. So what he said was just "no matter what you are going to use it for, buy a f:2 lens".

 

If that counts for wisdom, then I am a fool, and a happy one.

 

The old man from the Age of the Super-Angulon

[ldhrads]

I have to agree with Bill, I shoot 35 and 50mm on my M9 and both are for me very different. In fact I'm one of those people who prefer a 50 and have 3or 4 of them... But I also always bring a 35 with.

 

I have not picked up a 75 but I do shoot a 90 and for me that works out great. I would as a second lens consider a 50mm. I think between the 35 and 50 you will see a whole different world when you shoot. For me, I enjoy putting either on for a whole day and swapping for the next. Unless I really know what I will be shooting.

 

Have fun

[chris_tribble]

If you're planning to use just these two lenses for a while, I would definitely go 35-75 or even 35-90. I would way rather have a tele lens, instead of a 50, with a 35. The 35 and 50 do vary in perspective and distance, but distance can be overcome by moving a couple steps forward. (I have been recently trying to figure out this exact thing and am coming to this general conception of what would be a good 2-lens kit.)

From my experience, 35 + 90 is going to be the most flexible combination. You can also shop around and get 90s for good prices (800-900 Euro). I use the Apo-Summicron and love it, but if you don't need f2 then the Elmarits or the Summarit are excellent lenses.

 

With these two you can cover street, portraiture, events and landscape (and with a visoflex you can even use your 90 for macro I've just discovered!). The 50 can come later... along with the 28

[lct]

Yes 35 + 50 is too close imho. I would go 35 + 75 or 35 + 90. The 90/2 apo is a fantastic lens but it is a rather bulky one as well. So if size is a concern, my advice would be the superb 75/2 asph instead. Will match your 35/2 asph very well. I have no experience with the 75/2.5 but it is highly praised by many LUF members here so it is a serious option certainly.

[elgenper]

I have the current 35 and 75 Summicrons with my M9, and they complement each other perfectly. The 35 is a very competent lens with beautiful drawing, but the 75 is really something special!

 

The only thing that isn´t perfect is the finder frame for the 75: just some corner markings just inside the far more visible 50 frame. Rather difficult to use correctly to begin with, but practice does help....

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[lct]

...The only thing that isn´t perfect is the finder frame for the 75: just some corner markings just inside the far more visible 50 frame. Rather difficult to use correctly to begin with, but practice does help....

+1