Question About Leica M Focal Lengths

[andit]

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Hi all,

 

Just a quick question about choice of focal lengths for a Leica M. I've just been browsing ebay in the States and ebay in Germany for M lenses. Strange thing - you don't find many lenses on the used market, however, the 90mm focal length lenses are plentiful and relatively inexpensive - we're talking all apertures (Elmars, Crons, Lux's).

 

Now my question - why is 90mm as a focal length not used so often on the M system? Comming from SLR's, I often used 85mm as a portrait lens. Any comments from long time Leica users would be welcomed.

 

Andreas

[scott kirkpatrick]

The M8 has a 1.3333 expansion factor, so a 90mm lens gives you the field of view of 120mm, which is OK for critters, but getting a little long for portraits of people. Also the constant magnification viewfinder of any rangefinder means that telephoto lenses cover a small rectangle in the middle of a much larger field of view. In cases like using a 90 or 130 mm lens, the field of view is pretty close to the size of the rangefinder focussing spot. So framing and focussing suffer with telephotos on a rangefinder. Leica in planning the M8, reached the conclusion that users would be happiest if they supported focal lengths from 24 to 75, which are effectively 32 to 100 mm in equivalent full frame coverage.

 

scott

[robsteve]

Andreas:

 

Other than reasons Scott gave, the 90mm was also a very popular lens in the past. There were many different designs and speeds. There are probably more than a dozen different itterations of the 90mm lens. This is probably why you see a lot on Ebay. A lot were made. I think there were a lot more 35mm and 50mm lenses on Ebay a few months ago, but I suspect a lot of these lenses have since been bought by new M8 users.

[heninger]

The M8 has a 1.3333 expansion factor, so a 90mm lens gives you the field of view of 120mm, which is OK for critters, but getting a little long for portraits of people. Also the constant magnification viewfinder of any rangefinder means that telephoto lenses cover a small rectangle in the middle of a much larger field of view. In cases like using a 90 or 130 mm lens, the field of view is pretty close to the size of the rangefinder focussing spot. So framing and focussing suffer with telephotos on a rangefinder. Leica in planning the M8, reached the conclusion that users would be happiest if they supported focal lengths from 24 to 75, which are effectively 32 to 100 mm in equivalent full frame coverage.

 

scott

 

The 90mm on an M8 has a much larger frame than the focusing patch. Its like 8 or 9x as big. It works fine.

[luigi bertolotti]

Hi all,

 

Just a quick question about choice of focal lengths for a Leica M. I've just been browsing ebay in the States and ebay in Germany for M lenses. Strange thing - you don't find many lenses on the used market, however, the 90mm focal length lenses are plentiful and relatively inexpensive - we're talking all apertures (Elmars, Crons, Lux's).

 

Now my question - why is 90mm as a focal length not used so often on the M system? Comming from SLR's, I often used 85mm as a portrait lens. Any comments from long time Leica users would be welcomed.

 

Andreas

 

I think lot of Leica users have used lot of 90 mm, a perfect companion for M series, and remember that "9cm" was the third lens to be added in the '20 to the Leitz family (first came the 35 and 135); I think you find a lot used just for this: lot sold=lot used : when a measure (90) is much appreciated, people like to buy the new ones and sell the old (but I WILL NOT sell any of my 7 Elmars 90, all different from each other...)

[carstenw]

I pesonally don't find that there are a lot of 90mm Luxes on the market

[spydrxx]

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Although I don't own an M8, I do use the 90mm lenses a lot on my M4 & 6, as well as those with a detachable heads on my Nikon DSLR, where they function like a 135. My favorite (for DSLR usage) is a 2.8 Elmarit. Last year I sold my older classic 90 Summicron for the new version, which unfortunately doesn't have a removable lenshead, but provides razor sharp images. If you keep an eye on Ebay, you'll find a number of good 90s offered in the course of several months. The 90mm short tele-Elmarits seem to command a premium, and have always been a favorite of mine for travel usage.