Tri Elmar

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Good Morning All.

 

The family is going to Paris on March 30 for 8 days. In the interest of packing light and ease of use, I am considering a 28,25,50 Tri Elmar, thus my travel kit would be an M8, Tri Elmar and 75 Summicron. The one thing holding me back is that I have those focal lengths in primes. If I do not get the Tri Elmar, I will most likely take a 24 Elmarit Asph, 35 Summicron Asph and the 75 Summicron, while leaving the 50 Summilux Asph at home.

 

For those of you that have the Tri Elmar, what are your experiences. Please do not spend too much of your precious time responding, but some short comments would be appreciated.

 

Lastly, the 15, 18, 21 has no appeal to me at this time as I typically do not shoot that wide.

 

Thanks.

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[wizard]

Richard,

 

I assume that you are refering to the 28-35-50 Tri-Elmar. If so, it's a fantastic all purpose travel lens of very high optical quality, apart from the modest f4 full aperture there is no perceivable difference to the current prime lenses. This lens plus a 2.8/90 is what I take when I want to travel light.

 

Enjoy Paris, it is a gorgeous place.

 

Best,

 

Andy

[stunsworth]

The Tri-Elmar is a good lens, but I'd be tempted to take the primes - you can't guarantee the weather in Paris at that time of year.

 

If you want to take the Tri-Elmar I'd take the 35mm or 50mm rather than the 75mm as I think you'd get more use out of it if the light is bad.

[wizard]

...as I think you'd get more use out of it if the light is bad.

 

Steve, if Rich is taking an M8 with him, switching ISO to a higher value is sooo easy

 

I'd concur with you if he would be using film, though.

 

Andy

[steve_l]

Actually, the M8 with a Tri-Elmar is a just as fast as a film M with a fast lens and Tri-X!

 

Just take the Tri and don't be afraid to crank the ISO.....

[stunsworth]

True, but you'd still struggle inside Notre Dame or at night :-)

 

It's a personal thing, but I wouldn't feel comfortable without a resonably short, fast, lens.

 

You can crank up the ISO, but you're also cranking up the noise. That might be important.

[tom0511]

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Coming to Paris 2 years ago I found 2 things important:

1)Low weight, because you walk a lot

2)at least one fast lens for the evenings

 

I would eventually bring th 24/2.8 for available light (its only 2.8 but quit wide) and the Tri-Elmar, or 35cron and Tri-Elmar.

There are some big buildings and sceneries in Paris, so the 24 could be a plus regarding FOV.

So I would og 24 +Tri-Elmar.

[dannirr]

I have travelled quite a bit with the TriElmar - including Paris last year in Spetember - and I did use it in Notre Dame funnily enough (on my M7). I used 100 ISO slide film - and wile it owuld have been nice to have extra aperture, it was not essential nor did it stop me at any time. I do not travel with a tripod, but I use whatever rest I can find, or my "string monopod" - and that has been fine.

 

I think you'll be fine with the TriElmar.

 

Mne is going to Namibia with me next week.

 

Danni

[Scott Root]

Everyone is mentioning the speed of the lens, but what about the compromise of the quality of the tri-elmar in comparision to the fixed focal length lenses, particularly at 28mm?

[jaapv]

I agree with Tom, 24 and Tri-Elmar. I personally don't think the quality of the 28 mm is as bad as is made out by some. It is at least equal, imo, to pre-asph primes. I could go for another combo: 24, 35 or 50 summicron and 90/2.8. Still lightweight and you have that long lens for picking out details, architectural or otherwise. Or, come to think of it, scratch the 50 summicron and take the Elmar-M 2.8/50 collapsible. It will have to be the latest version on the M8, but it is superb and makes the lightest possible combo with the M8.

[danielt]

Richard,

 

Take the TriElmar

During 2 years with my R-D1 and now with my M8, I am using it as perfect traveling lens.

The quality at 28 mm is not the same that primes but only at the corners.

At 35 and 50 mm it is hard to find differences with the primes.

[wizard]

The quality at 28 mm is not the same that primes but only at the corners.

 

And the corners will be cropped by the M8 anyway, so it is not an issue anymore.

 

Apart from that, I find the Tri-Elmar very useable even at the 28mm setting, haven't found anything to object so far. Some people mention a somewhat higher distortion at 28mm, but that is only visible under very critical circumstances, such as long straight lines near and parallel to the very edge of the image.

 

Andy

[AlanJW]

I am planning a similar trip and would take the TE and my 35mm Cron. I rarely use anything greater than 50 so I may go with the VC 75 -- I don;t use it enough to justify the Cron and certainly not the lux.

 

BTW, my trip is late June so if the WATE comes in, that goes too. It'll still all fit in a small bag.

[jrc]

If you can find a place for it, take the 50 summilux. Paris is one reason that I bought a noctilux -- you get some of those crooked deep streets that can be quite dark in the afternoons, and yet present great shots. The lux would also be the perfect thing to use in museums, especially for shooting flat stuff, hand-held, like paintings, where you want to capture every last detail, so you want an low ISO; but they keep the light low and don't allow flash (to protect the pigments in the paintings, especially watercolors) so you really need a fast lens. I say, take the Tri, and the fastest more-or-less normal lens you've got.

 

In fact, depending on where you're staying (how secure your equipment will be) I'd be tempted to take it all. It's not that much, and if you can pick and choose what you take with you, depending on time of day and your destination, you'd do well to take it.

 

JC

[stunsworth]

Paris is one reason that I bought a noctilux

 

I bought one when I lived there :-).

 

Neopan 1600 @ f1, fond memories.

[tom0511]

However I find 50 on a M8 to narrow fov for street and city shooting.

cheers,tom