28 CV Ultron or Elmarit?

[grober]

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The 28/2.8 Elmarit's small size makes it very appealing while the 28/1.9 Ultron's extra f-stop makes it attractive too. The primary detraction for the Ultron (with lens hood) is its much larger physical size which does block a considerable corner in the M8's viewfinder.

 

One way to compensate for the Ultron's size is to use it without any lens hood. (NEVER without a filter of some sort!) You'll need to weigh the risks of doing this (lens flare, etc.) but sans lens hood, the Ultron is wonderfully fast not to mention cost-effective lens for use on the M8.

 

-g

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[sean_reid]

Thanks everyone for your useful feedback. I feel more informed than I did before. Happy to hear anything more as well.

 

Sean, the custom milled adapters are such a unique item... until someone starts machining them in mass quantities the hand coding solution you propose is still a rather difficult one. Your review doesn't include hand-coded Ultron photos yet, any sense when those will be available?

 

Do you mean the vignetting/cyan drift pictures? Hand coding isn't particularly difficult but the lack of permanence is a problem.

 

Sean

[sean_reid]

The type of paint shouldn't really matter. However, this paint looks relatively shiny. I would recommend using matte paint, perhaps model paint, to avoid reflections off the surface giving false readings.

 

I use black and white enamel nail polish (as suggested by an art store owner). It seems to hold up very well and it can always be removed with nail polish remover if one chooses to recode.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

[ibogost]

Do you mean the vignetting/cyan drift pictures?

 

Right, that's what I was referring to. It would just be another data point to consider. Your review suggests that the Biogon overrorrects, the Ultron slightly undercorrects when self-coded. But both of these conclusions seemed somewhat tentative pending further tests.

 

For me, the price of the Biogon is close enough to the Elmarit that I'd probably choose the latter and forget it rather than fuss with the coding, especially since it's no faster, and the Elmarit is smaller.

 

I'm probably overanalyzing all of this and should just choose based on optical features and drawing -- not to mention price, which as I mentioned at the outset is a consideration.