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Smallest and Most Versatile Leica M Lenses


michaelbrenner

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Fully agreed with 35 Cron ( V.1, V.4 & Asph ) by its tack sharp, fast, small, light, tone, color, rendering and the reason of proper length.

 

In case of M8, it should be 28 Elmarit Asph.

Edited by FotoDRF
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Any 35, 40 or 50 'cron.

All are tiny and good.

 

Some 50mm sonnars are great but choose carefully and be prepared for focus shift and a long minimum focus distance.

 

For a single lens I would have trouble committing to anything slower than f/2.

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The Zeiss 35mm/2.8 C-Biogon ZM is great, and almost as compact as the 28mm/2.8 Elmarit ASPH. The two lenses are very modern, high contrast lenses, with low flare, but still recording decent shadow detail for properly exposed DNGs or color negatives.

Edited by sdk
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'Smallest and most versatile' are occasionally two opposing criteria, but a 35mm summicron will always be an obvious first choice for many including me, for both.  For even smaller, although possibly not quite as versatile with some subjects, I'll also throw in the CV 28mm Color-Skopar f3.5.  One of the best non-Leica lenses out there, imo.

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I just love the 28 Elmarit Asph for super close quarters. A dog and it's owner in the stall next to me behind garments while I was eating lunch at local farmer's market, M240.

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Favorite tiny lens?  35 Lux pre-asph.  Dream glow at 1.4, razor sharp at 4 and above. My only complaint would be barrel distortion, but that's easily correctible in post.

 

Similar small lenses, and much cheaper, are the 35 Nokton 1.4 and the 40mm Nokton 1.4.   The 40 Nokton and the 35 Lux are almost always mounted on one of my cameras. 

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I realized that the lens 35/2 IV has been mentioned many times here. I'm doing the opposite thing that moving from the IV to 35/2.8 summaron, a tiny lens and (still) versatile I guess

 

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/247508-downgrade-from-352-iv-to-3528-am-i-crazy/page-1

 

Especially while you don't really need a hood. I own one too, in practice I use the cron IV more often because the 2.0, but I agree that the Summaron draws beautifully

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  • 3 years later...

I just bought the 35mm f/2.8 Summaron and am quite impressed so far.  Still loving my 1937 Sonnar, but lately I've been using a 1970 50mm f/1.4 Summilux just as often for an equally beautiful, though entirely different look.  The Summilux is a bit bigger and quite a bit heavier, but still very small and light for an f/1.4 lens.  

 

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On 5/27/2015 at 6:59 AM, pico said:

Summilux 35mm f/1.4, any series before the ASPH. At f/1.4  has a soft glow in contrasty low light which I like very much. Good OOF.

 

I prefer the one with infinity lock which only makes it a bit easier to remove the lens. Thank goodness  now there are aftermarket shades for them.

Perhaps my favorite M lens. I have the one without infinity lock, and I had it coded. This, and the Summicron-M 50, are my most used lenses on the M, any M. 

 

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On 1/7/2019 at 11:01 PM, semi-ambivalent said:

Anybody have experience with the CV 28mm f/3.5?

I do. it is the smallest lens I own; it is best used on a Monochrom or with B&W film and it is quite wonderful in its tonality/rendering.

 

For color...no so much.

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