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Which M lenses do you want to own??


Herr Barnack

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It (black 50 Rigid) is not rare, getting a copy in excellent condition takes time and patience due to its age

 

Are you selling yours?

 

I thought it was quite uncommon. I do recall some prototypes made late in the production cycle were encased in the barrel of the model that followed the Rigid.

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I agree, 28/35/50 can be considered very close, but I find they serve distinctly different purposes. Plus I (like so many others) use 28/50 as a pair on two bodies, and I use 35 on its own with just one body. It all depends on what I'm shooting / carrying with me. 

 

Seems to work for me ;)

I had a 28 Sumicron, which I traded in to help finance my Safari set.  My reasoning was that the 28 'cron and the 35 'cron that came with the Safari set were close enough in angle of view that I would not miss the 28 'cron.

 

I was wrong. 

 

The 28 'cron renders very differently from the 35 'cron.  It's not just the angle of view - it's everything about the fingerprint of the two lenses.  It is hard to quantify, hard to put into words, but these two lenses are very different; IMHO it would not be redundant to have both in your bag.

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I had a 28 Sumicron, which I traded in to help finance my Safari set.  My reasoning was that the 28 'cron and the 35 'cron that came with the Safari set were close enough in angle of view that I would not miss the 28 'cron.

 

I was wrong. 

 

The 28 'cron renders very differently from the 35 'cron.  It's not just the angle of view - it's everything about the fingerprint of the two lenses.  It is hard to quantify, hard to put into words, but these two lenses are very different; IMHO it would not be redundant to have both in your bag.

Well that's encouraging to hear! Glad to know I'm not totally nuts ;). I tried a friend's 28 Summicron while I was in Iceland this summer and I loved the samples I took home from it. Very much looking forward to having my own. 

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Occasionally I think about the Thamber and the Summarex. I've never owned either of these.

 

I find that I swing between wanting the super-corrected high contrast modern look, and something old, low contrast and interesting. 

 

Then you ought to try a Voigtländer.

 

Finding an unscathed and haze-free sample of a 60+ year-old optic isn't an easy task. Then there's the cost of a CLA which, more often than not, is inevitable.

 

Cosina does a fine job bridging modern & classical.

Edited by james.liam
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I wish Leica or Zeiss would make a new macro lens for the M series, now that the Live View and EVFs are available to supplement RF focus, which presumably will cary forward into future generations of the Leica M, with improvements. I'd think a 75mm or 90mm, perhaps f/2.8 or f/2 at max aperture, that focuses to at least 1:2 repro ratio would be good, one that is coupled to the rangefinder down to 0.7 meter, then relies on focus peaking at closer distances. It could have a slight detent or bump in the RF cam of the lens at 0.7m to let you know to switch viewfinders. The current Macro-Elmar 90mm/4 does not appeal to me, but a lens which would be designed for the current ergonomic state of art of the Leica M system would make sense to me.

I like macro, I have the macro adapter and even with LV and focus peaking, it is damn hard to get decent macro shots with either the 50 or the 90AA. Despite my best hopes and a lot of effort the M is probably not the right camera for macro. The depth of field is just too thin. You can't hand hold it easily. LV burns your battery and even with a tripod physical objects move due to wind or their own volition.

 

The best camera for macro that I've tried is the Olympus OM-D E-M1 with the 60mm macro lens. The small sensor with its larger DOF,  good continious AF, in body stabilization and now focus stacking all just make it work really well for macro.

 

I really hope the 60mm Macro-Elmar-TL has OIS and is really good and what I really want is probably a 90 or 120mm Macro-Elmar-SL lens. Then my big trip travel setup will be the M body, 28 cron, 50 lux, 90 cron. My backup body will be a SL with a whatever macro lens Leica comes up with, the 90-280, and the M-adapter-T. The M for most things but the SL for the things the M is not good at.

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The 28 'cron renders very differently from the 35 'cron.  It's not just the angle of view - it's everything about the fingerprint of the two lenses.  It is hard to quantify, hard to put into words, but these two lenses are very different; IMHO it would not be redundant to have both in your bag.

 

Absolutely agree. 

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In fact, Thorsten has images of two of them and they seemed to have been rarities: http://www.overgaard.dk/leica_M4_50mm_summicron-M_20.html

I've come across quite a few of them so I wouldn't call them rare. I guess it depends on how much time you spend looking for something

 

A kind member here connected me to a seller, let's see if we can agree on a price

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Occasionally I think about the Thamber and the Summarex. I've never owned either of these.

 

I find that I swing between wanting the super-corrected high contrast modern look, and something old, low contrast and interesting.

The "King Rex" is a fine lens indeed!

 

32d7363f506fdc364377cb6ea48b7bce.jpg

 

1bad5988137d4f9ff67ed3a55acf30b8.jpg

 

I have the same condition ... one day I prefer a Karbe look and the next I'm reaching for an uncoated Xenon

 

c399641ddeeee27ad5e85e82f746abc5.jpg

 

Best to have two sets of lenses I guess - one that gets out of the way and the other that is the way

Edited by TheGodParticle
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