Your favorite focal length (on M8, on film)

[Skippy Sanchez]

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Most frequently used lenses, in descending order of use:

 

21mm 2.8

15mm 4.5

28mm 2.8 & 40mm 1.4 - about the same

90mm 2

50mm 1

135mm 2.8

 

Most of my M8 use is for newspaper assignments, and as you can tell, I have an affinity toward the wide, although when I need the longer glass I tend use my Canon 70-200mm.

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[Guest guy_mancuso]

M8 and the 28 cron. It just works

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[lensblur]

for M6/MP, 35 f/1.4 asp and 90 f/2 before Apo

 

For M8, WATE, 28 f/2, 50 f/1.4

[Guest Olof]

50mm on both

[rudymarsh]

I got my M8 last week. The lenses I had on hand are, 2/40 Summicron-C, and

2/90 Summicron. The 2/40 seams to pruduce in the same frame work of a 50mm lens.

I ordered a 90M Micro (I must have micro capability). I wish my old 90mm could be used for micro photography. So, what I need from you experts is the range of lenses for general

use.

Rudy

[gogopix]

on my old R4 I always used 35mm rather than 50mm much better averaqge fov.

 

Thus I find the 28mm on both M8 and DMR to be best average.

 

However, as some have found, rather than 75mm I find more interesting with 35mm or 50 lux for informal portraits (formal 75mm is great)

 

For film I like the old 35mm 2.8 Sharp-sharp-sharp

[pklein]

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Very interesting! A majority of people are going for the "nearest equivalent" field of view, but there is a significant minority who prefer the same lens as they used with film, despite the crop factor.

 

So far I'm in the "nearest equivalent" camp. But I suspect that the 50 will get more use on the M8 than the 90 did on film. I never cared for the 75mm frame lines on a film M. But on the M8, a 50mm lens is an almost 70mm equivalent, and it seems genuinely useful as a general purpose short tele, less specialized than the 90 is on film.

 

I haven't considered using the CV 40 because I think that external finders are a pain. The only time I use one willingly is when I have to, or when I get a masochistic urge and shoot with my Zorki 4, which has no frame lines and is impossible with glasses!

 

This is one more reason favoring the electronic framelines we keep discussing. Leica made a 40mm 'Cron a while back, so there's precedent for supporting that focal length. Programming that size into an LCD controller is just a few more lines of code. Think of it, we could have one frame at a time in the finder, corrected not only for parallax, but also for distance. If we really wanted to get fancy, you could even choose to have slightly looser or tighter frames.

 

--Peter

--Peter

[pemayeux]

35 'lux ASPH on both, though this past trip saw a lot of CV 15 on the M8 and 35 on the MP.

[hsw]

Peter,

 

I've been trying to figure this out myself ever since my M8 arrived in December. I have run back and forth between 35mm Summicron, 50mm Summicron, and 28mm CV Ultron and am waitng for my 30% discount 50mm Summilux. I keep coming back to the pre-asph 35mm 'Cron; the images are sharp, the lens is fast to focus and very compact. I can easily make crisp 13x19 prints with these large files. I am thoroughly unimpressed by my CV 28mm Ultron but at the price I'm not griping (just not sure why I can't see the Emperor's new clothes). (My 15mm & 75mm CV's are superb.)

 

So right now the 35rmm stays mounted and ready. That might change when I finally receive my Summilux....

 

Regards,

Henry

[losta]

28 on M8

35 on M6 or 5D

(I thought it would be the 24 for the M8 but I'm liking the 28 cron more.

[photolandscape]

M8--28mm, 15mm, 90mm.

[Woody Campbell]

M8 - 35mm lux asp with 28mm chron very close (its been in for coding for what seems like an age). Next and very close would be the Tri-Elmar - 28-35-50 is a brilliant combination on the M8 - amazingly flexible. I'm surpised that I don't use the 24 or 21 more - but I don't. I preferred 35 and 28 in my film days.

[pklein]

Peter,

 

I've been trying to figure this out myself ever since my M8 arrived in December. I have run back and forth between 35mm Summicron, 50mm Summicron, and 28mm CV Ultron and am waitng for my 30% discount 50mm Summilux. I keep coming back to the pre-asph 35mm 'Cron; the images are sharp, the lens is fast to focus and very compact. I can easily make crisp 13x19 prints with these large files. I am thoroughly unimpressed by my CV 28mm Ultron but at the price I'm not griping (just not sure why I can't see the Emperor's new clothes). (My 15mm & 75mm CV's are superb.)

 

So right now the 35rmm stays mounted and ready. That might change when I finally receive my Summilux....

 

Henry,

 

I feel similarly about my 1983-vintage 35 Cron. I'm giving each of my lenses a test drive on the M8, so I'll leave one lens on for a few days and just shoot whatever comes along. But so far, I'm happiest with the 35 Cron for general purpose stuff. I love my 35 Lux ASPH, but I prefer to use it in available light when I really need f/1.4 and f/2. When there's a bit more light, I really like the rendering of the Cron better.

 

I'm surprised that you don't like the 28/1.9 CV--many people do. Wonder if it's sample variation. Try taking a picture of a store front with a lot of small light bulbs going across the frame. Keep that camera back parallel to the building you're shooting. If one side of the picture looks significantly worse than the other, you have a decentered lens. In an email exchange a few years back, Erwin Puts told me that he'd found decentering in a number of CV lenses, and it made the difference between a so-so lens and an excellent one.

 

--Peter

[nikau]

M8 and mechanical M cameras: 35mm f2 or 50mm 2.8 Elmar, depending on where I'm going and what I'm doing.

[j. white]

i could never decide, which is why the tri-elmar was the only lens i owned for eight years. still, i seem to gravitate mostly toward 35mm & 50mm. 28mm, while handy, is in the nether regions of being "too wide to be useful" or simply "not wide enough to be interesting".

 

pitting passion firmly against reason, my kit now includes a summicron 50mm and i'll be darned - it rarely leaves the m6.

[lars_bergquist]

I want to second Peter Klein's opinion on the classical v.4 35mm Summicron. Its performace was very good on film, and it is even better with the M8! Its weakness at very wide apertures was in the corners and at the far edges—and these are cropped out now. I use the lens with confidence at f:2, though of course its optimum is around 5.6.

 

It is also a very convenient 'one-lens kit'. Its slightly wider angle compared to a 50mm makes it more generally useful, and it is wonderfully compact. It fits in the short-nosed ERC with the hood on. (The neoprene ERC gives good protection, and is fine for inconspicuous carry.)

 

This said, my two-lens kit is a 28mm Summicron and either a 50mm Summilux ASPH or a C/V 75mm. I agree with Guy Mancuso that the 28mm 'cron is a wonderful lens; and this morning I go downtown to pick up mine, back from Solms newly coded. I would of course love to have a 75mm 'cron, but the 'Voigtländer' is amazingly good, so the urge is under control for now!

 

The old man from the Age of the Box Camera

[DaveEP]

M8=28mm

Film & FF = 35mm

[Leicaiste]

On MP : 50/1,4

 

On M8 : Tri-Elmar 28/35/50

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[blakley]

On M3/MP:

 

1. 50mm f/1.2 Noctilux "ASPH"

2. 75mm f/2 Summicron ASPH

 

On M8:

 

1. 50mm f/1.2 Noctilux "ASPH"

2. 28mm f/2 Summicron ASPH

 

Go figure.

[carstenw]

Bob, the 50/1.2 Asph is probably one of my most desired lenses. Do you have some results to show? I have the feeling that this lens comes closer to the 80 Lux-R on FF than anything else for the M8.