A moment of reflection

[Peter Branch]

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Leica had a 24 mm lens long before they produced the M8, the Elmarit-R (1974). It was a Minolta design which Leica adopted  and optimised. The Elmarit-M 24 is from 1998. Erwin Puts calls it "a masterpiece of optical designing and a landmark design". 

 

Indeed; the 24mm f/2.8 Elmarit-M was in its day and on film, particularly Kodachrome, an outstanding performer.  It was also good on the M8 - but - on full frame digital, like the M240, it started to show its limitations.

 

I found, (completely non scientific evaluation), that it seemed to suffer from high IR transmission.  When used on the M8 it needed an IR/UVa filter and it took some time to get the firmware sorted to deal with the off axis colour effects.  

 

Comparison with the current 24mm f/3.8 Elmar-M ASPH confirms that Leica have made significant progress with this type of lens particularly when used with full frame digital sensors.   

[uhoh7]

Jaapv: interesting lenset, nice variety

 

I also have quite a few: 28 cron (on M9) is well ahead of everything for making shots which stop my eye

[IWC Doppel]

Slimming down your lenses, if that' your intention will help you focus (no pun intended) on which lensed you cant part with and have value to you.

 

I reduced my collection by nearly 50%, hard but I feel all the better for it and love what I have left even more !

 

I took the hard decision to sell my 24mm Elmarit-M ASPH and am reminded what an interesting perspective 24mm is by this thread. It is quite wide without looking too wide and still feels intimate. But for me it simply wasn't used enough

 

I hope you do well a few lenses, the process will really tell you which lenses you really value. My Noctilux and 35mm Summicron MkIV came back from the shop and I am glad !

[ramarren]

It's been quite a long time since I fitted anything other than the Summilux 35 v2, Summarit-M 75/2.4, or WATE to the M-P ... Probably not since last October. That said, evaluating all the photos made with the M-P, the 50mm remains the top winner yet, edging out the 35mm by a few photos. I haven't had the WATE long enough for it to show a realistic percentage, however (only two months). 

[jaapv]

No intention of slimming down. All my lenses have a function.

[Jon Pop]

This is a great discussion; I think that both retrospectively and prospectively our desires and criteria for what makes our 'favourite' imagery may vary/ebb and flow over time, there is also no doubt merits as to the abilities of various lenses and how we use them.  Naturally, comparing how much we 'like' a 21 vs. a 50 is a bit of apples and oranges...but I find Jaapv's insight into his own work and the lenses he used a very interesting topic. I know for myself, I've said for a while that my most 'beautiful' pictures have probably been taken wide open with the 50 Summilux Asph. However, my 'best' pictures from a technical and composition point of view have usually been taken with a 28 (in my case either the Elmarit 2.8 Asph, or for my LTM cameras, the CV Color Skopar f3.5). Great reflection... 

[IWC Doppel]

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No intention of slimming down. All my lenses have a function.

So will it help you choose a lens for a body ?

[jaapv]

Actually I have a system of "groups" where a body will have a set of matching, sorted by period and focal length, lenses in its bag.

Obviously this is not rigorous, as I will happily use a lens from one bag on  another body, but in general I keep them together and organized that way.