Leica M8 best lenses

[costa43]

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Hi guys

First post. I've just bought an M8. It comes with the 7Artisans 35mm f1.4 but I'm keen on something a little wider and something a little tighter too. I'm very familiar with working with a crop factor on focal lengths so all good there.

Recommendations on what has worked well for others would be very much appreciated.

Cheers

 

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[a.noctilux]

Welcome here Costa43

 

Leica offered for sale, when launched same time as M8 the tiny 28mm asph.

For first lens may it be nice ?

Then I'd have a look at Summarit-M 35/50/75 to complete later the kit (if you need)

 

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I have those and use them on full frame M also, so if one day you upgrade to FF, these lenses can be kept

[pippy]

Hello and welcome!

+1 to Arnaud's selection. Great lenses every one.

If you'd rather 'test the water' with something more affordable to begin with the 28mm f2 Voigtlander Ultron is a superb performer for a very modest outlay. I bought one to use with my own M8 to see how I liked the focal length ( I was more of a 50mm shooter) and was never disappointed by its performance.

Philip.

[boojum]

Another option is a used lens of good quality.  I purchased a Canon 28mm f/2.8 in pristine condition for less than price of the the Voigtländer.  I am not going to argue which is the better lens because I do not know.  I can tell you that the Canon is performing well and that I have no complaints. It is the effective equivalent of about a 35mm on a full frame.  The point is that there are a lot of good lenses out there.  The Russian Jupiter, Helios and others are pretty good and can be had for a song, off-key even.  Do exercise caution buying Russian lenses.  Check out all the YouTube videos for the best periods of manufacture and so on.  I picked up a very nice Jupiter 85mm f/2.0 for a little over US$100 and have a Jupiter 50mm f/2.0 coming for US$65.  If you  do your research and buy from sellers with a high enough rating on eBay good deals are possible.

Regardless of which path you follow, you have a wonderful camera which will give you  excellent images of what you put it before.  The CCD sensor is special.  You can make it glow.

[tobey bilek]

The 28 above was to be equivalent of 35 mm on full frame.  I use it in full frame and M8 and never disappointed.

24 3.8 works well as does my 50 20 APO, 50 2.8 Elmar M, 50 Summilux current.

I have not found a bad Leica lens for the M8.

[Jeff S]

The 28 Summicron ASPH (v.1) was my favorite lens on my M 8.2, along with the 50 Summilux ASPH. 
 

Jeff

[costa43]

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Thank you all for the helpful responses. I'll start researching off the back of the recommendations here and see what comes up.  I'm really looking forward to it's arrival next week.

[tommonego@gmail.com]

I use a 25 Canon f3.5 LTM much of the time on the M8. The 28 vf frame is almost perfect for it. A tiny lens and I like the images from it. I bought it with a Leica LTM to M adapter on it so I often forget it is LTM. Would be great on a III series to.

[BrianS]

It would be helpful to know your budget, lenses from under $100 to Thousands of dollars have been suggested,

I like the Jupiter-3 on my M8, have a new Jupiter-3+ on it now. These typically go in the $450 range on Ebay, and work without needing adjustment. Most vintage Russian lenses need to be adjusted for best focus on a Leica

Many vintage lenses available, and new lenses from Chinese, Japanese, and of course German manufacturers.

[costa43]

13 hours ago, BrianS said:

It would be helpful to know your budget, lenses from under $100 to Thousands of dollars have been suggested,

I like the Jupiter-3 on my M8, have a new Jupiter-3+ on it now. These typically go in the $450 range on Ebay, and work without needing adjustment. Most vintage Russian lenses need to be adjusted for best focus on a Leica

Many vintage lenses available, and new lenses from Chinese, Japanese, and of course German manufacturers.

Hi Brian

I have some existing camera gear I may sell if I fall in love with the m8 next week so the final budget is yet unknown. I'd say though my priority is a 28mm lens and I'd lean towards Leica glass. I may actually pause on purchasing anything around 50mm as it is not a focal length I would use very often once the crop comes into play. I also have an old Helios 44 that could do a job for longer options.  If I move to a FF body at some point then I will re-visit. 

I'm also very keen on experimenting with lower cost vintage lenses of all kinds. Purely for joy and experimentation. Photography for me is very much about the process and not just the output.

Thank you for your recommendations

[BrianS]

I had a V3 28/2.8 Elmarit-M, was very sharp. I used it on the M8 with the UV/IR cut filter. The Elmarit line of lenses is well worth looking at. I sold mine through Popflash on consignment- did not lose anything on it- was like having "rent free" for 5 years. I picked up the M9 and M Monochrom- typically use 35 and longer on them. For a 28- I use the vintage Nikkor 2.8cm F3.5.It was only $300 a few years ago, has gone up since then.

 

[tommonego@gmail.com]

vor 9 Stunden schrieb costa43:

Hi Brian

I have some existing camera gear I may sell if I fall in love with the m8 next week so the final budget is yet unknown. I'd say though my priority is a 28mm lens and I'd lean towards Leica glass. I may actually pause on purchasing anything around 50mm as it is not a focal length I would use very often once the crop comes into play. I also have an old Helios 44 that could do a job for longer options.  If I move to a FF body at some point then I will re-visit. 

I'm also very keen on experimenting with lower cost vintage lenses of all kinds. Purely for joy and experimentation. Photography for me is very much about the process and not just the output.

Thank you for your recommendations

Are you looking for a 28 on the M8, or a 28 FOV on the M8. For the later you will need a 21mm lens.

[costa43]

3 hours ago, BrianS said:

I had a V3 28/2.8 Elmarit-M, was very sharp. I used it on the M8 with the UV/IR cut filter. The Elmarit line of lenses is well worth looking at. I sold mine through Popflash on consignment- did not lose anything on it- was like having "rent free" for 5 years. I picked up the M9 and M Monochrom- typically use 35 and longer on them. For a 28- I use the vintage Nikkor 2.8cm F3.5.It was only $300 a few years ago, has gone up since then.

 

Thanks Brian, my mind works in a similar way when it comes to lens purchases. I rarely lose much if anything so I invest in the glass and cheap out a bit more on the bodies. I think Elmarit is the way I may go. I like the size. I'd like the extra stop of light the Summicron gives me though. Especially with the CCD iso performance so I may try them both out first and see.

[costa43]

1 hour ago, tommonego@gmail.com said:

Are you looking for a 28 on the M8, or a 28 FOV on the M8. For the later you will need a 21mm lens.

A 28mm lens so once the crop is applied circa 37mm FOV

[farnz]

On 11/29/2020 at 6:20 AM, costa43 said:

I also have an old Helios 44 that could do a job for longer options.

The Helios 44 (Russian copy of the Carl Zeiss Jena 58/2 Biotar) will cause you focussing problems, irrespective of whether you can physically mount it to your M8, because it won't be rangefinder-coupled and the M8 doesn't have LiveView.  You'd need to zone focus.

Pete.

[costa43]

7 hours ago, farnz said:

The Helios 44 (Russian copy of the Carl Zeiss Jena 58/2 Biotar) will cause you focussing problems, irrespective of whether you can physically mount it to your M8, because it won't be rangefinder-coupled and the M8 doesn't have LiveView.  You'd need to zone focus.

Pete.

Thanks Pete. Makes sense. There are so many M lenses that it's quite hard to know where to get started. 

[farnz]

2 minutes ago, costa43 said:

Thanks Pete. Makes sense. There are so many M lenses that it's quite hard to know where to get started. 

It will be in either Praktica mount or M42 so you'd need to find an appropriate adapter.  M42 to M-mount won't be a problem but Praktica to M-mount is likely to be more difficult.

Pete.

[costa43]

13 minutes ago, farnz said:

It will be in either Praktica mount or M42 so you'd need to find an appropriate adapter.  M42 to M-mount won't be a problem but Praktica to M-mount is likely to be more difficult.

Pete.

It's m42. I currently use it on a Fuji body. Works a treat on there due to the excellent focus peaking Fuji has. The adapters are so reasonable in cost that I'll pick one up to have a play but I do not think it will be a lens that will be used much at all. 

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[Marac]

If you plan on shooting colour (RAW) then it may be very helpful to grab yourself an IR BLOCK filter for the front of the lens. The M8 allows a lot of IR light to reach the sensor, some say it's a fault but I really LOVE it for B&W, also it is really good if you put an IR filter on the front (Hoya R72) then you can get great Infrared results handheld.

I used a Voigtlander 21mm f4 and the crazy wide Voigtlander 15mm f4.5 that covered my wide desires and the price is very good, quality is superb.

The M8 is a wonderful camera you will enjoy it. Try to buy lenses that are rangefinder coupled and it would be good to have a couple of IR BLOCK filters on your lenses when you shoot in colour, basically in sunlight, any black material will come out with a purple tint, the ir block filter will stop this from happening, when you intend to shoot B&W then I recommend shooting without the ir block filters it gives the images a glow that I personally LOVE.

Bottom line, buy the best glass you can afford, bodies come and go but your lenses will be with you longer. I can recommend Voigtlander, they are very good quality and reasonably cheap, if you can afford Leica glass then that is definitely the way to go.

Have fun.

[costa43]

1 hour ago, Marac said:

If you plan on shooting colour (RAW) then it may be very helpful to grab yourself an IR BLOCK filter for the front of the lens. The M8 allows a lot of IR light to reach the sensor, some say it's a fault but I really LOVE it for B&W, also it is really good if you put an IR filter on the front (Hoya R72) then you can get great Infrared results handheld.

I used a Voigtlander 21mm f4 and the crazy wide Voigtlander 15mm f4.5 that covered my wide desires and the price is very good, quality is superb.

The M8 is a wonderful camera you will enjoy it. Try to buy lenses that are rangefinder coupled and it would be good to have a couple of IR BLOCK filters on your lenses when you shoot in colour, basically in sunlight, any black material will come out with a purple tint, the ir block filter will stop this from happening, when you intend to shoot B&W then I recommend shooting without the ir block filters it gives the images a glow that I personally LOVE.

Bottom line, buy the best glass you can afford, bodies come and go but your lenses will be with you longer. I can recommend Voigtlander, they are very good quality and reasonably cheap, if you can afford Leica glass then that is definitely the way to go.

Have fun.

Thanks Marac. I've already purchased a Hoya IR Cut filter for the 7artisans which came coupled with the camera, so I'll test it out for a while to see if I can live with the lens. I'll be shooting in B&W a fair bit and was one of the reasons I went for the m8 so will definitely experiment with and without the filter to see what my preference is. I can't afford to drop thousands on lenses so I'm not sure whether to go for one leica lens at my preferred focal length which is usually 50mm eq or buy two or three Zeiss/Voigt options. I also have half an eye on the future and if I buy further into the Leica system then I will no doubt be working with a full frame sensor so I may hold off for a while and see how I go with the 7artisans and maybe a 28mm Voigt ultron. 

Edited December 3, 2020 by costa43