Wide angle on an M8

[tommonego@gmail.com]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I have been using Nikon glass on my M8 to go wide. I had a 20mm f2.8 Nikon and a 17mm f3.5 Tokina, the 20 works well but the 17 is too big (72mm filter) and heavy. What are other people using. I have thought about the Zeiss 18mm ZM which is the focal length that I would think ideal, but I didn't buy one when I could, a rare lens and the prices have shot up. The Voigtlander 15mm is an option but it is getting a little wider than what I want. Ideas?

Edited April 22, 2022 by tommonego@gmail.com

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[lct]

SEM 18/3.8 + VF 12022, both made for the M8. I have no experience with them though. I had the Elmarit 28/2.8 asph but the WA lens i preferred on my M8.2 was the tiny CV 21/4. Another solution would be the WATE 16-18-21/4 but i've never used mine on the M8.2.

[lct]

1 hour ago, lct said:

I had the Elmarit 28/2.8 asph

I meant 21/2.8 asph sorry.

[Pintpot]

Having used a 15mm CV Heliar on an M8 I must say it worked well for me, in round figures it ends up at 20mm - this may help.

 

[Guest]

vor 1 Stunde schrieb lct:

SEM 18/3.8 + VF 12022, both made for the M8. I have no experience with them though. I had the Elmarit 28/2.8 asph but the WA lens i preferred on my M8.2 was the tiny CV 21/4. Another solution would be the WATE 16-18-21/4 but i've never used mine on the M8.2.

I bought my M8.2 together with a WATE 4.0-16-18-21mm, but was never satisfied because of the crop factor of 1.33.
In my opinion the WATE is bulky and overengineered, especially when you need the UV/IR filter for the M8.
Now I'm happy with a much smaller Super-Elmarit 3.4-21mm on my M10-P.
For a wider angle, I successfully tried a Voigtlander 15mm/1:4.5 Super Wide Heliar asph. IIIVM.

[lct]

53 minutes ago, mnutzer said:

I bought my M8.2 together with a WATE 4.0-16-18-21mm, but was never satisfied because of the crop factor of 1.33.
In my opinion the WATE is bulky and overengineered, especially when you need the UV/IR filter for the M8.

I have no experience with the WATE on the M8.2 but it works well on the digital CL and has the same compactness as that of the MATE more or less. May i ask if you tried the John Milich adapter for UV/IR filters? Just curious.

[farnz]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

9 hours ago, lct said:

May i ask if you tried the John Milich adapter for UV/IR filters? Just curious.

My apologies for butting in, I did and still do use a set of 3 of them (50/75, 28/90, and 35/135).  The Milich adaptors are solid brass and were machined by hand by John Milich in his New York work shop to very high precision and with very small tolerances.  In my opinion they are far superior to adaptors that are available cheaply through some internet sites.  Regrettably they are hard to find nowadays.

Pete.

[jaapv]

Voigtlander 10 and 12 mm should work well but may need flat field correction in postprocessing. 

[tommonego@gmail.com]

The wide Voigtlanders 10, 12, 15 were a little wider than I wanted, though I was going the direction of a 15mm. I found an 18 Zeiss for a decent price so I went for it. It will get here in a couple of days. I did try my Tokina 17, liked the focal length but the lens was too heavy, solid chunk of glass, seriously blocked my 25 Voigtlander finder, had really low contrast. 

M8 17 Tokina, required alot of PP

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[dkCambridgeshire]

 

[mike_j]

The Voigtlander 15mm Heliar lll should be ideal. The earlier versions had corner problems, though not insurmountable so on the M8 crop sensor but the Mk lll repudedly had overcome these and it's a lovely little lens. 

Ref: https://cameraquest.com/voigtlen.htm

[tommonego@gmail.com]

As I said, I considered the Voigtlander 15, but found a Zeiss 18. I understand on FF M cameras a profile is needed to take care of the extreme corners. On the M8 this doesn't seem to be a problem, which is fine as I can't find a lens profile choice option on the M8. I will probably get a Voigtlander 15 viewfinder if I want to use the Zeiss 18 on my M3, I wear glasses so the wider field shouldn't be a problem.

[farnz]

28 minutes ago, tommonego@gmail.com said:

will probably get a Voigtlander 15 viewfinder if I want to use the Zeiss 18 on my M3, I wear glasses so the wider field shouldn't be a problem.

Just so you know, the Zeiss viewfinders are ultra crystal clear and far superior (imho) to the Voigtlander and to the Leica viewfinders (I've viewed them all side by side and the difference is quite astonishing).  The Zeiss viewfinders will cost you a lot more than the Voigtlander and are similar in price to the Leica ones.

Pete.

[tommonego@gmail.com]

Received the Zeiss 18mm ZM today. Came at 2:30 so I drove to my favorite woods. Images looked good not spectacular but definitly good. Focal length iswhat I wanted, well balanced on the M8. Brought both the IR cut filter and an R72. First color:

M8 Zeiss 18mm f4 ZM 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[tommonego@gmail.com]

An IR photo of a similar scene

M8 Zeiss 18mm R72 filter

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[lct]

What is a Zeiss 18mm ZM? Just curious.

[adan]

Only made for a relatively brief time..discontinued in 2016(?).

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/520232-REG/Zeiss_1440_733_Super_Wide_Angle_18mm.html

[Stuart Richardson]

I still have mine from the M8 era. I felt it did very well, especially stopped down a bit. It is really at is best on film, where there are no cover glass or color shift issues.

[Advertisement]

Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[tommonego@gmail.com]

vor 10 Stunden schrieb Stuart Richardson:

I still have mine from the M8 era. I felt it did very well, especially stopped down a bit. It is really at is best on film, where there are no cover glass or color shift issues.

With t he IR/UV cut filter I didn't have any problems with color shifts in the corners. I had a 62mm IR/UV cut from the Nikon 20mm lens this is replacing, with a 58 to 62mm step up ring I am fairly confident I won't get vignetting. Interestingly one review said the center is best at f8 and f11 while the edges are best at f16 with the center being affected by diffraction, hmmmm. I am going to have to try it on film, also see how it does on a more cropped sensor on a CL. I don't think it will be better than the 11-23 zoom there.

[Stuart Richardson]

My recollection is more from the M9 and M10, where it showed slight, but not bad color vignetting. It should not be very visible or visible at all on the M8. I find that the Zeiss ZM lenses that were designed for film, like this one, tend to do best when well stopped down on a digital M. If I recall correctly, the last time I used it was for an architecture job on the M10, and it was acceptable, but not substantially sharp in the edges. The same applied to the 25mm Biogon. Both of these lenses are terrific on film, but their design leads to the light being quite bent toward the edge of the frame, and while film does not care at all about that, the cover glass on sensors does not take well to it.