Have the Summicron-M 35, get the 28mm or 24mm Elmarit?

[RexGig0]

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Well, it seems that “the fullness of time” has arrived sooner, rather than later. 🙂 Enjoy!

I will validate that it is worth having all three focal lengths; 24mm, 28mm, and 35mm lenses. None of them are so close to the others, as to be excess duplication or redundancy, in my opinion. That does not mean that I will carry a complete set of lenses, everywhere I go. One or two lenses, for the day, is usually enough, especially if out and about on foot.

Delaying a camera body upgrade, in order to acquire lenses, is also something with which I agree. I was fortunate to start interchangeable-lens shooting with a bag of pre-owned kit, containing a very modest DSLR, but with a most excellent 100mm macro lens, and what was then Canon’s top-tier hot-shoe-mount flash. I learned the value of good lenses, and good light, early on.  I had learned the value of good optics even earlier, learning to prioritize excellent binoculars, for bird/wildlife viewing.

In 2022, I decided to postpone buying an M10 Monochrom, and instead acquired well-preserved, pre-owned Elmar-M 24mm ASPH and APO Summicron-M 75mm ASPH lenses. Then, I added a couple of “fast” new Voigtlander Nokton VM lenses, to let more light into my M Type 246 Monochrom. When the M10 Monochrom was then discontinued, this left me being unable to buy a new M10 Monochrom, during my projected early 2024 timeline, but, the option of buying pre-owned remains, and, the M11 Monochrom has become an available choice.

I am not any kind of expert. My formal photography training was in evidentiary/forensic/crime scene photography, which is artless. I added the Leica M system, in early 2018, in an effort to learn to love photography, again, rather than see it as a duty or chore.

Edited May 15, 2023 by RexGig0

[lct]

Matter of taste as usual. Having both 21mm and 28mm lenses i almost never use my otherwise superb S-E 24/3.8 on FF cameras. I bought it for the M8.2 and still use it on the digital CL though.

[skahde]

Great decision to get both lenses if you can afford to! Money spent for Leica-glass is money well spent (the factory is a one-hour trip from here, so I'm biased). 

[DadDadDaddyo]

I'm a subscriber to Sean Reid's reviews and appreciate his consistency in highlighting the strengths of products that, while not the newest, still do the job they did when they were first released and applauded. 

Especially with how fast and how far digital bodies have been developing, there's something reassuring about reemphasizing, and investing in, the durability of great glass. 

Want atmospherics and character? I have lenses that produce wonders on these bodies, and a number of those lenses are as old as I am and several are even older. Day before yesterday I was using my ancient Elmar 50mm f/3.5 LTM on the M10M with the Leitz adapter originally released to permit it to couple with the rangefinder of the M3. That lens was built in 1936. That's 87 years ago!

Absolutely magical.

Read up on its technical behavior and it might seem weak (Erwin Puts certainly points out its areas of weakness in the Compendium). But put it on a body, any body, and it's like being transported through time. If those lenses hadn't blown people away way back when, we'd never be where we are now. 

Lenses outlast bodies; they always have, but it's especially true nowadays. I simply won't part with a Leica lens anymore. We clamor for bodies but the lenses stand by, capable, reliable, waiting and ready for us to put them to work. 

Yeah, the outcome of this thread was really easy once I permitted what I know to be true to resurface. 

Time to make more pictures!