Short lenses for Leica M in various choices, please tell yours

[a.noctilux]

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Since very long, I needed various short lenses for my Leica M.

Over time, from the period of Super-Angulon 4/21, I needed a bit more light gathering 20-21mm mainly to use 25 ASA/ISO films of those days.

Why I managed to use with custom made adapter Olympus OM Zuiko 2/21mm lens and since then, I experimented some other wide lenses from SLR systems.

Here with common OM to M adapter,

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big boy on battered M2 seen here already

 

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then 4/20 for fun, very good lens

 

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even Leica R rare and "adapted" 😉 from M/LTM S-A 3.4/21

 

Pictures from these combos can be seen elsewhere.

[Bronco McBeast]

You mean wide angle third party lenses?

I don’t mess with those.

for wide angles up to 28, I have a particular attachment to the Super-Angulon f3.4, for special demanding jobs the summilux 21 and 24, and of course the 28mm summicron and Summaron 28!

Oddly never felt one bit of gas for the 28 summilux... and I’m a huuuuge leica whore...

Edited September 9, 2023 by Bronco McBeast

[Stuart Richardson]

If you are thinking film only, the 18mm, 21mm and 25mm ZM lenses are superb, reasonably priced, well made and easy to handle. They all have rangefinder coupling, don't need adapters, and the brightline finders are some of the best ever made. You can get most in silver or black too. The only downside is that as largely symmetrical designs made for film, they do not do nearly as well on the digital Ms as they do on film. The M9 and M10 are probably ok for most purposes, but on the higher resolution bodies they give up a lot of sharpness compared to more modern designs. Personally I think they are some of the ideal wide angles for M film cameras...the price is very reasonable, but they are not large and bulky like the wide angle summiluxes, and 2.8 or 4 is usually just fine for a wide or superwide, for me at least. 

[lct]

If you mean UWA lenses, they never interested me on film but digital made me re-discover them since a Skopar 21/4 i still have and a Zuiko 21/2 i used to use on a Canon 5D and i did not like much to be honest. Made me want to acquire a Super-Angulon 21/3.4 that worked fine on my Kolari mod Sony A7r2 and does very well on the M11 too thanks to its BSI sensor that doesn't suffer from color shifts contrary to my M240. Other applications have been crop digital cameras like M8.2 and digital CL on which my UWA lenses are still used as WAs. This way, besides the S-A 21/3.4 and Skopar 21/4 mentioned above, my UWAs are now an Heliar 15/4.5 v2, a WATE 16-18-21/4, a SEM 21/3.4, a Skopar 21/3.5 and a Biogon 21/4.5. Most are used mainly on M11 and digital CL but also on the Sony mod for close-ups. I forgot an Elmar 24/3.8 that i don't use much the same way as my old Elmarit-R 24/2.8. Must be the focal length i'm not in love with i guess. Couple of snaps below with:

M11 + CV 15/4.5 v2:
https://photos.smugmug.com/Diverse/n-QFBj4/Leica-M11-CV-1545-v2/i-HqfJcxS/1/cda2ea82/X4/M1003242_sips-X4.jpg

M11 + CV 21/4:
https://photos.smugmug.com/Diverse/n-QFBj4/Leica-M11-CV-214/i-KgjrXhg/0/db48f6f7/X4/M1007635_sips-X4.jpg

M11 + WATE:
https://photos.smugmug.com/Diverse/n-QFBj4/Leica-M11-Leica-16-18-214/i-WQFVGLK/0/7b3b5511/X4/M1004817_sips-X4.jpg

M11 + S-A 21/3.4:
https://photos.smugmug.com/Diverse/n-QFBj4/Leica-M11-Leica-2134/i-SZ9Qn8Z/0/41ccc47f/X4/M1002711_si-X4.jpg

M11 + ZM 21/4.5:
https://photos.smugmug.com/Diverse/n-QFBj4/Leica-M11-ZM-2145/i-gFzgcmd/0/f9f01314/X4/M1005100_sips-X4.jpg

Edited September 9, 2023 by lct