Your most used or most liked 3rd party lens

[Winedemonium]

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After using the S system briefly in 2015-2016, I’m giving it another go in 2025. I have an S Typ 007 incoming, and the 70mm Summarit. Interestingly the deal I did included four of the Leica 3rd party lens adapters included - C, H, V, and M645. 
 

Ironically, in 2025, some of the choice alternate glass is more expensive than the S examples, so I see myself more likely to fill out the S line up than go too exotic. 
 

Nonetheless, these four adapters open up some possibilities - lighter, or longer, character, etc. Why not?

So, I’m curious to hear your picks and your experiences. Did you dabble? Did you start with an adapter from a legacy system and move gradually over to S glass? Or did you buy a specific adapter to acquire a specific lens for your S? Do you still use and 3rd party lenses on your S today? What’s your favourite, or most used?

Thanks. 

[Tirpitz666]

I've used the Hasselblad H 35 F3.5 and 210 F4, and both are pretty competent lenses (especially the second). Now that I've got the S 30 F2.8 and the 180 F3.5 APO of course they see a lot less action 🙂 

[HuntingSand]

vor 2 Stunden schrieb Winedemonium:

After using the S system briefly in 2015-2016, I’m giving it another go in 2025. I have an S Typ 007 incoming, and the 70mm Summarit. Interestingly the deal I did included four of the Leica 3rd party lens adapters included - C, H, V, and M645. 
 

Ironically, in 2025, some of the choice alternate glass is more expensive than the S examples, so I see myself more likely to fill out the S line up than go too exotic. 
 

Nonetheless, these four adapters open up some possibilities - lighter, or longer, character, etc. Why not?

So, I’m curious to hear your picks and your experiences. Did you dabble? Did you start with an adapter from a legacy system and move gradually over to S glass? Or did you buy a specific adapter to acquire a specific lens for your S? Do you still use and 3rd party lenses on your S today? What’s your favourite, or most used?

Thanks. 

That's a pretty remarkable deal you got, what with all four adapters. Early on I went the Zeiss-Contax route with my 006. Bit of a bumpy ride, but I have three Z-C lenses, two of which you'd have to pry from my cold dead hands: the 55mm Distagon, and the 80mm Planar. The third, a 140mm Sonnar, is smallish and lightweight enough to sometimes make it into my bag. All of these, but especially the first two, have substantially increased in price since I bought them in, oh, 2016 (?).

[Pieter12]

I have the HC adapter that I use with a 28mm. It works great, I like it. I also have a beast of a 50-110 zoom that rarely sees action. But in the end the S with an adapter and third party lens tends to be heavier than the S with a native lens, and the native lenses are usually better and faster. Plus having so many adapters and lenses available would only lead to extreme GAS.

[Sarnian]

I like using the tiny Pentax 645 75mm lens.

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[BernardC]

49 minutes ago, Pieter12 said:

the native lenses are usually better and faster

My feelings exactly. I've tried a few adapted lenses over the years, and they always disappoint compared to the native S lenses. The only ones I still occasionally use are the 110/2.0 Hasselblad Planar, because imperfection is part of its signature, and a Mamiya 200/2.8 APO which is sharp at the plane of focus, but has very distracting bokeh. With the matched 2X converter it's my only 400mm option for the odd time when I need that much reach.

Every other adapted lens has been sold-off or retired because it wasn't as good as the native equivalent.

[Tirpitz666]

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I fulky agree on the Mamiya 200 F2.8, very sharp but pretty awful bokeh at mid distance and beyond 

[GLAUMAX]

I really enjoy the Hasselblad HC 2.2 100mm lens on my S. Fantastic lens and very compact and light for such an aperture. I had before a large collection of Contax 645 lenses and my favorites were the 55mm, 80mm and 140mm.

[Duff]

Many lenses will perform well, but it depends on what you want for the final image (different looks from different makers and so on). My apologies for stating the obvious. I won't touch on price differences and physical characteristics as these are a given and easily researched.

Having said that, the Contax 120mm makro is difficult to replace as its Leica counterpart, as excellent as it is, only focuses down to 1:2 magnification with no extension tubes available. If you wish to shoot true macro, the only alternative is the Hasselblad H version which focuses down to 1:1 as the Contax. Both the Contax and Hasselblad have extension tubes available.

If the over-hyped image sharpness fad is not a thing for you, then you can't really go wrong with Contax (although be aware of rather noticeable chromatic aberration [mainly purple fringing] on some lenses used wide open under certain lighting conditions), or with Hasselblad HC, and some Hasselbald V lenses (e.g., 150mm, 180mm and the superachromats, etc.). I don't have much experience of the Mamiya 645 line-up, but of the lenses used, they have been the weakest of the bunch with some exceptions, but still worth considering for their 'look'. Again, the character of some lenses from all manufacturers may trump any disadvantage these same lenses may be perceived as having. You'll have to trawl the likes of "flickr" to get an idea of character, although there is a lot of dross there.

I personally opted for Contax as I like the character of the lenses which is something I want in my images, but that is personal preference. There are issues here of course - prices have increased, with the highly regarded Contax 80mm really over-priced, nearly twice as expensive as the Leica 70mm, but the 70mm is superb and I wouldn't swap my 70mm for a C645 80mm, and neither should you. I tested Hasselbald HC's lenses to some extent, but they were too clinical for me. All were nonetheless excellent performers generally speaking and they don't suffer as much from chromatic aberration as some of the C645 lenses, at least not as noticeably.

Shame you didn't have the Pentax adapter as some of the Pentax 67 lenses have some real character which is still conveyed to a degree on the much smaller digital format (you lose a little with regard to apparent depth of field of course, compared to 6x7 film), or maybe you can swap a redundant adapter for a Pentax version later on.

Oh yeah - Leica S lenses are fully weather proof. Those listed above aren't.

 

Cheers,

Duff.

 

Edited February 14 by Duff

[ynp]

On 2/15/2025 at 6:02 AM, Duff said:

Having said that, the Contax 120mm makro is difficult to replace as its Leica counterpart, as excellent as it is, only focuses down to 1:2 magnification with no extension tubes available. If you wish to shoot true macro, the only alternative is the Hasselblad H version which focuses down to 1:1 as the Contax. Both the Contax and Hasselblad have extension tubes available

+1

[tom0511]

I like the Contax 55mm, its quite small, good IQ and flexible focal length.

 

[davidmknoble]

I have always liked the flexibility of the SL system and regularly shoot R lenses on it with the adapter.  Because of the quality of the Leica S lenses, I use 3rd party lenses on the S system maybe 5% of the time, likely 1/2 that.  I’ve also been shooting the S system actively since 2017.

I love film as well and over the past 2 years dived into the Hasselblad 503cx system.  For that era, the Hasselblad CFi 100mm f/3.5 is incredibly sharp across the frame.  I also enjoy the view of the CF 60mm f/3.5 although it falls off on the corners.  They can be a little ‘clinically’ sharp but for infinity landscapes they work really well and closer in for portraits the Hasselblads all have pretty nice out of focus areas.

It was difficult to find the S adapter for the older CF lenses and i have to stop them down manually.  One thing Hasselblad got really right was their CV backs and I have the 50 mp  version.  I can put it on the back of the 503cx and press the shutter on the film side exposing it just like film.  Then swap it for a film back.  Leica’s R DMR system takes great images, but is less elegant to swap in and out.

If I can dig them up I’ll post a few S with CF images.