FrankA Posted February 6, 2008 Share #1 Posted February 6, 2008 Advertisement (gone after registration) If you had a choice between the two which would you choose and why? Camera aside. I understand the rangefinder and dslr are different tools. I am focusing on the lens. No pun intended. Assume you would have to take one or the other. That does not mean you have take all r or all m. But only the best of the two. Which version? I am considering the r or m of 28, 35, 50, 75/80, 90. I am looking for bokeh, isolation of subject, not heavy contrast, sharpness across the frame, etc. Thanks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted February 6, 2008 Posted February 6, 2008 Hi FrankA, Take a look here M or R lenses? Which are Best?. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Jamie Roberts Posted February 6, 2008 Share #2 Posted February 6, 2008 M or R? They're both equally fabulous, and Leica has provided a true embarrassment of riches when it comes to lenses. I don't think you can't remove them from their SLR / RF context. The M line stops at 135mm (and for me at 90mm); anything longer is the R's solo territory. My simplistic system standouts (newest versions unless noted): R: 15 Elmarit 19 Elmarit 35 Lux 50 Lux 80 Lux 90 Pre AA Cron (I don't have this lens, but it's reputation is stellar) 100 APO macro 180 Elmarit (best value in a long lens) *I don't own anything longer here, so leave it to others to comment) M: 28 Cron ASPH 35 Lux ASPH 50 Lux ASPH 75 Lux 90 Cron Pre-ASPH There's also the Noctilux on the M side, but that's truly a special purpose lens. I'm also not saying there aren't scads of other lenses in both systems to love (I love the older 50 crons on the R side; I love the 90 "thin" Elmarit M), but these are my picks for most use, too. What's weird is that right now, the R system has arguably better ultrawide performance, though it comes at a price. If someone put a gun to my head, I could choose between 35s, and I'd probably take the M 35 Lux ASPH (it works well on my M8); the reverse is true for 50--if I could only have one, it would probably be the 50 R Lux. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
robsteve Posted February 6, 2008 Share #3 Posted February 6, 2008 If you had a choice between the two which would you choose and why? Camera aside. I understand the rangefinder and dslr are different tools. I am focusing on the lens. No pun intended. Assume you would have to take one or the other. That does not mean you have take all r or all m. But only the best of the two. Which version? I am considering the r or m of 28, 35, 50, 75/80, 90. I am looking for bokeh, isolation of subject, not heavy contrast, sharpness across the frame, etc. Thanks. Of the range listed, the M lenses perform slightly better. This is partly due to the fact that the M lenses are more modern designs in the range you listed. I own the 90mm APO Summicron in both the M and the R and the R version is probably marginally better wide open. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hdg Posted February 6, 2008 Share #4 Posted February 6, 2008 Why don`t you think at the R-Varios 21-35 mm and 28-90mm. They are absolutely up to date to compare with the Tri-Elmars? Sorry, I am a R-user only. I have put away my shorter lences and hold the 100 mm and 180 mm plus 2x extender. But using the R9+DMR the 21-35 mm is my favorite. Regards Hans Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
zapp Posted February 7, 2008 Share #5 Posted February 7, 2008 28 to 50 the latest M designs have best sharpness and almost no distortion. Beyond 50 quality of the lenses is basically the same - even the same designs sometimes -, but the rangefinder is limited to a max. focal length of 90/135 these days. Focusing accurcay, shutter virbration, retrofocus design etc. are important and inherent to M or R system and cause the differences in performance. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoFi-Chaser Posted February 7, 2008 Share #6 Posted February 7, 2008 Hello, I began my red-dot-carreer because of the lens-performance and had similar questions. Today I can say Both Systems play on a very high level. Wide-Angle-Lenses should perform better by construction on the M-System, where you have no "mirror-distance" to calculate in your design. But it's not only the lens-perfromance, also the handling in total is important. When I had the choice between M21-Asph and R19 the M was slightely sharper in the edges. But I personally can't really work well with the additional viewfinder. So it was the R-19, still today my favourite wa-lens. Later I added a CV15 for my M6, which I originally owned just because of the M-35Lux-ASPH which is the best 35mm-Lens at 1,4 I know (sharp star-points (i.e. no butterflies) even in the corners). But when a used R- 3,5/15 came across, I couldn't resist as well. Even though it weights far more, and is far bigger than the M-lens, I prefer it today. Although I'm sure, a 16-18-21 performs better in the fullframe-corners. Again: If you need to see all aspects of your wideangle-image before the shutter release (depth of field, ...), there's no choice to R. The M75-Cron is told to be one of the best performing M-lenses, ever built - unfortunately I never had a chance to prove this so far. The R100-Apo is simply perfect, so does the 3,4-180 Apo. But: All those differences may only be seen when using Tripod, cable-release, mirror-lock, etc ... So If I had to chose for one system again, I wouldn't go for the last % of performance, but on the way I want to shoot. In astronomy you say "every kind of telescope and aperture has got it's own sky". The same here: every situation and motive has it's own system. Better an image taken with undefined detail in the corners, than no image at all. In both systems, there are lenses performing better, than its focal lenght in the other. If you need always the best lens, you need both systems ... and a body for each lens (to be fast enough ;-)) BTW: If you agree always to use a tripod and mirror-lock, you should think of 6x6 regards T. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vanhulsenbeek Posted February 7, 2008 Share #7 Posted February 7, 2008 Advertisement (gone after registration) .........The M75-Cron is told to be one of the best performing M-lenses, ever built - unfortunately I never had a chance to prove this so far......... I just aquired the M75-Cron and it is so sharp it scares the .... out of me. Can't bring myself to make a portrait yet: the subject would clobber me when seeing the result Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankA Posted February 9, 2008 Author Share #8 Posted February 9, 2008 Great responses. What about bokeh? What is the bokeh king for R lenses? Also, does the 50mm Lux R work well for portraits? Examples? Is the 100 macro R that much better than the 60mm macro R? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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