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ONE lens : which ?


proenca

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While there are a lot of really great medium wides / "normal" lenses on the M8, you can't go wrong with the 28 Cron. It's a great, great lens on the M8 IMO.

 

You also can't go wrong with a 35 lux or Cron :)

 

Any of them would keep me going for a year. I don't personally like the newer 28 Elmarit as much, but even it is a good lens, as is the CV 28 Ultron.

 

But again, you can't go wrong with a 28 Cron ASPH.

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My vote is for a 24mm Elmarit.

 

With a crop factor of 1.33 on the M8, this lens becomes a comfortable 32mm lens for me. Just a tad wide enough for my style of shooting. I like it that I can move up close to my subjects when shooting the street of L.A. with this lens.

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In the past, a normal lens was defined as being the closest to the diagonal measurement of the film/sensor size. This would give you roughly a 1:1 size with what the human eye sees. That would mean the following:

 

M8 - Sensor Size 18 x 27mm - Diagonal 32.45mm = 35mm

Full Frame - Size 24 x 36mm - Diagonal 43,27mm = 50mm (40 Would be closer)

Medium Format - 60 x 60mm - Diagnol 84,85mm = 85mm

 

When SLR's first came out, they actually came out with a 45mm Lens (some even 42mm). It was just easier and cheaper to manufacture 50mm - so this ended up being the standard. By definition this is thus a slight Tele.

 

At the end of the day it comes down to personal preference and what you enjoy shooting the most. However, I do think that you can not go wrong with either 28mm or 35mm. For me personally I still enjoy 50mm the most.

 

Andreas

 

What human eye sees is not an easy science. The focussed part of the picture might indeed be like a 50mm FF lens. But then there is peripheral vision, eye and head movement to get better perspective/focus...hence IMAXes, widescreen, panavisions, 16:9 . Of course from composition pov they are not the golden rule.

I'd say summilux 35/1.4. Wide and fast enough, just like a good life...

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Not that it hasn't been said a few hundred times, but I would choose the 35mm cron, or to save some cash, try the 28mm 2.8 Elmarit. It's cheap, and small, and it does a pretty good job.

 

I also have some of the new f2.5 lenses. Specifically, the 50 and the 75. I like those too.

 

DBK

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well boys and girls.

 

the debate ( well for me at least ) its over.

 

I took the rebate plunge ( oh lord, there goes the credit card lovely repayments that I was doing so nicely ) and ordered a 28mm ASPH cron in silver ( going to look the nuts in my chrome M8 )

 

Should take a few weeks to arrive though - someone bought yesterday the last one from Leica UK, so now I have to wait for a shipment to arrive.

 

Oh well, can't wait. :)

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Hi there folks,

 

Question : if you had to have ONE lens on your M8, which one and why ?

 

I'm about to take the plug and order a 28mm F2 with the rebate and that will leave me broke for the near future, I already have a 15mm Heliar ( which I use loads and makes me wonder if I shouldnt buy a 21mm 2,8 ASPH instead, but Im a sucker for shallow DOF/Bokeh and I can't have that with the 21mm but I can with the 28mm ) and the 50mm 1,4 PreASPH for portraits.

 

So for the next year or so I will be in a no lens territory.

 

If you guys were in the same situation, what lens would you pick ?

 

If you can live with F4 I would buy a MATE ( used ones are available fairly often) .The second choice would be the 28 cron.

Brian:)

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or to save some cash, try the 28mm 2.8 Elmarit. It's cheap, and small, and it does a pretty good job.

DBK

 

Well, at around £1,000 in the UK I wouldn't exactly call the 28mm Elmarit 'cheap'! Yet, at around half the price of the Summicron, it is an exceptionally good buy.

 

Regarding the occasional criticism of it being too contrasty, perhaps in some climates that might be true. But here in the UK we can often use that slight extra contrast to give our images a boost.

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another vote for the 28mm elmarit ASPH. I don't find it particularly more contrasty than other Leica ASPH lenses, however for me contrast is a good thing. I always end up boosting contrast anyway, usually via curves, on every image; but particularly with b&w which I find needs a big contrast boost, even for shots in high summer, both on film and digital.

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