My last real dilema is the 135. Keh sent me a tele-elmar with perfect glass and a multiated flange Made some shots with it, but OMG is it a pig. 505 grams--that's OK for a superspeed lens, but an f/4 it's past the pale. This was the early version at a good price. Obviously I have to return it.
I fear I may need to bite the bullet on the APO, which is still a wallmart shopper at 450 grams. My Canon Black LTM is 400, and not bad but not deadly.
I wish CV had gone all the way.......
If I was smart, I would return the summarit-m 90, keep the lanthar, and put the money into the telyt.
2500 seems to be rock bottom right now on the leica 135/3.4...yikes. But it's a crucial FL for me in the summer.
Phil, congrats on the 50Rigid and ZM21. Excellent shots.
uhoh, interesting reading your lens "journeys". Really enjoying the snow scenes you posted.
Joakim, nice set, I like the shadow composition on #1.
Charles, lovely portrait wit the 50DR! You should forget about the other toy camera you have and shoot the M more often
Allen, superb! Presented this way, this shows your B&W vision really well. Congrats, I sense another exhibition and a book on the horizon.
Cal, nice set with the ZM18.
Nicholas, nice varied abstrat set. I like the 1st MG shot a lot.
uhoh7 wrote:
I fear I may need to bite the bullet on the APO, which is still a wallmart shopper at 450 grams. My Canon Black LTM is 400, and not bad but not deadly.
Any of the older 135/4 Tele Elmars or even the older Elmars are wonderful lenses, quite sharp in my opinion. I own the older 135/4 Elmar-M and its super sharp. I suggest to try another copy before going for the APO version. Yes, the 135APO is better but its not night and day and the 135 Tele-E cannot be worse than quite a few of the CV lenses you own. Give it some time, it is not as easy to focus 135FL with the rangefinder, especially without a magnifier. Not sure what your expectations are, but I think 135mm f/2.8 lenses should be left to live view cameras or d-SLRs.
Maybe us North American Leica shooters should converge on Chicago for a meet-up? It's centrally located and would be a reasonable travel compromise for many, I suspect. Biggest problem will likely be finding a mutually agreeable date, especially for those with families.
Allen, that's an extremely impressive set! So many great individual images that also work very well as a group.
Nico - also an excellent series!
Joe - the first image looks like a scene from the park near where I live... I'll have to dig up an image. I'm curious if the exposure values are accurate for the middle bunch in the series. Seems quite underexposed. If so, and you pushed them in post, they certainly held up well. But then, we knew that about the MM already!
Cal - ZM18 looks great. As I was scrolling down through the images I thought the place looked familiar... Burlington!
Charlie - thanks for posting the 90 shootout. Glad to hear the Summarit held it's own - means I don't need to look for anything else! Just keep what I have. But the Voigtlander does seem interesting. Is there much of a physical size difference between the two? I've been contemplating picking up a 90/4 of one flavor or another just for something even smaller since I mostly use that focal length during the day and often stopped down a bit anyway. It seems none of the 90/4s I've read about, other than the current macro, are optically competitive with the faster variants...
Charles - love the look of the DR... The rigid is a lens I've also been considering...
Phil - ZM21 makes sense. Stopped down past f/5.6 you'll be hard pressed to see much difference between it and the SEM. Are you looking for a Sonnar in Leica mount, or would a Contax RF version be an option? You'd have to buy the necessary Amedeo Contax-Leica adapter for it... Popflash has both listed at the moment here.
There's also one here in Toronto.
Joakim - an interesting collection. Also reminds me of Luka's Stockholm construction site photography.
Manoj - interesting to see a shopping mall in your neck of the world.. looks pretty familiar. Not surprised you ran into some resistance to your photography. Probably would have been less of a problem if you were using a smartphone, but with a 'real' camera, people can quickly become suspicious about motives. With it being on private property too, it's not unusual for there to be restrictions on photography, assuming property rights are similar to here. Mall management is not keen on having patrons 'hassled' by keen photographers.
Ash - congrats on the M240 to you too!
Gary - good job on the apocalyptic landscape.
Michael - love the set a couple pages back, particularly the lunch bike and especially your son jumping on the bed!
uhoh7 wrote:
My last real dilema is the 135. Keh sent me a tele-elmar with perfect glass and a multiated flange Made some shots with it, but OMG is it a pig. 505 grams--that's OK for a superspeed lens, but an f/4 it's past the pale. This was the early version at a good price. Obviously I have to return it.
I fear I may need to bite the bullet on the APO, which is still a wallmart shopper at 450 grams.
2500 seems to be rock bottom right now on the leica 135/3.4...yikes. But it's a crucial FL for me in the summer. ...Show more →
Hmmm. I have 2 late M135 Tele-Elmars, one for M and one custom for Canon EOS. They are about as close as you can get to APO quality and you can shoot wide open f/4, and at 1/5 the cost of the APO. This is one of those hidden gems, like the latest M90 Elmarit. Give it a chance.
This TE 135 copy is unusable due to the flange issue it has. I could return it and ask for an exchange. They are pretty inexpensive--I paid 285 from keh for this one.
I know the lore around the lens, as I've been reading up. I don't doubt it does well, but it is so heavy. I found the handling really poor. The APO is only 50 grams lighter, I know.
In this respect the TE or even the APO can't hold a candle to the CVs like the skopars, 75/2.5 and 90/3.5, which are a fraction of it's weight and seem to me equal to their leica equivalents in performance. Sean Reid felt the 75 is equal to the leica 75 cron. It's very small.
The M9 itself is large and heavy to my taste--the A7 is no better. Those original 1920's leicas were more like it I'm no fan of the RF in real world focusing, and it's flat out inferior to the A7 with fast and long lenses. Very quaint, yes--practical no.
Obviously it's fine when you have a decent DOF.
The latest EVFs are great and Sony has the MF aids down. Too bad they can't get their sensor act together.
Anyway, I love the M9, quirks and all, and it's a charming camera to shooter and subject, but Oskar must be rolling in his grave at the size of the body and lenses like the 90 crons etc.
But, I know we are all different and I don't expect my ways or views are the only ones.
@ Ron
The 90 lanthar is way smaller and a full 100 grams lighter than the summarit. It's nothing to carry, and so cheap you don't worry it could be hurt. I'm going to start shooting it a bunch, because it will be so nice to ski with, so we'll see just how good it really is Hood and cap are 23 grams, I don't imagine the summarit hood is any lighter or smaller ( I'm using a nice heavystar 46 hood and cap with it). The lanthar also has external threads like the 90/2.5. Internal threads appear to be 39. I like the hoods because they keep the glass drier in a storm. Supposedly the summarit is really really resistant to flare, that will be another aspect to compare with the lanthar.
One last word from the 90 Summarit-M: L1004176 by unoh7, on Flickr
Thank you Joe, Charlie and Ron, and everyone for all the likes
Charlie, very nice series!!
Joe, and yes more fun with the M240 Great shots, and love the B&W richness.
Shots from this evening. M240 and 50 Cron Rigid 1964.
Charles I have to agree I like the pink in the first two shots and particularly in the 2nd one.
But I am really drawn most to the 4th shot with the subtle blues and as I look at it I keep finding more elements in the overall image that catches my eyes.
Charles - cool set and really like the first one.
Charlie - Really like the portrait's rendering. I've also tried the TE135 and had mixed feelings about it. Optically it seemed pretty reasonable though I think modern glass is better. I haven't tried the APO, so no idea if there is any real world benefit to it, optically. I agree about the size, which ultimately doesn't appeal to me.
Thanks for the additional information. I'll have to keep an eye out for the Voigtlander as it sounds promising. Regarding the 90 Summarit: I'm not sure its flare resistance is anything extraordinary. It will flare in the right situations.
For example, the two images below, which are both outtakes, so please don't give them any creative consideration. The point is one has very strong flare with only a slight change in framing.
Nico - another excellent city set!
Joe - I really enjoy the latest set you posted. I like the background, perspective control with your son as main subject
Charlie - thanks for posting many info about all kinds of lens, those are very useful information.
Charles - your image make me want immediately pull out my 50cron DR, it was my main lens previous trip even with 50lux in bag. Love that BW portrait and your last set looks very impressive.
Phil - ZM21is my only WA leica lens, and I haven't found reason that I need more even I am lust Leica SEM. Love those city walk images as well.
Joakim - Love the way you process your file, very neutral and real.
Manoj - Nice color and story.
Ash - congrats on the M240, I thought 28 cron is one of best lens for FF M it is my next M lens once I figured out my future plan and want expand my Leica.
Gary - another superb landscape set from 21SEM.
Ron - I love the two back lighting shots by 90. Very film like.
OK, now I want thank you for every comments and likes. Appreciate!
Charles - very nice!
Ron - looks like you are getting the hang of the M240 super quick.
Michael - love your shots from China. Kind of a Velvia look to these…
I hope I have not bored you all yet of my Yellowstone pics. A few more…
Made some shots with it, but OMG is it a pig. 505 grams--that's OK for a superspeed lens, but an f/4 it's past the pale. This was the early version at a good price. Obviously I have to return it.
