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Looking for recommendations for Wide angles for M8

dude163

Active member
Hi all

Im looking to acquire a wide angle lens for my M8 this year does anyone have any suggestions for any that can be bought for not too much money ( I know I know, cheap and leica are mutually exclusive)

But I have been looking at some neat vintage LTM wide angles, Canon Serenars, Nikon Nikkors , and the soviet industars and Jupiters.but are any of them decent or is it a crapshoot?. How about the older summarons or elmars ? I have a weird vintage lens fetish so that may work out to my advantage also but I am not up to speed on how they work

How are the ZM Zeiss and CV lenses? they seem a lot more affordable to me, but the main reason I bought the M8 was to have access to the leica glass , so Im not sure if I want to go that route though I have seen some great shots taken with the M9

Like I said I have some coin burning a hole in my pocket and having excess cash is a rarity now that Im on disability , so give me some ideas/sugestions etc.

Thanks in advance
 
V

Vivek

Guest
What is a "wide" to you?

FWIW, is it wise thing to say: "Like I said I have some coin burning a hole in my pocket .." in a Leica forum? LOL.
 

rayyan

Well-known member
Like Vivek said, ' how wide '?

Some zeiss zm wides are not cheap!!
cv has the 12 and 15mm. Relatively ' cheap ' as in price.

If an apprx 28mm would do, the zm 21/4.5 is a gem of a lens.
 

dude163

Active member
My apologies, I mean something 35mm or wider , but preferably 28 or less , for cheap prices, well Ive been lucky so far, my cron ( smal scratches) was 400 , my 135 elmarit was 300 and my elmar 90 was 60 ( scratched again!)

I was trying to see if I could get something around 500 . but if that wasnt going to work, I was going to save up a bit longer .
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
I use a Voigtländer Color Skopar 21mm f/4 on both my Ricoh GXR-M and Leica M9.

On the GXR-M's 16x24mm format, it is pleasantly wide but not extremely so (the 'A12 28mm' camera unit presents a slightly wider FoV with an 18mm optical focal length). Very little if any color shifting in this configuration, and very sharp/contrasty throughout the aperture range.

Used with the M9, it presents an ultra-wide focal length. I process the raw files with CornerFix fairly often as there is a bit of color shifting and falloff apparent. Again, very good results from it. And a not too terrible price.

An M8 would fall between these two for FoV and likely be more similar to the M9 in terms of sensor behavior.

(The Zeiss Biogon 25mm f/2.8 T* ZM lens is simply one of the best lenses in this focal length available. I'd like one, someday. It's effective FoV on the M8 is about the same as the 21mm on the Ricoh GXR-M.)
 

Double Negative

Not Available
Indeed, the Color Skopar lenses are sweet. Small, cheap and rather good. I've got a bunch of 'em and they make a great set to travel with or stash in your pockets. They're *that* small. The 21 and 28 would be good options - the 25 not so much (it's not RF coupled).
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
Indeed, the Color Skopar lenses are sweet. Small, cheap and rather good. I've got a bunch of 'em and they make a great set to travel with or stash in your pockets. They're *that* small. The 21 and 28 would be good options - the 25 not so much (it's not RF coupled).
The M-mount version of the 25mm f/4 is rangefinder coupled.
The older, LTM mount version wasn't.

Cosina/Voigtländer reissued the 21, 25 and 35 mm Color Skopars in M-mount, didn't do so with the 28 and 50 mm for some reason. I have all but the 25mm. They are nice performers and reasonably priced.
 
V

Vivek

Guest
My apologies, I mean something 35mm or wider , but preferably 28 or less , for cheap prices, well Ive been lucky so far, my cron ( smal scratches) was 400 , my 135 elmarit was 300 and my elmar 90 was 60 ( scratched again!)

I was trying to see if I could get something around 500 . but if that wasnt going to work, I was going to save up a bit longer .
Keep the cash and keep looking for the best prices. When I tried to sell my CV21/4 (boxed with the VF and all) it took a long time before it was sold for US $275 to the lucky buyer.
 

dude163

Active member
275! dang! someone has a color skopar 35/2.5 for 275 , is that a decent buy?

Im not trying to be super cheap here , just my wife has heard me go from hating the Monochrom to raving about it in the last 5 days so I have to keep the spending under semi-control :) lol,
 

Gary Clennan

New member
I would recommend the ZM18 or the ZM25 if 18mm is too wide for you. Both these ZM lenses are stellar on the M8 (or M9)...
 

Ocean

Senior Subscriber Member
The ZM 25 is excellent on M9 as well. The only problem is it well exceeds the budget of $500

Cheers,
 

Double Negative

Not Available
The M-mount version of the 25mm f/4 is rangefinder coupled.
The older, LTM mount version wasn't.

Cosina/Voigtländer reissued the 21, 25 and 35 mm Color Skopars in M-mount, didn't do so with the 28 and 50 mm for some reason. I have all but the 25mm. They are nice performers and reasonably priced.
True - I thought of that after I replied. I stuck with the LTM versions as I find them nicer. The caveat is that you should stick with the "Type II" adapters so that you can code them...
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
True - I thought of that after I replied. I stuck with the LTM versions as I find them nicer. The caveat is that you should stick with the "Type II" adapters so that you can code them...
What did you find nicer about them? Supposedly the optics are identical, just the mounts were updated.

I don't have the older models to compare to, just curious.
 

dude163

Active member
PS : My budget is , how shall we say, *elastic*

so a new Zeiss 25mm would be a better bet than a used Elmarit 28/2.8?
 

Gary Clennan

New member
I would say for landscape type stuff (where sharpness is paramount), the ZM25 would edge out the Elmarit 28. However, the latest asph version which I own is very sharp across the frame. See if you can dig up the MTF's for both and compare.
 
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