Pulled the trigger on the Cron 35f2

[silver92b]

I'm one of those slow learners... Trying to save money I bought CV and Zeiss lenses for my M240 and basically wasted good money trying to save some...
Not that the CV lenses are bad, and the Zeiss Biogon 35f2.8 is excellent. But while "they" tell you you can shoot with all these alternative lenses in the M240, the fact is that the only really easy lenses to use with it are the 6bit coded, most modern versions of Leica glass.

Now I'm having a fire sale of my nice little CV lenses, my Zeiss and even the Panasonic GX Vario 35-100 f2.8, all of course at a loss to try and defray the cost of the 'Cron 35f2 ASPH that I just bough from Pop Flash (great source of lenses BTW). So now I know, keep my fingers off the "buy now" button until I can get the "real" thing LOL!

At least now I have some nice lenses that work very well with the M240 and are even color matched

 

[aDam007]

I REALLY like the 35/2 ZM lens, but I've always felt that the Leica lenses look cooler on Leica bodies.. And even though that has no bearing on my final images, it still makes me happier to see matchy matchy items.

I also at one point bought a bunch (3) of silver lenses to match my silver M240, but decided it was to flashy for my taste after being harassed while walking through malls etc, so I sold off all the silver lenses (luckily to a friend who wanted to be flashy) and silver body, and just kept my black sets. So maybe I'm not the right guy to validate your opinions, but I hope you enjoy the lens.

Lens wise, it's a great performer, and if you have the money over the 35/2 ZM then I say why not buy it! The only foreseeable problem now, theres a 35FLE out in silver that would look beautiful with your M240

 

[250swb]

Why didn't you code your Biogon and CV lenses? They now all have a groove machined into the mounting flange to take a code (a few dabs of black paint), and even the LTM CV lenses can be coded using an appropriate (and cheap) adapter.

Steve

 

[aDam007]

Because the 35cron looks cooler

 

[silver92b]

I REALLY like the 35/2 ZM lens, but I've always felt that the Leica lenses look cooler on Leica bodies.. And even though that has no bearing on my final images, it still makes me happier to see matchy matchy items.

I also at one point bought a bunch (3) of silver lenses to match my silver M240, but decided it was to flashy for my taste after being harassed while walking through malls etc, so I sold off all the silver lenses (luckily to a friend who wanted to be flashy) and silver body, and just kept my black sets. So maybe I'm not the right guy to validate your opinions, but I hope you enjoy the lens.

Lens wise, it's a great performer, and if you have the money over the 35/2 ZM then I say why not buy it! The only foreseeable problem now, theres a 35FLE out in silver that would look beautiful with your M240

I never have gotten any static about the "flashiness" . Actually, very few people notice the camera at all and those who do, like it a lot. Anyway, I bought my M240 used and silver it was. Likewise my Lux 50mm f1.4 so I figured, why not go with the matching colors :thumbup: I do feel from time to time that I wish I had a black body and black lenses, but that's just not how it worked out... Basically I wanted a more seamless functioning system. Setting up the various user profiles to accommodate the various lenses did not work out well. Firstly, the CV lenses (25mm Snapshot Scopar, and SW Helliar 15f4.5) have no match in the list of Leica lenses and I could not get rid of the magenta fringes. Worse yet, I never could remember to change the profiles and shot everything on whatever profile was last chosen. Many shots later at home in front of the computer, I realized my errors. That really was a huge bother. :thumbdown:

Why didn't you code your Biogon and CV lenses? They now all have a groove machined into the mounting flange to take a code (a few dabs of black paint), and even the LTM CV lenses can be coded using an appropriate (and cheap) adapter.

Steve

I tried coding them and got the adapter as well. Unfortunately my M240 will not recognize the DIY coded lenses. That's basically the biggest reason to go ahead with the Cron 35f2. Frankly, the Zeiss 35f2.8 is an awesome lens performance wise. The big problem is the lack of effective 6 bit coding. Like I said, I tried DIY coding many times without success. The camera does recognize the Leica coded lenses.

Because the 35cron looks cooler

That it does , but really, the silver Biogon 35f2.8 was pretty darned cool looking too

 

[Godfrey]

Nice. I'd have wanted the 'Cron 35 over the others anyway—I prefer the way the Leica lenses render compared to the Zeiss.

I acquired some of my current M-mount lens kit starting in 2011 when I bought the Ricoh GXR and Leica M4-2. Color Skopar 21, 28, 35, 50; Ultron 28; Nokton 40 and 50. An M-Rokkor 90 (German production, same as Elmar-C 90), and a Hektor 135/4.5.

I used the same lenses on the M9 when I acquired it in early 2012. Most worked fine; I used the Ultron 28 and Nokton 50 most with it.

When I bought a CL body in 2012, an M-Rokkor 40 II followed shortly thereafter.

Towards the end of 2014, I finally bought the Leica 35 I'd wanted, a Summilux 35 v2.

Then the M9 was replaced with an M-P. With the joy of finding the M-P is exactly what I'd been hoping the M9 would be, I've been selling the now excess gear and whittling things down. I decided that the CS 21 and Ultron didn't work to my satisfaction on the M-P, so I sold them and replaced them with an Elmar-M 24.

The 'Lux 35, Nokton 50, and M-Rokkor 90 are the other three lenses I use most on the M-P. They're not coded—I have a user config set up for each ... for the Elmar, the config sets the camera to recognize the lens code automatically. For the others, the lens code is set manually. It's an extra step when changing lenses, but it doesn't seem a bother to me.

I like how this set of lenses works, also the Hektor 135, on the M-P. So I'll likely stick right here for a while, with respect to lenses. I seem to be using the 35 and 50 most of the time.

G

 

[BANKER1]

Flashy or not, I just liked the look of the silver body. Never thought about it being flashy, and I think most people look at it as just an old camera (when most were silver). So, I opted for the silver 35 Cron as well. Mine was acquired when it was very difficult to get any M body, but I was determined to wait for the silver and would not have been receptive to taking the black body, if it were offered, prior to the arrival of my silver version.

Greg