Shooting 50mm

Maggie O said:

Hey y'all, I'm looking at getting a 50mm lens for my M8 and it'll probably be a vintage Leitz-era Elmarit or Summicron (or maybe another CV- the classic Heliar looks cool) and I was wondering what settings to use on the M8 with it, WRT, lens detection and UV-IR?

Sean has written that coding isn't needed for 50mm lenses and above, so I might skip having John Milich mill the flange on the 50. I do plan on using an IR cut filter, though. Should I leave the lens detection settings at "on uv-ir" or turn it off completely? If I turn it off, will that have a deleterious effect on the files, requiring the use of CornerFix? Or, should I just go ahead and have the lens coded?

Thanks, oh Leica gurus!

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Maggie

Don't know exactly what you like to shoot but I would recommend that you at least look at the 50 Lux Pre-Asph. I love the way it renders and Jack Flesher has some wonderful black and whites he took at a recent wedding. It is not as sharp as the new 50 Lux Asph but the overall drawing to my eye is superior. Great micro contrast but lower overall contrast which makes for a very pleasing look.

Woody Spedden

That might be out of my budget, but I like the sound of it. My CV Ultron draws that way and I adore that lens.

Hi Maggie:

The pre-50-Lux is a stunner. You can find the earlier version with removable hoods for under $1000, but probably only to a low of around $800. However (at least IMO) you will never look back and regret the purchase

You know, that might be in the budget, if I wait a bit and forgo some other stuff.

Maggie O said:

You know, that might be in the budget, if I wait a bit and forgo some other stuff.

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like food! :ROTFL::ROTFL::ROTFL:
Of course, right now my food bills are more than my rent! :wtf:

Well, much to my surprise, a package arrived this afternoon with an A&A Oskar's Day Bag, and, inside it, a Voigtländer 50mm Heliar Classic! It's a lovely little lens, silver chrome and it weighs a ton for such a small thing.

Here's a couple of photos from this afternoon:

Maggie O said:

Well, much to my surprise, a package arrived this afternoon with an A&A Oskar's Day Bag, and, inside it, a Voigtländer 50mm Heliar Classic! It's a lovely little lens, silver chrome and it weighs a ton for such a small thing.

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You must have a nice Valentine.:angel: I have the A&A Oskar and it is my most used bag.:clap: Please show a picture of how that 50 Heliar classic looks on your M8. I'd love to see it.

Cindy Flood said:

You must have a nice Valentine.:angel: I have the A&A Oskar and it is my most used bag.:clap: Please show a picture of how that 50 Heliar classic looks on your M8. I'd love to see it.

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Birthday present/Valentine thing. Tomorrow's my birthday.

I'll get a photo and post it here, probably tomorrow.

Happy Birthday! Enjoy your new stuff!:clap:

What a gorgeous cat! How do you get her (him?) to sit still while you take a picture? As soon as I point a camera at my cat, she immediately stops whatever she's doing (that I wanted to photograph), walks to me, and starts purring and rubbing up against my leg...

Jonathon Delacour said:

What a gorgeous cat! How do you get her (him?) to sit still while you take a picture? As soon as I point a camera at my cat, she immediately stops whatever she's doing (that I wanted to photograph), walks to me, and starts purring and rubbing up against my leg...

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Oh, Scooter does that, too. But she's gotten so used to me taking photos of her, much like Wegman's dogs, she's kind of into it now.

Maggie O,
I think you are going to really enjoy the 50mm Heliar Classic on the M8, I know I do. Gives me something like 65mm +/-. A good informal street lens, although I like the 21 & 28 also. I like this lens as I can collapse it and drop it in my vest pocket with no problem. I really don't care about Boke, bokey, bokkee, or however it is spelled now. The lens is just a very good lens for what I do with it. Works good on my M3 as well.
Your Scooter looks just like my brother-in-law's Willow, another female.

Oh yeah, although signing up and watching this site for awhile now, I suppose I should intro myself. I am not new to photography, nor rangefinders. I am a retired Pro, that welcomed back RF's and film. I got into photography in the late 60's as a Navy photographer, and went pro in the late 70's, only to retire this past year. I was raised on Leica, Speed Graphic, Linhoff, Mamiya, and Nikon. Although my roots are still Leica M.

Hi Art! Welcome!

I am absolutely loving this lens, even if it's a bit tighter than I'm used to shooting. But that's also part of what I'm loving about it.

Here's another shot with it, this time Scooter is saying hi to a frequent visitor, MnS:



M8, 50mm Heliar Classic, f2.

Maggie O said:

Hey y'all, I'm looking at getting a 50mm lens for my M8 and it'll probably be a vintage Leitz-era Elmarit or Summicron (or maybe another CV- the classic Heliar looks cool) and I was wondering what settings to use on the M8 with it, WRT, lens detection and UV-IR?

Sean has written that coding isn't needed for 50mm lenses and above, so I might skip having John Milich mill the flange on the 50. I do plan on using an IR cut filter, though. Should I leave the lens detection settings at "on uv-ir" or turn it off completely? If I turn it off, will that have a deleterious effect on the files, requiring the use of CornerFix? Or, should I just go ahead and have the lens coded?

Thanks, oh Leica gurus!

Click to expand...

I'd suggest leaving it uncoded and letting the M8 stay in whatever code detection position you like to have it in for other lenses. Short of a fluke (like a screw in exactly the wrong position, etc.), the M8 won't apply any corrections at all if a lens is not a coded.

I tested the two slower CV 50s for the 50 Summarit review and that will be published...some day when I get caught up.

Cheers,

Sean

Ah, excellent!

Thanks so much Sean! I'm looking forward to reading your new Summarit review. It was your writing that convinced me of the high worth and value of CV lenses.

Sean_Reid said:

I'd suggest leaving it uncoded and letting the M8 stay in whatever code detection position you like to have it in for other lenses. Short of a fluke (like a screw in exactly the wrong position, etc.), the M8 won't apply any corrections at all if a lens is not a coded.

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Thank you Sean - that's what I wanted to hear as well - that way I can get things coded later on when I send a body in for the 'upgrade' and use the lens in the meantime.

Once in awhile, people report the M8 detecting a code from a lens that's not coded. Some suggests that a screw head in just the right position can trigger this but I prefer to blame it on ghosts. Since it can be a hassle to constantly switch the M8 from coding detection on to off, I just leave it on all the time unless I find that its making a false detection with certain lenses. But that's rare.

Any 50 mm or longer lens really does not need to be coded except for the small advantage of the EXIF info. Ditto for the CV 12 which is "best" uncoded unless one is only shooting BW. It's the 15 - 35 mm (maybe 40 mm) lenses that really benefit from coding unless one is using Cornerfix.

Cheers,

Sean

I've left the lens detection on, with UV-IR, and got great results.

As promised some photos of the CV 50mm Heliar Classic on my M8:

Leica M8 with Voigtländer 50mm Classic Heliar Lens, February, 2008







Photos shot with the D-Lux 3 and processed in LightZone.