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Anyone compare the 20mm SLII versus the 19mm elmarit?

Stuart Richardson

Active member
I am curious if anyone has had both of these lenses. I have the 19mm elmarit, and it turns out that it will work on full frame nikon if you shave the mirror a little and use a Leitax bayonet. But perhaps this is not really worth it. It seems like the 20mm CV is very nice, but I have not seen too many people using it yet. I think zooms tend to rule in this range (I have a 17-35mm, though I am not that much in love with it optically...it is great in terms of utility though).

Anyway, if anyone has experience with them both, I would be interested in hearing from you.
 

etrigan63

Active member
Stuart, I only have the CV 20mm so I can't comment on the Elmarit 19mm. Here are some sample shots with the CV:



 

jlancasterd

Active member
I am curious if anyone has had both of these lenses. I have the 19mm elmarit, and it turns out that it will work on full frame nikon if you shave the mirror a little and use a Leitax bayonet. But perhaps this is not really worth it. It seems like the 20mm CV is very nice, but I have not seen too many people using it yet. I think zooms tend to rule in this range (I have a 17-35mm, though I am not that much in love with it optically...it is great in terms of utility though).

Anyway, if anyone has experience with them both, I would be interested in hearing from you.
I've just (10 days ago) bought myself a D700 with a couple of Nikkors and a CV 20mm AIS. I've only use the CV a couple of times so far - largely to make sure that it will cover the things I need to photograph in some rather confined spaces in the Ffestiniog Railway workshops at Boston Lodge. My initial assessment is that it's a very nice lens - especially useful thanks to its small size and light weight.

I have CV 12, 15, 28, 35, 50 and 90mm lenses in Leica screw thread mount that I use with an M8, and I'm extremely pleased with the optical quality of all of them (the 28mm f3.5 is especially good, and my normal 'body cap' for the M8). I expect the 20mm AIS to be just as good. I'll try to post some images in the near future.
 
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jlancasterd

Active member
Thank you John, I would look forward to seeing any of your photos from it!
I've just had a walk around the Ffestiniog Railway Boston Lodge workshops with the CV 20mm. This image was taken handheld at f7, 1/100sec, ISO 1600. Developed in Lightroom (50% fill, 50% recovery) and CS4 (unsharp masking 50%, radius 1.5 pixels, threshold 3 levels). It shows fitters working on Welsh Highland Railway NG/G16 Garratt No.138. The whole frame is shown. Click to enlarge.

The focus point was on the vertical edge of the red-painted piece of steel (part of the cab front sheet) just in front of the fitters.

View attachment 20169
 
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Stuart Richardson

Active member
Thank you John. It looks pretty good. Not too much distortion and rather sharp across the frame. It seems great. I think I am going to hold off for the moment though. I have the 17-35mm zoom, which can be rather soft and distorted depending on what focal length you are at, but at 20mm is has no distortion and is quite sharp across the frame...I just have to remember to keep it set somewhere between 19 and 22mm!
 
O

Odry

Guest
Anyone compare the 20mm SLII versus the 19mm elmarit

I learned somewhere that extreme closup macro 2:1 shots can be taken by mating another lens in reverse to the front of the lens mounted to the camera. Does anyone have any idea what makes a good combination of lenses and what is needed?

I have an old canon 52mm manual focus lens that is in great shape.
 
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