Leica 50mm f/2.8 Elmar Collapsible Black

Quite a liitle bit OT: can i use this Elmar on my M5? Is it intruding too much in the body and maybe touching the light meter arm?
 
I sold mine for $495 here, or on pnet, 12 months ago. I know that was reasonably cheap, but that was what I paid for it.

It's a lovely lens, but I think well overpriced once it gets much over $650, considering the ready availability of, say, the Zeiss Planar or C-Sonnar.
 
This is a lens you either love or hate I think. Superb 3-D rendering- I think it is best in this regard among the 50mm's.

As to price, they have certainly come down over the last year, and at $500 are a real bargain- if you can deal with the small size. I find the handling is better with this than a tiny lens like the 40/2, even without a focus tab. The Elmar-M is often on one of my cameras.
 
Olsen said:
Anyone here who uses the 50 mm Elmar Collapsible on a M8?
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I have two Elmars (last version). They can be collapsed into my M8 without any problem. In fact, my 60 year old Summitar can also be collapsed into my M8 without problem.

Cheers
Ray
 
Frankly, I'm quite surprised these lenses seem to be poor movers in the classifieds given their attractive pricing. Imaging is in the same league as the Summicron and in some repects actually better due to it's greater resistance to flare and secondary reflections by virtue of it's Tessar like design. The inclusion of modern high index anomalous dispersion glass in it's reformulaion over the older 50/2.8 Elmar gives it sharpness on par with the Summicron. The beauty of the Tessar design over the faster Gaussian types like the Summicron is the absence of a symmetrical concave lens surface on either side of the aperture stop that act as collecting/reflecting source for ghost image production. Other symmetrical Gaussian designs like the ZM Planar or Konica Hexanon-M has greater resistance to secondary reflection thanks to more advanced multicoating over the Summicrons. The current Summicron also has more plano surfaces than the aforementioned but don't know it's significant pertaining to reflections other than simplifying design yet better quality control. Even if you were to assume that all of the 50/2 M mount lenses performed about the same, the 50 Elmar-M is still smaller, lighter and has a slighty more classic look to the image if you can live with a usable maximum aperture of f/2.8. It also make a good companion for most 50/1-1.4 lenses where edge to edge sharpness at any distance doesn't really kick in untill about f/5.6. In this respect, the Elmar-M wins even at f/2.8.
 
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