Lenses for M8?

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NickLondon

Nick London
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Hi all,

I recently took delivery of a wonderful new chrome M8 and being a rangefinder novice, I bought two lenses based on information gathered while waiting to take receipt of the camera. These are a 35mm and a 75mm Summicron. I am playing around with both and am beginning to appreciate their respective strengths.

I was just wondering what in the opinion of you hardened Leica buffs is the best lense combination for a full kit. I appreciate this is dependent on subject matter, but suffice to say I am predominantly interested in photographing people, street photgraphy and low light work.

I really appreciate any advice you may have.

Kind regards,

Nick
 
Congrats !

Congrats !

Hi Nick,

I don't own a M8 but tested it at a demo day with various lenses and the 75mm frame corners on the M8 in combination with cropping factor and lower VF magnification I found it rather inconvinient. Maybe you get used to it. I love the 2/75 on my flim M's but I'm not sure on the M8 though. With the cropping factor I definately would get a 50mm. If low light is what you seek get a 'lux if it's available darkness that you have in mind than 1.0 is a must 😀 . And of course some wide angle might be interesting, 21 or 24. Depends if you use that kind of lens at all and what's you take on external VF. Have fun anyway.
 
Tri Elmar. It's perfect for general use. Too slow for low light, but you have that covered already. Awesome, awesome camera! Never leaves my side.
steve
 
My kit is Elmarit 28 Asph and Summicron 50 for M8, but i feel like i should have gotten the Summicron 75 instead of Summicron 50.

/Erik
 
icebear said:
Hi Nick,

I don't own a M8 but tested it at a demo day with various lenses and the 75mm frame corners on the M8 in combination with cropping factor and lower VF magnification I found it rather inconvinient. Maybe you get used to it. I love the 2/75 on my flim M's but I'm not sure on the M8 though. With the cropping factor I definately would get a 50mm. If low light is what you seek get a 'lux if it's available darkness that you have in mind than 1.0 is a must 😀 . And of course some wide angle might be interesting, 21 or 24. Depends if you use that kind of lens at all and what's you take on external VF. Have fun anyway.
Click to expand...

The 75 Summilux is my favorite lens on the M8.....
 
Hi Nick
I can honestly say i am very pleased with the new 28 2.8 Elmarit. In leica terms its not a bad price although obviously its not going to crop up second hand just yet. Incidentally the 90 focal length also works pretty well and allows a really nice tight head shot. I thought the focusing area would be too small but in practice i have found it more useful than I intially expected.
 
Some suggestions re lenses for M8

Some suggestions re lenses for M8

You already picked two of the best lenses available in the current 35/2 and 75/2. These are not simply two of the best lenses available from Leica, but two of the best lenses available from any manufacturer for any 35mm camera or equivalent digital camera, period. Use them well, and enjoy them! That having been said, the M8's digital sensor records a somewhat smaller portion than film M cameras of the image produced by the lenses. Thus, the image produced by the 35/2 with an M8 would be roughly equivalent to a 50mm lens on an M film body, and the image produced by a 75/2 with an M8 would be roughly equivalent to a 100mm or 105mm lens on an SLR body. If you are looking for additional lenses, I would suggest for your consideration the Leica 28mm f/2 Aspheric, which used with the M8 would produce an image area roughly equivalent to a 35mm lens used on an M film body; and the Leica 50mm f/1.4 Aspheric, which used with the M8 would produce an image area roughly equivalent to a 75mm lens on an M film body. The 28mm would give you a larger field of view and more depth of field to work with, if street shooting is what you like. The 50mm would give you a large maximum aperture, a somewhat smaller field of view, and exceptionally high image quality for photos focused and composed more deliberately, and on an M8, might be an ideal lens for indoor available-light portraiture. The 50mm f/1.4 Summilux Aspheric would probably be a more practical choice for most applications than the 50mm f/1 Noctilux, which is an exceptional lens and has its adherents, but is larger, heavier, more expensive, and has very narrow depth of field at maximum aperture, requiring exceptionally careful focusing for effective use. In the words of the carney barker, "Ya pays yer money an' ya takes yer choice." For more info on the 28mm f/2, 50mm f/1.4 and 50mm f/1, see:
http://www.leica-camera.us/photography/m_system/lenses/461.html
http://www.leica-camera.us/photography/m_system/lenses/466.html
http://www.leica-camera.us/photography/m_system/lenses/465.html
 
I think 02Pete has some very good points. My favorite two lens kit for a film M is the 35/1.4 ASPH and the 75/2 APO ASPH. The 35/2 is very similar to the 35/1.4, only a stop slower. In any case, I think you could probably use wider lenses. The suggestion for a 24mm lens is good. It is about a 32mm on the M8, which is fairly wide, yet there are still framelines. The 25mm biogon is another excellent choice, though it does not bring up the correct framelines unless you modify it.

A 50 would be another good portrait lens on the M8. I would recommend the 50/1.4 ASPH. It is the best overall 50mm lens made for any 35mm system. You could always round it out with the 15mm Voigtlander, which is cheap, compact, sharp and very wide. Unfortunately, you cannot use filters on it so you have to be careful about IR contamination.
 
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