12 or 15 for 8

[Bill Pierce]

Does anybody have any thoughts on whether the Cosina 12 or the 15mm give better results on the M8 with it's less than full frame? With the Nikon 14-24 adding over 2 pounds to an already hefty Nikon D3 body and that situation being pretty much duplicated by some of the Canon combos, you can see why the M8/Cosina combo would be a very popular alternative in the extra-wide catagory if the performance at the edges of the field was as good as that of the DSLRs.

Any thoughts. Even better, any hands on experience?

Bill

 

[marke]

Bill, I've never tried either one, but have heard that the 15 has considerably less barrel distortion that the 12 when used on a film M. Now how much that matters on the cropped M8 image, I couldn't say.

Sorry I can't be of anymore help. I hope someone else who has tried this specific combination will chime in.

 

[Glenn2]

Bill, the 15mm works very well on the M8. Haven't splurged on an M8 myself yet, but got the chance to try out the 15mm on a friends camera. I use the 15mm a lot on my old M4's, but have to be careful the 21 SA doesn't get jealous.___ ;-) If I ever end up buying an eight the 15mm CV will get a lot of use. Have heard that someone is making a little gadget that allows the use of 39mm filters. The extra stop of the 15 is worth thinking about if you're into available light.

Will attach a self portrait, Al Kaplan style that I did in a local photo store. I'm the serious looking one on the right. Must have been thinking... "If I drop it, I buy it $$$$".

M8, 15mmCV, 640asa, 1/45" @ f/4.5 This was from the jpg as I didn't have a suitable raw converter.

Glenn

 

[ferider]

I believe the 15 Heliar is one of the most popular lenses for the M8.

See, for instance:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=m8+leica+heliar

 

[Trius]

I believe our former patron, Jorge, used the 15 a lot on the M8. Alas, I don't think his gallery is here any longer. As I recall, the edge performance was very good wrt sharpness. If there was any falloff, it was minimal and of a pleasant sort.