28 or 35 mm? 75 or 90 mm?

[infocusf8@earthlink.]

Never Enough Lenses

Never Enough Lenses

Oh hell I started out to assemble a "set" of appropriate lenses and ended up with the 15 CV, 21 Elmarit, 28 Elmarit, 35 Lux, 50 Elmar and 90 tele elmar and use then all. I also just bagged a converted Canon 50 F1.2 to Leica M and a 12mm CV. I highly recommend the eyepiece magnifyer for 50 and above and if you hadn't purchased the 35 the 28mm F2.8 Elmarit is an incredible lens that I would keep over all the others. I'm also considering the new 75 Summarit so somebody please stop me! I also don't understand how your sales person allowed you to leave the store without a lens for your camera.:bang:

 

[jvr]

Oh hell I started out to assemble a "set" of appropriate lenses and ended up with the 15 CV, 21 Elmarit, 28 Elmarit, 35 Lux, 50 Elmar and 90 tele elmar and use then all. I also just bagged a converted Canon 50 F1.2 to Leica M and a 12mm CV. I highly recommend the eyepiece magnifyer for 50 and above and if you hadn't purchased the 35 the 28mm F2.8 Elmarit is an incredible lens that I would keep over all the others. I'm also considering the new 75 Summarit so somebody please stop me! I also don't understand how your sales person allowed you to leave the store without a lens for your camera.:bang:

I went through the same route, and now my lineup has 14 lenses :bang: . Moving from the Epson RD1s to the M8 somehow subtly changed the lenses I mostly use. My 35s now stay more in the drawer, my 90s come out more (easier to focus and frame on the M8). The 21/2.8 Biogon is getting more and more airtime, since I discovered I can easily estimate the FOV using the whole viewfinder on the M8 (just like a 35mm on the M3). Problem is, with the 28 Cron ASPH occupying the main slot maybe 50% of the time, sometimes I have to make a conscious effort to use another particular lens.

New Year decision: severely crop this array of lenses 🙂 I still remember the time when I was VERY happy shooting with only the M3+Summaron 35 or the Konica Hexar AF... 🙂

BTW, I confess another sin: I haven't yet sold my RD1s and sometimes I get back to it. Image quality is not on the M8 level (especially since I discovered much better M8 profiles for Capture One!) but ergonomy/shutter noise/handling is so much better... 🙁 The M8 is a very, very competent image maker but I just love working with the Epson. If I was a photography professional, I think I would work everyday with the M8 and use the Epson on weekends. 🙂

 

[infocusf8@earthlink.]

Image quality is not on the M8 level (especially since I discovered much better M8 profiles for Capture One!)
Hmmm, about those profiles...mind sharing?

 

[jvr]

Image quality is not on the M8 level (especially since I discovered much better M8 profiles for Capture One!)
Hmmm, about those profiles...mind sharing?

Gladly, I found them while browsing Leica Forum and were developed by James Roberts.

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m8-forum/9637-new-m8-profiles-c1-instructions.html
If you are not able to get them (you have to register), I will try to put them somewhere.

A couple of months after buying the M8, I posted some impressions and I whined a little (only!) about:

1) shutter noise and "shock" (almost feels like, God forbid, a SLR)
2) worse handling than the RD1s (miss the thumbpad, the front minigrip and the advance lever).
3) and, worse of all, I didn't like the colors I was getting in tungsten/mixed light situations, even shooting RAW and converting later.

After a couple more months, I still don't feel at home with the noise, handling is becoming more second-nature (a Luigi half-case helped) and color issues were almost solved by judicious use of IR filters and (without them), James Roberts profiles.

BTW, a lot of discussion on M8 profiling went (is going?) on Leica Forum and some "homemade" profiles look really interesting, especially for weird-lighting situations. Some of the developed profiles (eg, Edmund's) are not free, I have yet to pay so I haven't tried them. But they look promising.

James Roberts profiles work very well for me and even the "Chrome" profile has its merits: although not very accurate (and it's not intened to be, as far as I understood) it's fun and worth exploring. With people on the scene, I tend to lower saturation around 5% with the Chrome profile.

There are .icc files and supposed to be used on Capture One. Photoshop is another matter and other threads on leica Forum discuss how to convert lienar and then apply the profiles, but it's a bit too technical.

Mind you, they are supposed to be used for non-filtered (IR) shots. Nevertheless, I converted a few shot with the filter on and nothing exploded... 🙂

I can post a few "before/after" pictures but I guess that would be _way_ off-topic for this thread! 🙂

 

[ChipNovaMac]

I spoke to a dealer about a week ago, and he suggested that an interesting trio of lenses would be either a 28 / 50 / 90, or a 24 / 35 / 75.

Great advise from that dealer after some lens testing in the past week or so.

I have decided to go with my core kit being the 28 (C/V Ultron)/50 (Cron)/90 (Elmarit). Decided on the wide end due to the fast aperture of the Ultron and how it fits with the wider C/V lenses I also own for my expanded kit (C/V 15 and 21). And when I want expanded capabilities of angle of view my M6TTL will join in.