mystichobo
Member
I'm going to throw something wild into the air and suggest an early (pre-early 1960s) Jupiter 12. I pretty much use mine on my iif more than any other lenses.
Well to me there are only 2 choices in LTM
35 Summaron 3.5
35 Canon f2
Yum to Both !
Though there is something special about that little color Skopar
Okay , three choices
Can’t go wrong with any of them
Ah! On ebay more like £150 if you are patient. Not much more than other viewfinders... On receipt (from Japan!) my Canon 35mm f2 had a stiff aperture ring and a slightly wobbly focus. The aperture ring I loosened up completely with a tiny drop of watchmakers lubricating oil. The focus looseness is caused by not enough lubricating grease in the helicoils. I guess it happens to all lenses sooner or later. The Canon lens is simple to take apart and very well engineered. Its a simple job to apply the grease and reassemble. I have also re-greased my Skopar. The engineering seemed more 'lightweight' but I have no reason to suppose it is not adequate.
I have the first two lenses, but I am unable to create images as you do, Helen !😀
I thought you might like to see my other 35mm set up, Cavcha1, so you could compare. The camera is a Leica II and the lens is a 35mm f2.5 Color Skopar. It definitely needs a hood if you are shooting contre-jour so it is fitted with its dedicated hood. The Leica viewfinder seems designed for the Leica II for two reasons. Firstly, it is offset so even though the Leica II has a large OD shutter dial, it can still be seen. Secondly, the Leica II has a rather crude cold shoe. It's simply a slot with no means to grip an accessory. The Leica viewfinder has a clamping lever so it can be secured. In contrast the Zeiss viewfinder would be a little loose. With both arrangements the hood does not intrude into the viewfinder view, its just below the bottom frameline. If I fit the Leica viewfinder on the Leica IIIC the old Voigtlander hood does slightly intrude into the bottom of the view. The Leica viewfinder optics are 0 dioptre so no correction lens is needed; the Zeiss is -1 dioptre and my old eyes cannot accomodate that now so I need a +1 dioptre correction lens. Fortunately the Zeiss takes common 19mm OD correction lenses (e.g. Nikon SLR correction lenses). Both viewfinders are really good. The Leica offers a more complete view because its magnification is a little less (maybe 0.5-0.55 vs. 0.58). The Zeiss presents more of a tunnel vision if you wear glasses (because the surrounding mirror that back reflects the framelines is bigger). On the other hand the framelines are fantastically bright and this does aid composition. The viewfinders are both good, just different. I have two set ups because I wanted to compare them. I started with the Canon lens and to be honest I have been using it more than I thought I would and have not got on to using the Color Skopar extensively. If I were not interested in making a comparison and just had the Canon lens set up I would not think of changing it. Hope this helps.
Something like a Summaron 35/3.5 might be more similar in rendering to the collapsible Summicron.