90mm vs 75mm

sanardo22

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I have a Bessa r3A with the 40mm lens. It has frame lines for the 40mm, 50mm, 75mm and the 90mm. I plan to add the 21mm and a telephoto lens. I am undecided whither to add the 75mm or the 90mm lens. Any pro or cons on these lens.
 
No personal opinion on either CV lens, but I love my 28 / 40 / 75 / 135 kit.

The 40 and 90 FOVs are too far apart and you would be liable to desire either a 50 or a 75 at some point to fill the gap, so I'd take the 75 if I were you 😉
 
I like either a 50/90 combo or a 35/75 one. With the 40, I would go for the 75. It's a very good lens and quite fast at 2.5. I haven't used the 90 but it is quite a bit slower at 3.5.

Kim
 
This is a very hard choice to make, for a lightweight two lens outfit I use a Bessa R and 35 and 75mm lenses. So far thats work out fine. For a three lens outfit I'd go for the 35, 50 and 90. Given plenty of space take em all.

Now, given your current lenses I'd probebly go for the 75 for the following reasons
- you dont have a 50 to fill the gap to 90 (although the gap is not 'that' big)
- you can allways crop the 75 image to that of a 90 without huge degredation in quality
- the CV 75 is faster at f2.5 than the CV90 at f3.5
- the CV 75 will be easier to focus accurately and quickly than the 90 but only just.
- the 75 in a gorgeous lens.... but so is the 90

I've had the 90 for a while now and love the sharpness of this lens. On an RFF day out in London a while back I found I was reaching for the 35 or the 90 only sometimes the 50. I only recently got the 75 from a fellow RFF member but this is easilly getting more use than the 90 at the moment.

Good luck with your choice, you will be happy with either I'm sure.
 
Whenever I purchase a camera system with fixed lenses, I try to purchase a 'standard' lens, a wide angle with half the focal length and a telephoto with double the focal length. I therefore chose the 25, 50 and 90mm lenses. I also purchased a 35mm as I felt a rangefinder is at its best at this focal length. The 35mm is now my most used lens of the four.

As you've already got a 40mm and plan to get a 21mm (half 40mm), the best match IMHO would be the 75mm as its closest to double 40mm... But there really isn't much in it. If you had a 35mm lens then the 75mm is a great match, but double 40mm is 80mm so you could go either way.

Both the 75 and the 90 are very good lenses. The 90mm can be a little difficult to focus on a Bessa, although your R3A will be able to focus more accurately than my R2A. When shooting close up I tend to shut the 90 down to f8 or f11 in order to build in a bit of a focus fudge factor. Cosina deliberately made the 90 an f3.5 lens in order to help with the focussing issue. This does however make it one stop darker than the 75mm. However, I believe the 90 is the sharper lens of the the two. The build quality of both lenses is excellent.

90-105mm is the 'classic' portraiture focal length for 35mm. Some (including me) consider the 75mm to be a little short. I would still like to own the 75 but can't justify having both a 75 and a 90. (Says he with two 90mm lenses)

As I've said before on the forum... Whichever one you choose, you'll always wonder if you should have bought the other one.
 
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I guess it depends on what you are going to do with it. If you just want a longer lens, maybe the 75. If you are going to do portraits, I think the 90 would be better, especially for head and shoulder single shots. To me the 75 is just not long enough.

Mark
 
You didn't mention, Sanardo22, that you were looking for a "portrait lens", so I assume that you are just looking for the best long choice. I'd pick the 75mm, personally. From the work that I have seen, it has the most pleasant look - and if you just want it for street photography, it is much better than the 90.

For portraiture - if that is the whole reason for your purchase - the 75 would still be best, unless you like to shoot portraits with really Deep DOF. The 90 is just too long for instances where on-the-mark focus is necessary - when using a CV body. Last thing you want is to get into a situation where you need to shoot a portrait, want shallow DOF, and can't be sure that the person's face will be in the plane of focus rather than their ears.
 
Another vote for the 75mm, because of the focusing issue and it doesn't add much bulk to the camera. Image quality is excellent for the price.
 
based on size and ease of use, the 75 wins.
great lens and tiny for the fl.

85 is nice though and 100 is also good. the canon 100/3.5 is a great lens.

but for a bessa camera the 75 probably wins.
i had an r with 35 and 75 and it was a killer combo.

joe
 
I currently have 35, 40 and 90 in the bag. My long-term goal is to have a three lens kit of Leica ASPH Summicrons for everyday shooting - a 28, the 35 I currently have, and a 75. I'll keep the 40 and 90 for a more "old-school" look.

I realize getting two more ASPHs is a very long term prospect, and is at least several years away. Meanwhile, I'd like to be very sure I like the 28-35-75 combination, so I'm turning to C-V glass. A used 28/3.5 is on the way, and I'm actively looking for a 75/2.5.

I'm confident I'll like the 75. Why? I've fallen in love with my 50/1.8 on my DSLRs! I was always an 85 and 105 guy on my Nikons, and the 75mm FOV is refreshing. I also think it's a FL that makes a lot of sense on a RF - I've always found 90s to be a little long with a .72 finder.
 
I've got the CV 75/2.5 and I love it. Search the Voigtlander forum -- I posted a thread a while back with a mini-review of the lens and some sample images so I won't repeat it again here. Based on some advice from RFF members I chose the 75 over the 90 because of the extra stop and its compact size. Not once have I regretted my decision.

My lens lineup is 15/25/35/50/75 with the most used lenses being the 25 and 75. The 15 is a very close third. I have not used the 50 at all since I bought the 75.
 
Hi Sanardo22,

Since you're using the 40mm, you may actually want to look for a 80mm lens.

You could look around for the Rollei 80mm f2.8 Planar HFT made for their RF35. This lens takes the standard lens design from their legendary TLRs which they licensed from Carl Zeiss.

BTW, the standard lens for the RF35 is the 40mm f2.8 Sonnar HFT also taken from their popular Rollei 35 compact.

Kev
 
I've got both. Up until this morning my carry around kit was 15/35/90 based on 1) same framelines (35/90) on my R2 and 2) I would "need" a long lens.

This morning I switched the 90 for the 75. It's smaller, faster, and I found that I almost never used the 90. The CV 90 is a great lens and I'll use it when the situation dictates (portraiture or when I need that small bit of extra reach) but for day2day use I haven't found a need for it.
 
I'm such a slut. Bob replied to my WTB post with a lead to a C-V 75 on the LUG, and I just completed the purchase. It should be here early next week!
 
I want to thank everyone for replying to my question of 90mm vs 70 mm. It looks like the 70mm is the lens of chose. I have a Nikon Ftn with a 100 to 200mm zome with a matched 2X Multiplier (200 to 400mm) that I use for portraits. My Mamiya 7 has a 150mm lens which is equivelant to a 75mm in 35mm format. I will use this lens for general photos. The Rangefinder site is a great resourse.Thanks again.
 
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