Current 50mm Elmar M 2.8

[Avotius]

Have been interested in this lens since I first saw it, love that old fashioned look to the lens and the price seems nice as a candidate for the first lens for my hopefully comming soon M6ttl. Searched the gallery but most of the shots there seem to be of the old 3.5. Anyone out there got this lens and some pics they have taken with it or anything they would like to comment on? Color pictures would be nice but bw is just as good.

 

[peter_n]

I'm a fan of the lens. A few randomly chosen pics below, all B&W I'm afraid. It does color really nicely (warmish) but I don't do color that much and I have none scanned. Sorry. 🙁

 

[dcsang]

Peter,
I really like that Red Sox game photo - it has the Baroque feel to it 🙂

I've considered an Elmar myself a few times, mainly for its collapsibility 🙂

Cheers
Dave

 

[richard_l]

I'm planning to shoot a roll of color film with the 50/2.8 Elmar-M this week.

 

[ray_g]

Nice shots, Peter. I don't have this lens, Avotius, but you may want to check out the galleries of Beniliam and richard_l, as well.

 

[peter_n]

Thanks guys. 🙂 I'm not much of a scanner so I have to apologize for the lack of tonality in my pics... Dave the current Elmar-M is not that collapsible compared to say the Summicron. I keep the lens hood on it all the time and hardly ever collapse it in fact. I just like the look that the lens gives to pictures. That look is not that "classic" looking either, the lens is quite contrasty but then I like "real" B&W pics. 😉

The earlier f3.5 Elmar OTOH is truly collapsible and has less contrast. Not as sharp as the current Elmar-M but at around $150 a really excellent little lens! And it gives you that classic look. 🙂

 

[peter_n]

Yes David, I would say that your description of the classic look as "low contrast, high resolution (in the center), a little flare" is accurate.

I was in Madrid last April and already the sun was very bright and the shadows very strong. So it is either a question of much slower film (ISO25? 🙂 ) or perhaps a neutral density filter...

 

[Trius]

So, Beniliam, how about a highly dilute developer for the slow films? Something like Rodinal 1:100, or a highly dilute HC-110, maybe some others. Or water bath development.

Earl

 

[Avotius]

I normally use XTOL 1:1 dilution! Sorry Avotius for ruin your thread 🙁

hah no problem, I like to read where all this stuff goes off to. Around here in chinaville, or at least this corner of it, its very hard to get good developers. I have thress choices, no name something that sucks, Kodak D76 and Ilford LC29. I have been using the later, its nice but I never hear of anyone else using it, LC29 and delta 100 pushed to 400 gives results that I like, its good stuff for me at least. When I shoot with something like Delta or HP5 in my old Canon ae1 with that very low contrast lens, it gives some pretty interesting results that way too, very very low contrast, much different then my "modern" canon gear.


Even though all them leica's are known for bw, I also shoot color film, mostly Reala and Velvia 100F, so naturaly the way a lens performs in color is important for me.

 

[dadsm3]

I've found this lens to be more difficult to focus dead-nuts than my 'cron.....it has a far shorter throw, only about a 45 degree turn from .7 meters to infinity, while the DR turns about 75 degrees. The collapsibility is great and pictorial quality are definitely there, but I misfocus more shots with this lens than either my 50mm Summarit or 'cron.

 

[ChrisN]

Hi dadsm3, welcome to the forum. Sounds like there's a story and some history attached to your forum name! I hope you can share some photos with us.

 

[dadsm3]

Thanks for the welcome , Chris. All I've ever shot with is Leica M's....I inherited my Dad's 1955 M3, 50mm Summarit, 90mm Elmar and Hektor 135mm, and have been slowly expanding ever since. Now I have a 35mm Summaron for the M3, a classic M6, 35mm 'cron, 50mm DR 'cron, 90mm 'cron, 135mm Elmar, 50mm Elamar collapsible, a few Viso's and a few Telyts, plus lots of other goodies like Luigi's cases, etc. I'm really not that good, mostly family portraits and that kind of stuff....but I have my moments I guess. A little embarrassed to post shots after some of the stuff I've seen on this forum and photonet's.....but let me have a look.
I never got the hang of SLR's....always felt like tunnelvision to me, so I stuck with M's. Once I saw the fella who posted shots of his IIIf and M3 I laughed and had to join.....didn't realize there were other hopeless addicts like me. Usually I wake up in the morning and realize I put the whole damn lot on my desk again the previous night....my wife thinks I'm a loon. Nice to know there's other nuts out there....
Mike

 

[back alley]

it's a small crowd but we're all pretty much nuts when it comes to gear.

welcome mike.

joe

 

[dadsm3]

Thanks Joe.
I'll see if I can dig up a shot to post.....
I usually just get my films developed and a set of prints made at Camtech here in Hamilton, then they send them out and get a disc made for me. For some reason the resolution on these varies from 100-200KB's to sometimes over 6MB's...
I usually just fool around with them on Picasa, email some out to family, and print a few just for fun.
Can't figure out why some discs would be so high quality and others garbage from presumably the same lab.....should I be asking for high-res scans? I don't really want to spend big bucks on a disc.....the clerk just seems to shrug when I ask why there's such a difference.
Is there anything archived on this on your forum?
Mike

 

[Avotius]

is there any problem colapsing this lens into the body? I hear there are a few issues with the 90 and something about the metering, what about the 50?

 

[back alley]

mike,

is there a 'london drugs' store in hamilton?
they do surprisingly good work and can scan on site also. (at least here in edmonchuk)

joe

 

[furcafe]

Which body? No problem collapsing the 50/2.8 Elmar-M, or the old 90/4 collapsible Elmar, on an M3, M2, M4, M6, M6 TTL, M7, or MP. The M5 & CL/CLE may be different as they have the weird swinging meter stalk.

is there any problem colapsing this lens into the body? I hear there are a few issues with the 90 and something about the metering, what about the 50?

 

[Avotius]

oh, I guess I would be on either a M6ttl or M7, I still am waiting to get rid of my mamiya so I can afford a leica

 

[ERV]

I have an elmar 50m and use it on my m5. To keep it from collapsing and damaging the meter arm I bought some clear plastic flexible tubing from the hardware store and cut a short length to fit over the chrome lens barrel when extended. I then made a slit down one side of the tubing to slip it on to the lens. It works fine and isn't visible since it's clear.

 

[peter_n]

Yummy picture Pete! 😉