presspass
filmshooter
Essential? Pretty well anything that went into the bag today. Lenses I would rather not live without: 21 pre-asph Elmarit; 35 asph Summilux; 75 Summilux; 135 2.8 Elmarit. Not a light kit, but one that can do anything that doesn't need an extreme telephoto. Fast enough to use with Tri-X at 400; even better with Tri-X at 1600.
Travis L.
Registered Userino
I've always wondered about this myself. I've owned two examples of this lens and didn't care for either of them.
Current favorites
21 f4 Super Angulon
50 collapsible Summicron
50 1.5 Summarit
35 2.5 PII Color Skopar
OurManInTangier
An Undesirable
50mm Zeiss Planar and my 35mm Summicron as its small and very quick to focus. I also use a 28mm from time to time but haven't found a 'blue chip' 28 yet
KoNickon
Nick Merritt
I would be quite reluctant to part with my wartime Sonnar. Or any of the M-Hexanons.
mfunnell
Shaken, so blurred
How do I mount - let alone focus - my Canon EF 50mm on my Leica M3? My Elmar-M 50 somehow seems to work better for that...
...Mike
sepiareverb
genius and moron
I've got three M 50 lenses. I had five at one point. They were all are different, I decided that two of them were too different.
The Elmar-M and the Summilux ASPH are completely different on film, by chance the Summicron falls somewhere between the two. Differences are clear even at 8x10- tho I might be hard pressed to tell the Elmar-M from the Summicron at that size. At 16x20 many among us would likely see a difference.
Just realized I've had ten different M mount 50mm lenses and two screwmounts, plus the one on the 0 serie. Going back before M cameras I've had twenty different 50mm's.
Roger Hicks
Veteran
Or not different enough?
On the one hand: keep the REALLY good one.
On the other hand: keep the slightly better one...
Cheers,
R.
Erik van Straten
Veteran
My essential lens is the Summicron 50mm f/2 rigid v1. All the other lenses are "special effect" lenses.
Erik.
Erik.
sepiareverb
genius and moron
Perhaps you've found me out??? I actually got rid of the most different ones, and run my various films to minimize their differences these days...
My hands are indeed full.
kdemas
Enjoy Life.
These are the workers right now...
- 35 Cron ASPH
- 50 C-Sonnar
- 50 Cron (latest)
- 105/2.5 Nikkor LTM
If it really came down to it, any one of the 50's I have would do.
SLR Side would be the 24-70/2.8 Nikkor, awesome lens.
- 35 Cron ASPH
- 50 C-Sonnar
- 50 Cron (latest)
- 105/2.5 Nikkor LTM
If it really came down to it, any one of the 50's I have would do.
SLR Side would be the 24-70/2.8 Nikkor, awesome lens.
canetsbe
Well-known
I find my favorite lens has changed for me over time. Some years it has been the 28mm or 35mm but more than any other, my "essential" lens is a fast 50. My Zeiss C-sonnar gets my vote. A close second is the 28mm elmarit.