David Hughes
David Hughes
Hi,
Welcome aboard. The M2 is lovely camera, many think it the best of the M series for build quality and user friendly-ness...
I wonder if I dare add to the thread by suggesting that you look up the body number and year and then search for a lens of the same or previous years? A lot of us fussy people end up doing that, so I thought I'd warn you now.
The Summicron is lovely but the hordes after them mean they are dear to very dear and often a little iffy on the quality scale. Mainly because we are talking about a lens from the 1950's onwards and some have had a rough time of it.
Far better value is the Elmar f/2.8 50mm lens, as others have pointed out. Or there's the Summitar, which is almost a Summicron but a little older. And there's also the older (perhaps) Elmar of f/3.5 fame but most are pre-war and uncoated.
BTW, by the time you've found a LTM to M adapter and paid for it you'll be wondering why you didn't just buy a lens made for the M series. Beware of the non-Leitz ones but the Voightlander ones are OK. So are some of the unbranded ones. Often they set up the 50mm framelines, even for 35 or 90mm lenses. So you could be lucky. Few/none of the unbranded ones are engraved with the focal length they were designed for.
All the Leitz lenses need lens hoods, imo, and the genuine articles are expensive or very expensive and you'll wonder why when you see what our Chinese friends offer on ebay for about a fiver post paid.
Cheaper still are the USSR made lenses, the Jupiter-8 in black or bare metal is the best looking and f/2 and the Industar-61 (several models) are sharper and f/2.8 Both need adapters (see above) and may not focus precisely at short distances and when wide open. This can be adjusted by getting them re-registered or else using your brain.
BTW 2 or 3, if you've down loaded the manual, remember to tip Mr Bukus a few dollars. The print it and search for the real thing, or Kisselbach's book. (Or even the Focal guide which may start you on a slippery slope towards buying one of everything.)
The M2 manual should come with a wrap round quick start guide (officially "Instructions in Brief" and with a blue background to it) and you can go mad searching for one with your M2's variations shown in the pictures...
If you want to go the whole hog, then find a MC meter for the M2, there's lots about and most of them still work. They do get in the way of an ERC and mark the body over time. Most have the incident light screen missing (mine has) but there's a nice booster cell available that many find very useful.
I've not mentioned flash because the thought of writing another two pages puts me off.
The dealers you should know about, and who I trust, are ffordes and Simon Chesterman and the repairer and supplier for everything for M2's is Malcolm Taylor.
On ebay, beware, the word Leica attracts hordes willing to outbid you and the descriptions often leave much to be desired. That applies to one or two dealers (not mentioned) too.
Anyway, it's a superb camera, I hope you get a lot of pleasure and photo's from it. And, of course, we are all here to help.
Regards, David
Welcome aboard. The M2 is lovely camera, many think it the best of the M series for build quality and user friendly-ness...
I wonder if I dare add to the thread by suggesting that you look up the body number and year and then search for a lens of the same or previous years? A lot of us fussy people end up doing that, so I thought I'd warn you now.
The Summicron is lovely but the hordes after them mean they are dear to very dear and often a little iffy on the quality scale. Mainly because we are talking about a lens from the 1950's onwards and some have had a rough time of it.
Far better value is the Elmar f/2.8 50mm lens, as others have pointed out. Or there's the Summitar, which is almost a Summicron but a little older. And there's also the older (perhaps) Elmar of f/3.5 fame but most are pre-war and uncoated.
BTW, by the time you've found a LTM to M adapter and paid for it you'll be wondering why you didn't just buy a lens made for the M series. Beware of the non-Leitz ones but the Voightlander ones are OK. So are some of the unbranded ones. Often they set up the 50mm framelines, even for 35 or 90mm lenses. So you could be lucky. Few/none of the unbranded ones are engraved with the focal length they were designed for.
All the Leitz lenses need lens hoods, imo, and the genuine articles are expensive or very expensive and you'll wonder why when you see what our Chinese friends offer on ebay for about a fiver post paid.
Cheaper still are the USSR made lenses, the Jupiter-8 in black or bare metal is the best looking and f/2 and the Industar-61 (several models) are sharper and f/2.8 Both need adapters (see above) and may not focus precisely at short distances and when wide open. This can be adjusted by getting them re-registered or else using your brain.
BTW 2 or 3, if you've down loaded the manual, remember to tip Mr Bukus a few dollars. The print it and search for the real thing, or Kisselbach's book. (Or even the Focal guide which may start you on a slippery slope towards buying one of everything.)
The M2 manual should come with a wrap round quick start guide (officially "Instructions in Brief" and with a blue background to it) and you can go mad searching for one with your M2's variations shown in the pictures...
If you want to go the whole hog, then find a MC meter for the M2, there's lots about and most of them still work. They do get in the way of an ERC and mark the body over time. Most have the incident light screen missing (mine has) but there's a nice booster cell available that many find very useful.
I've not mentioned flash because the thought of writing another two pages puts me off.
The dealers you should know about, and who I trust, are ffordes and Simon Chesterman and the repairer and supplier for everything for M2's is Malcolm Taylor.
On ebay, beware, the word Leica attracts hordes willing to outbid you and the descriptions often leave much to be desired. That applies to one or two dealers (not mentioned) too.
Anyway, it's a superb camera, I hope you get a lot of pleasure and photo's from it. And, of course, we are all here to help.
Regards, David
