Benjamin Marks
Veteran
Hey, sorry if you felt like my ramblings were talking down to you in terms of your photo-experience. No offense intended. My eyebrows went up when I mentally calculated the retail cost of an M9 and any three Leica lenses, even the so-called "budget" Summarits. It's a lot of scratch. If your last RF experience was with the Contax G series, then looking through a Leica viewfinder is going to be a pleasant experience; although the Contax-G glass is second to none.
Cosina has made a name for themselves by offering lenses that offer 90% of the quality of Leica at 1/6 the price. For my own purposes I never would have purchased a 16mm lens from Leica -- I just don't shoot super-wide often enough. But the 15/4.5 Heliar from Cosina was a great way to get a specialized lens at a cost that didn't break the bank. And BTW, the lens is GREAT. Recently Zeiss has jumped into the game too with lenses that compete directly with Leica's offerings. The paint on the barrel may be less durable than Leica's finish on its lenses, but the Zeiss glass has it where it counts in terms of image quality. If it were me, I would probably get the best lens I could afford in the focal length I use the most. But "best" means different things to different folks. Assuming that you like what your Canon-L glass and Zeiss glass was giving you (that is, a modern, saturated look) you could go with the following:
15/4.5 Heliar (from Cosina)
35/2 Biogon (from Zeiss)
50/1.4 Summilux (from Leica)
90/2.8 Tele Elmarit (from Leica)
Or if 35mm lenses are more your vision:
35/1.4 from Leica
50/2 from Zeiss.
the break-the-bank version of this:
21/1.4
35/1.4
50/1.4
9/2 All from Leica, but this is well over $10K in lenses alone.
If I had the money, I would add a 28/2 Summicron from Leica to any of these lists. I have used the Leica 50/2 Summicron side by side with the Zeiss 50/2 Planar and although there are different qualities to the images, I couldn't rate one consistently better than the other. Ditto the 35/2 Asph from Leica and the 35/2 Biogon fron Zeiss. In fact, if you liked your G lenses, you should definitely find a way to field test the Zeiss offerings in M-mount as you may see image qualities you recognize.
Good luck in your choices; it's a nice problem to have.
Ben Marks
Cosina has made a name for themselves by offering lenses that offer 90% of the quality of Leica at 1/6 the price. For my own purposes I never would have purchased a 16mm lens from Leica -- I just don't shoot super-wide often enough. But the 15/4.5 Heliar from Cosina was a great way to get a specialized lens at a cost that didn't break the bank. And BTW, the lens is GREAT. Recently Zeiss has jumped into the game too with lenses that compete directly with Leica's offerings. The paint on the barrel may be less durable than Leica's finish on its lenses, but the Zeiss glass has it where it counts in terms of image quality. If it were me, I would probably get the best lens I could afford in the focal length I use the most. But "best" means different things to different folks. Assuming that you like what your Canon-L glass and Zeiss glass was giving you (that is, a modern, saturated look) you could go with the following:
15/4.5 Heliar (from Cosina)
35/2 Biogon (from Zeiss)
50/1.4 Summilux (from Leica)
90/2.8 Tele Elmarit (from Leica)
Or if 35mm lenses are more your vision:
35/1.4 from Leica
50/2 from Zeiss.
the break-the-bank version of this:
21/1.4
35/1.4
50/1.4
9/2 All from Leica, but this is well over $10K in lenses alone.
If I had the money, I would add a 28/2 Summicron from Leica to any of these lists. I have used the Leica 50/2 Summicron side by side with the Zeiss 50/2 Planar and although there are different qualities to the images, I couldn't rate one consistently better than the other. Ditto the 35/2 Asph from Leica and the 35/2 Biogon fron Zeiss. In fact, if you liked your G lenses, you should definitely find a way to field test the Zeiss offerings in M-mount as you may see image qualities you recognize.
Good luck in your choices; it's a nice problem to have.
Ben Marks
Makten
-
Voigtländer and Zeiss lenses are both made by Cosina.
Benjamin Marks
Veteran
Of course they are; but if you send someone out into the world to look for a Cosina 50 Planar confusion will result. In fact, Cosina makes a lot of great stuff as an OEM for name brands like Nikon etc. My utterly uneducated guess: I'll bet their RF lines are less than 1/10 of the bottom line.
Bashibazooks and blistering barnacles!
Ben Marks
jr_senator
Member
And, none taken. Thanks for your advice and opinions.