Kobalux 28mm or 21mm?

jamriman

jamriman

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Hello,
Besides the bay. anyone know where to find one of these guys? I think it would work nicely with the M8. Thanks
 
They show up on eBay about 5-6 times a year. Sometimes under the Avenon brand. I've never seen a 28mm Kobalux sell for less than about $400 on eBay and the 21mm, which seems to be even rarer, gets more.
 
Keep looking; they do pop up from time to time. Somebody here got the 28 in M mount, which I didn't even know existed. As big as the 21 is, the 28 is tiny. And really excellent optically.
 
I have a Kobalux 28mm (I got it "new damaged stock" a couple of years ago for 99 euro😀) and, while I like it a lot, I don't see it being much use on an M8 as it brings up 35mm framelines on the film M's 😕. Apparently earlier models were LTM mount so they would be a better choice - you can put a 28/90 ltm/M adapter on them.

It did occur to me that the 21mm would be a good choice for the M8 but you can bet the price on that one is creeping a good bit higher with the launch of the M8.
 
So there are two versions of the Kobalux 28mm lens?
Dante Stella refers to a "last version".
Is that then the M mount 28mm lens?
 
Raid - yes, there is an M and an L version - I have one of each. They appear to be identical apart from the mount though. The M version had some damage when I bought it and possibly because of that won't mount properly on the M8 so I use it on the CL and the L mount with an adapter on the M8 and M4. I think the M versions are very rare.
 
Andy Aitken said:
Raid - yes, there is an M and an L version - I have one of each. They appear to be identical apart from the mount though. The M version had some damage when I bought it and possibly because of that won't mount properly on the M8 so I use it on the CL and the L mount with an adapter on the M8 and M4. I think the M versions are very rare.
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Andy,

I just ordered a Kobalux 28/3.5 in LTM [I think]. Maybe the M mount version is referred to as Second Generation.
 
Also sold as Pasinon in the UK.

I reviewed both Pasinons; both are excellent. I have the Kobalux 21/2.8 and it is brilliant on the M8 but the finder is huge and not very good, so I use a Zeiss for preference, or Voigtländer, or my old Leitz.

All of this is of course from new, but these lenses aren't very old yet.

Cheers,

Roger
 
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I find the 21mm focal length too extreme, while the 28mm is close to the 35mm focal length for "normal" looking images.
 
As far as I know, the M-mount ones are earlier than the very last batch of screwmounts. I think that Avenon had an M mount on the Y2K edition.

The final versions of the 21mm (2002) had screwmount, half stops and 8 blades. Black models had a black focusing ring, black aperture ring, and silver front and back rings. Silver was all silver.

The finder is quite nice for eye relief.

Cheers
Dante
 
I found the image quality of the 28/3.5 Kobalux quite similar to the CV 28/3.5 (which I currently use in Contax/Nikon RF mount). The Kobalux seems to be a bit better however as far as build-quality is concerned. I sold my Kobalux to Raid (I had too many 28mm lenses). Both are quite excellent lenses. I think the 21mm Kobalux is the special one to look for -- that's a rare focal length in any rangefinder mount system.
 
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I bought a nice Avenon 28 f/3.5 from Matsuiyastore a few weeks ago for $303. No viewfinder, though. It's all black, with a finger tab, and LTM. It has 10 aperture blades, which I think is different from earlier versions. It's small on my R-D1 and laughably tiny on my M-4. Seems like a good lens but I haven't done any extensive testing or shooting with it thus far.
 
I ordered today an Avenon 21mm/2.8 Black [without finder] from the UKfor $216 shipped. This will give me a good pair of wide angle lenses (28mm/3.5 and 21mm/2.8). Maybe I should start putting some other wide angle lenses for sale.
 
raid said:
I ordered today an Avenon 21mm/2.8 Black [without finder] from the UKfor $216 shipped. This will give me a good pair of wide angle lenses (28mm/3.5 and 21mm/2.8). Maybe I should start putting some other wide angle lenses for sale.
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$216 ?? Are you serious? How did you manage that!
 
yeah i say try eBay
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David Murphy said:
$216 ?? Are you serious? How did you manage that!
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Dave,
There is a new thread about wide angle lenses by John at RFF. They were discussing wide angle options, and then John mentioned the link to a low price offer in the UK. I checked out postage, and then it was about 99 Pounds for the lens plus 39 Pounds for postage. Still no buyers.

Then I waited a little and then I bought it via Paypal. I expected the US $ to UK Pound exchange to be much worse, but Paypal charged me $216.
It is the less usual black version with two covers but no hood or finder. Now I have the "pair" : 21mm and 28mm.
 
"red" edge problems with Avenon 21 on M9/M240?

"red" edge problems with Avenon 21 on M9/M240?

Just wondering if anyone with the Avenon 21 has shot colour on M9 (or M240) : do you get any "red" edges? Thanks!
 
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