LTM Lenses

[joey]

I am considering buying Bessa-R. What are the popular and the best lenses available for this camera?

Thanks

 

[wongyboi]

50mm Nokton 1.5

 

[physiognomy]

Definitely take a look at the CV 35/2.5 ... Great lens & Stephen G. at cameraquest sells it bundled with the Bessa R for a v. nice price.

Peter

 

[sebastel]

joey,

what FLs do you prefer?
just asking for "most popular" does not make a lot of sense to me ...

cheers,
sebastian

 

[David Murphy]

Here are a few I've tried and liked on the Bessa R:

Canon 50mm F1.8 black - simply outstanding
CV 35mm/2.5 -- bread and butter lens and valued priced
CV 25mm F4 -- another good deal
W.Acall Kyoei (Japan) 35mm F3.5 (real nice, sharp, hard to find)
Sun Sola 90mm F4 (much better than the Leica Elmar 9cm F4)
Canon 85mm F2 -- *remarkably* good for a vintage lens. Use the 90mm frame lines.
Komura 135mm F3.5 - sharp, good contrast.
Summitar 5cm F2 -- sharp optics, but you cannot collapse it on the Bessa
Canon 28mm F3.5 - Wonderful lens. You need a 28mm finder too.
Nikkor 5cm F2 - Decent lens, but optically not quite as performant as the Canon 50/1.8 above. Can be had at a reasonable price if you are patient. Best construction quality of all.


Some Ho-Hum lenses I've tried:

Industar 55mm F2.8 - Snore! -- makes a nice lens cap! Better than nothing though.
Leica 9cm F4 Elmar - Even the coated ones s*ck, but then I shoot color.
Komura 105mm F3.5 (the jury is still out on this one)
Canon 28mm F2.8 - optically too far ahead of its time-- for collectors only
Rokkor 45mm F2.8 Super Rokkor - Stunningly bad images. Looks good though.

 

[payasam]

Joey, there are hundreds of designs out there. Leitz, Canon, Nikon, Steinheil, Minolta, Zeiss, all made some. Even Schneider and Angenieux, if you're willing to hunt patiently. The Russian and Ukrainian lenses are good when they are good. Possibly your best bet will be to start with two from CV itself. A fast 35 and a 75 would be my recommendation, since those would mean no accessory finders and should serve for nearly all of your needs.

 

[dberger]

Here are a few I've tried and liked on the Bessa R:

Canon 50mm F1.8 black - simply outstanding
CV 35mm/2.5 -- bread and butter lens and valued priced
CV 25mm F4 -- another good deal
W.Acall Kyoei (Japan) 35mm F3.5 (real nice, sharp, hard to find)
Sun Sola 90mm F4 (much better than the Leica Elmar 9cm F4)
Canon 85mm F2 -- *remarkably* good for a vintage lens. Use the 90mm frame lines.
Komura 135mm F3.5 - sharp, good contrast.
Summitar 5cm F2 -- sharp optics, but you cannot collapse it on the Bessa
Canon 28mm F3.5 - Wonderful lens. You need a 28mm finder too.
Nikkor 5cm F2 - Decent lens, but optically not quite as performant as the Canon 50/1.8 above. Can be had at a reasonable price if you are patient. Best construction quality of all.


Some Ho-Hum lenses I've tried:

Industar 55mm F2.8 - Snore! -- makes a nice lens cap! Better than nothing though.
Leica 9cm F4 Elmar - Even the coated ones s*ck, but then I shoot color.
Komura 105mm F3.5 (the jury is still out on this one)
Canon 28mm F2.8 - optically too far ahead of its time-- for collectors only
Rokkor 45mm F2.8 Super Rokkor - Stunningly bad images. Looks good though.

Wow. I am suprised that your Elmar and Super Rokkor suck to much. I've found the elmar to be quite nice, especially when stopped down to 5.6 and 8; makes a nice little portrait lens. Moreover, I think the Super Rokkor is one of the best normal lenses made in Leica screw mount; its plenty sharp with great image quality. Could your lenses perhaps need a clean, focus check, or collimation check?

cheers,

David

 

[jorisbens]

I really like my leica 90/4 which is uncoated, even on color film.

Here are some results wide-open on fuji superia 1600:

 

[yarinkel]

Popular lenses : Probably the CV 35 f2.5. The 25mm also have a good reputation. I own none of them.

Best lenses I do own:
CV Ultron 35 1.7 : Very sharp, not too contrasty.
Leica Summicron 50 2.0 LTM edition : It's a special edition of the modern Summicron. I can't imagine it goes better than that optically.
Canon LSM 50 1.4 : Outstanding performance. Very sharp, solid construction

I also have the CV 21mm and 75mm, but haven't scanned the negatives yet so I can't comment on the performance.

 

[nzeeman]

get Jupiter 8 and save money. 😀

 

[wlewisiii]

Hmm. I've had a few of these. Random thoughts follow...

The 35/2.5 CV lens is quite good but if you don't need the clinical sharpness of modern glass, the Jupiter 12 35/2.8 can be an exquisite lens.

The Jupiter 8 (50/2) is far and away the best lens they ever made. A good example is worth it's wieght in Sonnars... 😉 The newer black ones look reaaly kewl too...

The Canon 28/3.5 is an excellent lens. A bit off in the corners, but you won't touch it with any other cheap 28 & even more than a few of the expensive ones will have a hard time bettering it.

If you can get your hands on an uncoated, pre-war, Leica 90/4 Elmar then grab it and run. That will be one of the finest lense you'll _ever_ own. The Sonnars beat the pants off of Elmars at 50mm, but even the vaunted 85/2 Sonnar (which I dearly love the look from) could learn a few things from the 90/4...😱 :bang: :bang: :bang:

The Canon 135/3.5 is an utterly exquisite lens. If you do long stuff more than once a year, you owe it to yourself to get one of these. It will be dirt cheap & will blow away anything from Germany... (IMHO & all that).

In 50mm FL lenses, then I'd say to prefer Tessar construction over Elmar construction - having the blades in the "right" place is no small matter, but...

All this said, you can have fun if you want to.

William

 

[02Pete]

Based on direct personal experience:
The following lenses are all excellent, offering high speed for available light shooting, excellent sharpness and contrast, excellent handling, and durable construction. These were professional lenses in their day and, while they might be surpassed by newer lenses, can still provide superb results. I have personally used these, and have gotten excellent results with them.
• Canon 50mm f/1.4 LTM
• Canon 35mm f/2 LTM
• Nikkor 85mm f/2 LTM
The following lenses are good. I have personally used these, and consider them good enough to use for amateur photography on an everyday basis, although I prefer the ones above.
• Canon 35mm f/1.8 LTM
• Canon 85mm f/1.9 LTM
The following lens is more of a collectable than an everyday user. It was designed as a super high-speed available light lens and pushed the envelope in terms of what was achievable in lens speed at the time, but sacrificed sharpness and contrast in the name of speed. My results with this lens in use have only been average.
• Canon 35mm f/1.5 LTM
Based on reputation, but not on direct experience:
The following have the reputation of being excellent lenses, though I have not personally used them:
• Leitz 35mm f/2 Summicron LTM
• Leitz 50mm f/2 Summicron LTM
• Canon 50mm f/1.8 LTM
• Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 LTM
• Canon 85mm f/1.8 LTM
• Canon 100mm f/2 LTM
• Nikkor 35mm f/1.8
The following have the reputation of being good but not great lenses, although I have not personally used them:
• Leitz 90mm f/4 Elmar
• Canon Serenar 85mm f/2
The following has the reputation of being more of a collectable than an everyday user, again a super-speed lens that pushed the envelope in terms of speed but traded off sharpness and contrast to achieve that result, although I have not personally used one:
• Canon 50mm f/1.2 LTM

 

[Sparrow]

I am considering buying Bessa-R. What are the popular and the best lenses available for this camera?

Thanks

the "best" LTM 35 has to be be the CV 35 f2.5 without question