LTM Summitar&Summaron on M8 ?

[PeterL]

Hi,

Seen the fact that I travel to Japan on a regular basis for work and seen the fact that the M8 is reasonably affordable there, I'm thinking of getting one. I blame all of you here for posting such mouth-watering photos and links. But anyway. The damage's done now. Can't go back, no way. Don't want to, either 🙂

Should I get an M8, I'd like to postpone wadding out extra cash for lenses. Currently, I have a screw mount Summitar 50/2 and Summaron 35/3.5. I know convertors to mount these on M cameras exist, so if I get one for each lens (matching ones, so that the lens+convertor shows the correct frame lines) I should be up and running.

Of course, I wonder about the photo quality. I like the Summitar's dreamy quality when wide open and its general old-style look (quite melancholic). How does it do on the M8 ? Does it collapse allright ? Same for the Summaron, except for the collapsing part of course (it doesn't 😛) I think if these lenses work fine, they'd make a high quality but really small digital superpackage 🙂


Peter.

 

[Avotius]

one of my all time favorite photographic things is being able to use old old stuff on those confangled new new digital cameras, its so cool, my argus lens loves my 20D. In my opinion, go for it, its great fun.

 

[PeterL]

Hi,

I'd definitely go for it, but if I can't collapse the Summitar, it loses part of its charm, of course 🙁 Anyway, the discussion is a bit academic at the moment because I still need to start saving (and I promised my girlfriend to buy ourselves bicycles before anything else).


Peter.

 

[boilerdoc2]

Peter, I'm photographing some ladies tomorrow evening (Monday). I just got the Summitar and am going to give it a try. Don't have filter for it but we'll see how it does. Stay tuned for shots Tuesday late.
Steve

 

[dll927]

Given the cost of an M8 (even in Japan, I'm sure), I can't answer the question directly. But there are commonly available adapters for putting LTM lenses on M bodies. If such exist, there must not be any harm in using them. And at least as far as M-series lenses are concerned, the scoop seems to be that any lens ever made for them will work on the newest body. Yes, I know about the electronic connections with the M8.

Frankly, a lot of this discussion about which lens strikes me as pretty academic. Leitz has never been known for crummy lenses, and I see little reaon to bother about updating lenses whenever something new comes out. Especially not at Leitz prices.