M6 with 35/2.5 Color Skopar PII

[jmooney]

Hi All,

I'm trying to break in to the world of Leica here and my ultimate goal is a 35 'Cron of some type but the current funding for this project won't allow both the M6 and a 35 'Cron right now. Most mention I've seen of the CS PII have been positive. I'm curious to hear more from those that use it on an M6. How is the handling? Any issues? Are you happy with it?

My eventual goal is to wind up with the following kit:

M6
35 Summicron
50 Summicron (DR or Rigid) or Summarit
90 Elmar
CV 21/4 Pancake & Finder

Rather than wait till I can buy the M6 and 'Cron together I'd like to get the M6 and a more affordable lens because I'll miss a lot of images waiting. 35 is my primary focal length by a large margin so it's first.

Take care,

Jim

 

[back alley]

check out the gallery photos from yesterday, i think the shooter was chris hudson, he has some great shots from the cv 35/2.5

 

[pau3]

The truth - sometimes sad - is that it's more important the photographer than
th equipment. The Skopar 35/2.5 is a very good lens, and it is also very small.
And that's what matters when you're dealing with rangefiders. I don't know
if you will find good samples around, but Marc-A. has one, and he knows how
to make a good use of it.

Pau

 

[jky]

The Skopar's a sleeper of a lens in my opinion - sharp with lots of contrast. I have the classic ltm, but the PII felt better built and kicks up the perception of quality compared to mine. I've never encountered a problem with the f-stop being 2.5 as it's easy to shoot TX & HP5 pushed 2 stops (what I mainly use). Definitely give it a shot.

 

[sockeyed]

If you'd like an idea of how this lens performs, have a look in the 35mm Skopar flickr pool.

It's a great lens: very sharp, nice bokeh, compact and very good ergonomics. It is very contrasty, perhaps a bit much so, but that's not really much to complain about. The price is excellent. I'm in the market for a new 35mm and I'm musing over this or the ZM 35mm f/2 (which is more than twice the price and a fair whack larger).

 

[sockeyed]

Here are a few images of what it looks like mounted on an M6:

 

[phatnev]

I loved mine when I had it for about 5 months. Im thinking about buying the 35mm 1.4 that CV just came out with instead of the 2.5 this time around

 

[Bingley]

The truth - sometimes sad - is that it's more important the photographer than
th equipment. The Skopar 35/2.5 is a very good lens, and it is also very small.
And that's what matters when you're dealing with rangefiders. I don't know
if you will find good samples around, but Marc-A. has one, and he knows how
to make a good use of it.

Pau

I agree. Marc-A has done some terrific work w/ this lens. In addition, I'd recommend taking a look at the photos Avotius has taken w/ this lens (in the Gallery and on flickr). Papercut has also been using the 35 color-skopar on a ZI, and producing some interesting work w/ it. In fact, quite a few members here currently use or have used that lens in its various versions (all optically the same). There is also a flickr group devoted to the 35 color skopar, as Sockeyed mentioned, which can also give you a good sense of what the lens can do.

 

[phatnev]

I think the aperture is the only serious drawback, 2.5 is just too slow for most indoor work

 

[Krosya]

I have a CV Color-Skopar 35/2.5 PII. I use it when I know I will not be shooting in any dark places, where I'd use CV Nokton 35/1.2. It a good lens, sharp and small. easy to carry as a back-up too. Since I'm into more of a available darkness and bokeh type photos I don't use it that much. Might even sell it soon. But sometimes I do like having a small lens like that. Plus at that price - it's really worth having if 2.5 is not too slow for you. Great daytime lens, really.
Here is a shot with it - f4 or 5.6, dont remember:

 

[elude]

Hello,
You should consider the 2,8 Summaron also.

 

[maddoc]

My entry into the world of Leica (more than one year ago) was a ... M6 classic (chrome) with a CV 35/2.5 PII. 🙂🙂 I had a lot of fun with this camera and lens but the 2.5 was limiting for me so I sold in favor of Summilux 35 pre-ASPH (same size).

 

[wlester]

I just traded mine in last week for a new 35 ASPH Summicron. I had purchased it new in April and used it only a few times. I had no quarrel with the optical performance or build quality. I just wasn't comfortable with the compactness of it. I think I probably could have gotten used to it but since photographic equipment decisions aren't always common sense driven, I decided to spend the extra money on the Leica lens. The CV is probably for sale now on the Harry's Pro Shop web site in Toronto. Good people to deal with.

 

[oscroft]

I have the 35 Skopar Classic in LTM (with adapter), which apparently is optically the same lens. It's very sharp and has high contrast (which can perhaps be a bit too much in bright conditions). Overall it's quite an amazing lens for the price, and I really don't think you'd be disappointed with it as a "stop gap" lens.