M8 & closeups - lens options

[Stephen G]

It being winter, and the sun going down early.. I find myself indoors, with lenses that don't let me get in all that close (50mm@1m, for example).

I am looking to take photos of subjects that around the size of an A4 piece of paper. I'm going to be using these indoors.. and so the faster the lens, the better.

I have done the comparisons of subject distance/size using various focal lengths & minimum focus distances.. and I think I've narrowed it down to two lenses in a similar price range ~$500.

90 Tele-Elmarit
50 DR w/ eyes

Obviously some mounting issues on M8. From reading I understand it should however be perfectly usable in the 0.5m - 1m (possibly up to 3m or so) range

Are there any options I am missing?
Are there further issues with the 50DR on M8 I am unaware of?

In my mind, the 50 will also give me a more natural look, versus the "telephoto look" that long lenses give the perspective.

I've also been contemplating taking the cheap route and grabbing an Elmar 90mm @ ~$200 and calling it a day..

 

[Phil_F_NM]

The 50 DR is my favorite 50 and very usable on the M8. The only issue is that the eyes need to have the little plastic tab filed down or removed so the eyes will sit against the camera. It was just there to prevent them from striking the body of the camera but considering the build quality of both the lens and the eyes, I still don't know how that would happen. A knock which would push the eyes into damaging contact with the camera would be enough to damage the camera itself anyways.
Mount the lens when it's in close focus mode and the mount the eyes.

Have fun.

Phil Forrest

 

[Stephen G]

My preference generally is for the 50 DR as it actually gets me a smaller minimum subject size (by a hair). It would match that of a 90mm @ 0.9m, but the T-E and most other 90s only go down to 1m. Appears a 75mm @ 0.7m would get me even closer at 4x the cost. Not looking to put much money into this lens as it would be better spent on other focal lengths for my shooting style.

I also like the rendering of the 50 DR from what I have seen..

Phil - What focussing range do you get out of the 50 DR on your M8?

 

[ampguy]

Not sure if this is an option for you, but if you have any LTM 50's, you can put a small shim between the adapter and lens (~.5mm) and focus a 1m lens to about .6m, at the expense of having your far focus max out at 10 ft. or so. You can go closer, with larger shims, especially with wides (I've gotten close focus as close as 10 inches with a 28 and 1.1mm shim), but on my M8, it loses coupling right at about .6m. Legacy M's (film) lose coupling at ~1m or so, plus film is expensive. Best to use these adapted (temporarily) lens with a live view camera like the NEX. But the M8 works with stationary subjects, just need to chimp after every shot.

 

[Phil_F_NM]

Phil - What focussing range do you get out of the 50 DR on your M8?

Only the close focus range. When the lens is in normal range the close focus cam sticks too far out of the back and makes it impossible to mount by coming into contact with the camera body.
Had Leica enabled full use of the DR Summicron on the M8 or M9, I'd rarely take it off the camera.

Phil Forrest

 

[Roger Hicks]

Don't neglect the Visoflex: http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/worst dslr.html. You need to make a little mask (use yellow transparent film) but it works...

Cheers,

R.

 

[Stephen G]

Roger - Interesting option.

I don't actually own any visoflex compatible lenses currently (35cron v2 / 50lux v1).
I suspect by the time I buy the visoflex + compatible lens, I will have blown quite through the budget / cost of above options.

What lens+visoflex combo would you recommend fitting the price & subject size/type parameters above?

 

[Ben Z]

I am looking to take photos of subjects that around the size of an A4 piece of paper.

Are there any options I am missing?

On full-frame a 135mm f/4 Tele-Elmar at minimum distance will give you about 1" more all around than A4. The Voitlander 75mm f/2.5 @ minimum will give you less than A4. On an M8 you'll get that much more magnification due to the crop. Neither of those lenses, used, should cost you more than $300. Visoflex is great, as Roger said, because it gives you reflex viewing to preview the depth of field which is quite shallow at those magnifications. But unless you have a lens like the 65mm or one of the 90's or 135's with detachable head, and the appropriate short helicoid mount, mounting a standard M lens on a Visoflex will give you a lot more magnification than you're asking for and I'm not sure which ones if any will let you back up far enough to frame A4, especially given the crop factor of the M8.

 

[Stephen G]

Ben-

Thanks.
135mm - M8 lacks 135 frames. I'd have to go 135 Tele-Elmarit with the eyes. This only focusses down to 1.5m, which is pretty similar subject size as a 90mm @ 1m.
This also is a monster of a lens. Similar reason I discounted a 90 Summicron.

75mm - I've considered, but 75mm @ 1m (vc) barely gets much tighter crop than a 50mm @ 0.7m. And I'm going to be picky and stick with a Leica lens. Leica 75mm lenses seem to be an uncommon/recent enough vintage to all be well out of my price range (cron/lux/summarit).

 

[marritree]

With regards to the visoflex, I seem to have read somewhere that it is possible to use several different lenses so that the viso housing becomes a defacto extension ring. If anyone has tinkered with this concept which lenses perform well ad are there any images of this anywhere?