Migration to M mount

[psychoanima]

Hello all, my first post here!

I become a proud owner of Leica M9. Before that I was using fujifilm system, specifically x100 series.

Now it comes to my attention that I have to find a proper lens but to not devastate my almost empty pockets.

I am mostly doing street and travel photography, some boudoir photo here and there. I love to shoot both b&w and color although I prefer more monochrome looking of my pictures.

In terms of focal range I am comfortable with 28, 35 and 50mm, depending on space and situation.

For Leica lenses I definitely don't have money. Someone might ask, well, why did you buy m body at first place, and I will say, to enjoy real rangefinder experience that my fujifilm couldn't deliver properly, and also to enjoy the CCD sensor vibe.

`````
Now back to my M mount observation
My budget is around $500
For that money I found some interesting lenses (second hand ofc).

In terms of 28mm there is basically only Voigtlander I found f/1.9 ltm, and if I get extremely lucky f/2 version. f/3.5 Color Skopar looks very interesting but on M9 I believe my shooting joy will end up around 5pm already.

For 35mm I saw Color Skopar f/2.5, but again, I am not sure if I can rely on evening shots at all. Ultron 1.4 II is above my budget. Sadly 35mm Vintage Ultron F2 as well, if I had that money I would buy it instantly.

For 50mm there are more or less 3 lenses that I might like: Planar, M-Hexanon, vintage Heliar f/3.5
Planar looks extremely sharp, can't say that it has any character, for M-Hexanon I have no idea what to think since there are a lot of samples with haze on eBay and unfortunately I can't test them live, and Heliar - OMG - that rendition is amaaaaazing, sadly f/3.5 and can't say that can be used for portraits if I decide at some point to take some- but I guess I would collect money for 75mm for that matter.

I know that 500 bucks is super limiting for what I am looking for but I would like to hear your expertise, I just enter into rangefinder world and don't want to make bad decision that fast.

p.s. right now I am shooting with Jupiter 8, it's interesting lens but it's lacking sharpness and contrast wide open 😀

Thanks for reading my long post and thanks in advance for any kind of suggestion.

 

[filmtwit]

$500 is just fine.

Start by looking at the Voigtlander 35mm range, you can easily find one for under $500 ($300ish to start with for the f2.5). You can find 4 lenses in this range, a f2.5, f2 (newest and hardest to find in this range) and 2 version so of the f1.4. Look for the Multicouted (MC) over the Single Coated f1.4 for use in digital.

Zeiss zm makes f2 Biogon and f2.8 biogon: generally on the used market they go for more $500, but some times they dip below. Both are fantastic lenses.

Canon and Nikkor also made 35mm ltm mounts (convertable to M mount), if you look around you'll easily find em for under $500.

In the 50mm range, you can find a large number of 50mm ltm mount lenses. personally I've perfered the Nikkor and Canon f1.4's, both are great lenses. But the great bargain 50mm is the Nikkor 50mm f2, which can be had for about $200 or less.

Good luck

 

[CameraQuest]

keep an eye on my used Voigtlander lenses

https://shop.cameraquest.com/voigtlander-used/

 

[aizan]

$500 is not very limiting at all, IMO. Here are some 28-50mm lenses that frequently or occasionally come within budget (top picks for you in bold):

- Voigtlander 28mm f/2 and f/1.9 LTM
- Voigtlander 35mm f/1.7 LTM
- Voigtlander 35mm f/2.5 (both M and LTM)
- Voigtlander 40mm f/1.4
- Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 (both M and LTM)
- Voigtlander 50mm f/1.1
- Voigtlander 50mm f/2.5 LTM
- Voigtlander 50mm f/3.5 (both M and LTM)
- Zeiss ZM 50mm f/2
- Konica M-Hexanon 50mm f/2
- Konica Hexanon 50mm f/2.4 LTM
- Konica M-Hexanon 28mm f/2.8

Also check out 7artisans and vintage LTM lenses.

How to choose? Pick a focal length, then pick a size. Done!

 

[Ko.Fe.]

M9 clean ISO cuts off after 640. If you don't like muddy images after it... 2.5, 3.5 slow lenses are not going to cut it for indoors.

Here are 50 1.1 and 35/2 7Artisans lenses. Two of them will fit in 500$ all together, if used.

I did plenty of travel, many street and some indoors with all bunch of lenses. Skopars, Ultrons, Crons, Elmarits, Sumarits, Avenons, Orions and even Jupiters 🙂 with M-E 220.

I cut it all to one main lens for now. Nokton 35 1.4 II. It isn't really far from 500$ even new.
It is just fine lens. Not blocking VF like many others, it is f1.4 and sharp on it and down. With this focal length and f1.4 I could do many things with ISO 640 and under.
Or use it at night at OK shutter speed, instead of 1/8, ISO 2500 for f2.5 lens.
For rare use of 50 I have Canon 50 1.8 and Jupiter 50 1.5. Both are good for bw and color is very interesting as well. I like how colors comes from Canon 50 1.8 LTM on portraits (thanks to Helen Hill).
I might also re-purchase Orion-15 (for random use), it is only f6, but tiny, funky on colors and sharp lens. Under 200$ lens.
Next to it, Winogrand's, Canon 28 2.8 LTM. But I don't know how easy they are to clean. Orion-15 is very easy to clean optics, if have to. And it is very retro lens in rendering on digital.

But if you like it to be retro where are also used Canon 50 1.4 LTM and 35/2 LTM. They are not expensive either. Might take time to find not hazed ones. Canon LTM lenses are better build than quirky Leitz ones, at least for focus part. Aperture is simple, but not crude.

Oh, watch for haze in LTM 35 1.7 Ultrons.

 

[Beemermark]

Ko.Fe. has some excellent advice. I have both a 35 Summicron and a Canon 35mm 1.4. If I was tight on money I'd sell the Summicron. The Canon is a lovely lens, only downside is filters.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I think you're over-emphasizing the need for fast lenses in low light. Even in low light, I never shoot at f1.4 or f2 because there is NO depth of field at those apertures. Now, sometimes you want very shallow depth of field, like in the photo below:

This was shot with a 50mm f1.4 Olympus lens at f2.8; not because the light was low, but because I wanted that shallow depth of field.

For most work, even if you want the background to be out of focus, you don't want to shoot very wide apertures because much of your subject will be out of focus.

This portrait was done with a 50mm f1.8 Canon rangefinder lens on a Leica IIIf. The background is out of focus, but I did not shoot it at f1.8; I shot it at f5.6! Any wider, and not only would the background be out of focus, my son's nose, mouth, and ears would have been out of focus too! I focused on his eyes, as you always should for portraits.

This was shot with the same Canon 50mm lens used for the portrait of my son, at 1/15 of a second at f2.8 on Tmax 400. There really isn't enough depth of field; a large part of the cat is out of focus (I focused on her eyes). I'd have been better off using a faster film like Delta 3200 and shooting at f8.

So, do you REALLY need very fast lenses?

 

[Ko.Fe.]

You, in particular, don't really need it, because I never seen any photos from you with something more less moving. 🙂

Not sure what Delta 3200 has to do in this thread, either. HP5+ gives better results @3200, btw, but M9 sensor doesn't have ISO 3200.

 

[Darthfeeble]

Hello all, my first post here!

I become a proud owner of Leica M9. Before that I was using fujifilm system, specifically x100 series.

Now it comes to my attention that I have to find a proper lens but to not devastate my almost empty pockets.

I am mostly doing street and travel photography, some boudoir photo here and there. I love to shoot both b&w and color although I prefer more monochrome looking of my pictures.

In terms of focal range I am comfortable with 28, 35 and 50mm, depending on space and situation.

For Leica lenses I definitely don't have money. Someone might ask, well, why did you buy m body at first place, and I will say, to enjoy real rangefinder experience that my fujifilm couldn't deliver properly, and also to enjoy the CCD sensor vibe.

`````
Now back to my M mount observation
My budget is around $500
For that money I found some interesting lenses (second hand ofc).

In terms of 28mm there is basically only Voigtlander I found f/1.9 ltm, and if I get extremely lucky f/2 version. f/3.5 Color Skopar looks very interesting but on M9 I believe my shooting joy will end up around 5pm already.

For 35mm I saw Color Skopar f/2.5, but again, I am not sure if I can rely on evening shots at all. Ultron 1.4 II is above my budget. Sadly 35mm Vintage Ultron F2 as well, if I had that money I would buy it instantly.

For 50mm there are more or less 3 lenses that I might like: Planar, M-Hexanon, vintage Heliar f/3.5
Planar looks extremely sharp, can't say that it has any character, for M-Hexanon I have no idea what to think since there are a lot of samples with haze on eBay and unfortunately I can't test them live, and Heliar - OMG - that rendition is amaaaaazing, sadly f/3.5 and can't say that can be used for portraits if I decide at some point to take some- but I guess I would collect money for 75mm for that matter.

I know that 500 bucks is super limiting for what I am looking for but I would like to hear your expertise, I just enter into rangefinder world and don't want to make bad decision that fast.

p.s. right now I am shooting with Jupiter 8, it's interesting lens but it's lacking sharpness and contrast wide open 😀

Thanks for reading my long post and thanks in advance for any kind of suggestion.

There are several M mount and M adapted lenses in the classifieds right here on RFF. Welcome to the forum by the way

 

[Huss]

Planar looks extremely sharp, can't say that it has any character..

This was shot @f2 with the apparently characterless Planar mounted on my M3