Please Help me choose a 35mm lens,

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M6TTL0.58

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Hello everyone,

This is a first time post, I have just received my first Leica a really good M6TTL 0.58 very happy with the camera and am quite impressed with the feel of it in the hand.

I would like to ask your your help, I am able to buy one lens for the camera and will not be able to buy another for at least a year as I can basically only afford one lens.
I have decided on the 35mm focal length, I cannot afford Leica glass and have narrowed it down to the following lenses:

Voigtlander Nokton 35mm mc 1.4, small and fast?

Voigtlander Nokton 35mm 1.2 version 2, big heavy to walk around with?

Voigtlander ultron 1.7, ?

Zeiss biogon f/2?

Voigtlander Color skopar 2.5, not fast enough for avalible light only?

I will be shooting black and colour film both negative and slide.

I am thinking that a fast lens is good and am drawn to the nokton 1.4 but have read on the net that it exhibits really bad distortion? Am also after something small that can be carried everyday.

I am travelling to India in a months time and will be taking the m6TTL with me and my one lens so that's another consideration something that travels well and is compact.

Thanks for your thoughts in advance good to finally get my hands on one of these rangefinder things!🙂
 
I love my Zeiss Biogon 35/2 but, for the money, the CV Color Skopar is a magnificent lens and a terrific walk around option.

It is very small and very light, and it does not interfere at all with the viewfinder on my 0.72 Ms. Since your 0.58 gives a wider field of view it may be visible in your viewfinder but much less so than the rest you have mentioned.

It has some chromatic aberration, but no more than my Biogon 35/2. A bit of barrel distortion can be seen in some situations but it is very mild and rarely noticeable. It is very sharp in the center wide open and is pretty good all the way across by f5.6. Contrast is not high so it is a great choice for sunny days and also gives you lots to work with in Photoshop.

Probably the biggest possible downside for this lens is its tendency toward a veiling flare across the photograph when shooting into the sun. Some people look for this effect, some do not like it at all.

IMHO this lens is the best value in a 35mm lens on the M platform. There are obviously faster and better (not always the same 🙂) 35mm lenses but the price goes up quickly and the size also goes up quickly. If it is worth paying twice as much for the larger Zeiss Biogon 35/2 to gain half of a stop, then by all means do it. It is a wonderful lens and you will not be disappointed. But if you are on a budget, the Color Skopar 35mm is an awesome option.
 
Technically, the best lens in your list is the VM 35/1.7 Ultron.

But on film, and when traveling with one lens and one camera, for me speed and size would win, and I would pick the 35/1.4. A little barrel distortion but not a problem for most photos, in particular when you scan.

Pioneer said:
It is very small and very light, and it does not interfere at all with the viewfinder on my 0.72 Ms. Since your 0.58 gives a wider field of view it may be visible in your viewfinder but much less so than the rest you have mentioned.
Click to expand...

Just a note that frame-line intrusion is independent of viewfinder magnification. The Skopar and 1.4 Nokton basically don't intrude. The Biogon a little, the 1.7 Ultron a little more (15% or so ?), and the 1.2 Nokton intrudes massively (too much for me). Worse with hoods of course.

Roland.
 
If you'll only own one lens for the foreseeable future, go with the fastest you can afford. You'll hate having blurry dusk/evening/indoor photos esp from a (presumably) important trip.

That said, the Skopar is extremely good value for money. I used one before buying the 35 Summilux FLE and I don't see 10x the image quality in the photos from the latter.
 
I like two of the ones you listed, and have them in my cameras.

The Nokton f1.4 is an excellent performer, and with regards to the distortion I just wouldn't care. It's fast and has a nice out-of-focus finish when you shoot it wide open. In terms of price, it's nicely affordable.

The Zeiss Biogon f2 is a killer if you want sharpness. It's devilishly sharp even wide open, and if it weren't for the price, I'd have even more (aside: I have three Zeiss lenses, two in f2 and one in f2.8; I like them a lot). To me, they just don't do anything wrong. Only con: they're pricy when compared to the CV.

If the budget is a criteria in the final choice, take the CV. It's smaller than the Zeiss, and the closeness of the focusing and aperture rings may take some time to get used to. If you can swing the Zeiss... it's very confortable to use.

BTW, neither is too heavy if you see yourself walking about long hours.

Best of luck shopping!
 
One caveat: The CV and the Zeiss have both a small design flaw: a chrome ring just right in front or around the front element. This may be a problem only if you shoot at night without flash and using ambient light, because some glare may occur (I speak from experience). The only remedy is to get a black-ring UV filter. Otherwise, either will do well.
 
Where is the reason why Skopar called Color. It is very small, but mighty lens for color.
Nokton 35 1.4 is very classic in size, still compact. Also good for color.
Both are great for travel and handling is better comparing to Zeiss, IMO.
Color Skopar is also no "surprises", sharp, no focus shift lens on all apertures.

I don't think what large aperture is something to be paid as extra for color film photography. Usually, if you want to have good colors, you have to take it under good light.

You could also find not so expensive, used Summarit-M 35 2.5. This is true Leica lens with one of the best handling I ever tried.
 
That Biogon. Mine is the C Biogon, but I use it a lot on digital and f2.8 is fast enough. The Zeiss lenses are all fantastic. It seems though that there are no bad 35s. I had an f1.4 50 Summilux for years. It was stolen. The one and only advantage of that calamity was that I moved to a 50 Summicron which did fine for me for years including low light on film. Much lighter and more compact. I think an f2 35 is plenty fast enough and great for travel. Today I have the tiny version 4 f2 35 Summicron on my M6. Compactness is everything to me, any time, let alone when travelling.
 
Congratulations on your camera. The 0.58xM6TTL is perhaps my favorite camera, ever. I have had mine for about 4 years, and shoot it with focal lengths from 21-90mm. But mostly shoot it with 35mm since that is the lens the 0.58x finder was designed for.

I haven't used any of the lenses on your list, but I have a couple suggestions.

1) The 2.8 Summaron is worth considering.
2) At some point you will really start wanting a 35mm Summicron. If you can afford to have several 35mm lenses, then buy the lens that will compliment the Summicron. If you can't afford to have several lenses, then buy the lens that you can recoup the most money from when you sell it to buy the Summicron.

Looking forward to seeing some of your photos.
 
These are all excellent lenses, and you would be happy with any of them. I think the most cost-effective choice would be a CV Ultron in LTM plus an M adapter. The lens is excellent, can be found at a good price, and and is quite small, taking 39mm filters like almost all vintage M lenses. It is extremely sharp and contrary, a good match for the CV 50mm f1.5 lens, which is one of the best 50's you will find.

Cheers,
Dez
 
Ko.Fe. said:
Where is the reason why Skopar called Color. It is very small, but mighty lens for color.
Click to expand...
Mr Kabayashi, designer of contemporanean Voigtländer lenses, is fond of historical references (f/1.5 and f/1.1 apertures are illustrious reminiscences). Color Skopar were produced from 1949. According to the famous LVM, it was an Albrecht Wilhelm Tronnier's design (4 elements, 3 groups), and used on cameras such as Vito B (35mm) or Perkeo (medium format). "The postwar f3.5 Skopar was a very desirable item, sold at a very reasonable price at a time when too many German cameras imported to UK were fitted with 3-glass lenses of big apertures and rather mundane sharpness. As a result the Vito B won many friends for Voigtländer."
 
Last edited:
Dez said:
These are all excellent lenses, and you would be happy with any of them. I think the most cost-effective choice would be a CV Ultron in LTM plus an M adapter. The lens is excellent, can be found at a good price, and and is quite small, taking 39mm filters like almost all vintage M lenses. It is extremely sharp and contrary, a good match for the CV 50mm f1.5 lens, which is one of the best 50's you will find.

Cheers,
Dez
Click to expand...

When I bought my M7 0,58 for a couple of years I used the CV Ultron 35/1,7 (ltm) and I found it very good, but I'm not such a "technical" photographer.

I still use it on the Bessa R as complement or back up to the M7. I guess you'll be not disappointed.

robert
 
Yea, it is known what CV calls some of thier products as original V.
But in case of the Color Skopar it isn't just naming convention. It is the lens optics and coatings which makes it good for color film. I know this not because I'm reading some marketing articles, but have two Color Skopar 35 2.5 in the past and not just on shelf, but on cameras with film 🙂
 
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