What's your opinion on the Elmar 135mm f4?

[Coldkennels]

On another point, I found focus peaking to be disappointingly useless for really critical focus, and I absolutely abhor what it does to my sense of composition to inject all of that trash into the view.

The biggest problem I run into over and over again with focus peaking is when I'm trying to focus something that already has sharp contrast (say, for instance, strong bold text on a plain background) - especially when using modern high-contrast lenses. I use the X-Pro 2 for product photography at work a lot, and focus peaking is great for picking out wood grain, but can sometimes be absolutely horrible for photographing printed material.

 

[mdarnton]

Regarding caps for hoods, I almost always use a hood, so I like to leave them on. I've been buying spring caps for the front of hoods that will take them, finding spring caps that will go somewhere deep down inside hoods that will take those, and for my Leica lenses with clip hoods I get clip caps and discovered that the clip hood will reverse right over the cap, which doesn't stick out around the edge of the lens. I don't know if this works for this particular lens but I bet it does. With clip caps costing something like $5 for 10 on Ebay this isn't an expensive thing to do and I can preserve my unreplacable period caps unused and unlost. (Also, the expensive original old metal Leica caps wont fit Leica's own period UV filters, which have a smaller diameter than the lens!) Because they fit so many lenses and are small I usually have an extra 39mm snap cap in my pocket, just in case.

 

[Coldkennels]

for my Leica lenses with clip hoods I get clip caps and discovered that the clip hood will reverse right over the cap, which doesn't stick out around the edge of the lens. I don't know if this works for this particular lens but I bet it does.

I have a 39mm snap-in cap I use on my collapsible Summicron (precisely because, as you described, the original cap falls off the UV filter I keep on the 'Cron), so I tested this out.

You can just about squeeze it into the hood with the hood already reversed, but it doesn't fit very well (and isn't easy to remove), and you can't fit the hood over the top of the cap at all.

The original cap that I pictured with the hood indicates it's a 42mm diameter, so I assume you could probably use a cheap 42mm snap-in cap on it, but as the hood has teeth which hold the original cap in place instead of a full filter thread, I'm not sure I'd trust a snap-in cap to stay in place in my bag.

 

[sojournerphoto]

I don't know about your camera, but I'm using all non-native lenses on my Nikon Z. I did buy the expensive adapter for Nikon lenses, but the only thing it offers is some pass-through of non-essential data for the later fancy Nikon lenses, and autofocus for the latest ones--lenses that have various chips in them--which I mostly don't own. Eventually, because of my particular mix I settled on an unconventional solution. The shorter flange focus of what I use is Leica M, so I bought a focusing Leica M adapter. That fits my M lenses and LTM ones with the normal LTM to M adapter ring. Then for my Nikon lenses, most of which are old manual focus where the fancy Nikon adapter doesn't add any value, I bought each one a cheap Nikon F to Leica M adapter, turning them into Leica M lenses. These adapters cost about $20 each, the cheapest that Ebay had.

What have I gained? When I go out I can grab whatever lenses I have for my bag and can stick them on my "Leica M model" Nikon Z without juggling adapters. All of them have also gained close-focus range thanks to the focusing Leica adapter.

I think it's a pretty slick solution.

On another point, I found focus peaking to be disappointingly useless for really critical focus, and I absolutely abhor what it does to my sense of composition to inject all of that trash into the view. I use a lot of fast lenses wide open, and it really does not work for that with any degree of accuracy because it doesn't just grab the focus point, it shows what it thinks is within depth of field . . . not good enough. Instead, on my Z I set the button directly under my thumb to give a 100% view and the one on the front under my ring finger to give 200%. This is really fast to access and great for critical focus, about as fast as using the RF on my Leicas. It took a day or two to get used to, but it's now completely transparent and reflexive.

One button magnification has become my go to on the S1r and GFX.

 

[hap]

I think that it's nearly impossible to make a bad slow 135mm lens. I use a late black Canon 135/3.5 (I see they're all the way up to $70!) and it's a wonderful lens. Basically you're taking a lens that's easy to design and then using only the best zone, the very center of what it projects. There's almost no way to mess up.

2nd the motion.

 

[Patarei]

One of my favorite lenses is my Hektor 135 mm f4.5 ltm.

Photo taken in Ndola Zambia with my Leica M246 and the Hektor ltm.