BEST Leica M Mount 28mm???

[JoeyB243]

Just curious what y'all think is the best 28mm lens for the Leica M Mount?

 

[Eric Rose]

How much money do you want to spend?

 

[JoeyB243]

Haha that’s always the biggest question. I personally like the Elmarit - M V2 but I was just curious to hear what everyone thought

 

[madNbad]

Elmarit ASPH 28 2.8. One of Leica's best and a bargain for the price. Small, sharp and a joy to use.

 

[JoeyB243]

Huh what do you enjoy the most about this lens

 

[madNbad]

I owned one for about two years and it was sold along with a lot of other equipment to raise funds for a home improvement project. For the longest time the 35 Summicron ASPH had been my go to lens, after I bought the Elmarit, it was on the camera most of the time. I like the slightly wider angle of view over the 35 and the fairly short focus throw of the Elmarit made it easy to use. The images were always sharp and being a shorter focal length. If you wanted to set the focus and narrow the aperture, it was a great wandering around lens. It's a lot of lens in a small package and nothing in it's price range even comes close. I have one of the new Voigtlander 35 2.0 Ultron ASPH and find it comparable to the first generation Summicron ASPH but if I was looking for a 28, the Elmarit would be my first choice.

 

[logan2z]

Elmarit ASPH 28 2.8. One of Leica's best and a bargain for the price. Small, sharp and a joy to use.

+1 on that, I love mine. I haven't tried the Summicron 28 , though, and some people prefer that lens's rendering to the Elmarit's.

 

[bags27]

To my mind,the current 28 Lux is one of Leica's very, very best pieces of glass, ever. It is brilliant in a way that it is different than the 35 Lux FLE and the 50 Cron APO are separately brilliant in their own unique renderings. Putting aside the 50 Nocti (brilliant but a specialized lens), these are for me the holy trinity of modern M glass. I don't include the 35 Cron APO, because I don't consider its rendering special (or any different from the VC version), no matter how impressively it tests.

(These are all incredibly expensive lenses, and I own only the 35 FLE, but it's my opinion from looking at countless photos taken with them. But you never expressed an opinion about desired cost.)

 

[Huss]

I owned one for about two years and it was sold along with a lot of other equipment to raise funds for a home improvement project. For the longest time the 35 Summicron ASPH had been my go to lens, after I bought the Elmarit, it was on the camera most of the time. I like the slightly wider angle of view over the 35 and the fairly short focus throw of the Elmarit made it easy to use. The images were always sharp and being a shorter focal length. If you wanted to set the focus and narrow the aperture, it was a great wandering around lens. It's a lot of lens in a small package and nothing in it's price range even comes close. I have one of the new Voigtlander 35 2.0 Ultron ASPH and find it comparable to the first generation Summicron ASPH but if I was looking for a 28, the Elmarit would be my first choice.

You're really working for your commision

Sold - Now w new sample pics! Leica 28mm Elmarit Asph v1 M mount - price plop!

Almost perfect condition 1st gen 28mm Asph Elmarit. Pretty sure I have the box in the basement. Just picked up a Cron 28 so will not be needing this. I hardly ever used it which actually is a shame as this lens is pretty much the most flare resistant Leica lens that I have. $1600 shipped/pp...

www.photrio.com

 

[madNbad]

You're really working for your commision

Sold - Now w new sample pics! Leica 28mm Elmarit Asph v1 M mount - price plop!

Almost perfect condition 1st gen 28mm Asph Elmarit. Pretty sure I have the box in the basement. Just picked up a Cron 28 so will not be needing this. I hardly ever used it which actually is a shame as this lens is pretty much the most flare resistant Leica lens that I have. $1600 shipped/pp...

www.photrio.com

Just trying to help. Meanwhile, I'm busy paying off the latest home improvement project...

 

[madNbad]

Dug around and found a few examples taken with the 28 Elmarit ASPH. Leica M6 TTL Millennium, 28 2.8 Elmarit ASPH, Portra 160, Noritsu lab scan:


Bandon, Oregon



Hinsdale Interpretive Center, Oregon

 

[madNbad]

Just a few more:


Bandon, Oregon




Bandon, Oregon

 

[Huss]

Very nice.

 

[Huss]

To my mind,the current 28 Lux is one of Leica's very, very best pieces of glass, ever. It is brilliant in a way that it is different than the 35 Lux FLE and the 50 Cron APO are separately brilliant in their own unique renderings. Putting aside the 50 Nocti (brilliant but a specialized lens), these are for me the holy trinity of modern M glass. I don't include the 35 Cron APO, because I don't consider its rendering special (or any different from the VC version), no matter how impressively it tests.

(These are all incredibly expensive lenses, and I own only the 35 FLE, but it's my opinion from looking at countless photos taken with them. But you never expressed an opinion about desired cost.)

I bought the Cron instead of the Lux because I hate the size of the Lux. On an M camera, it blocks a lot of the VF and it is unwieldy. It gets in the way, instead of getting out of the way of making pictures. Same thing for the Noctilux 50. The size is miserable, VF blockage horrible, and unless you use it at .95 there is no point.
The essence of RF and Leica photography is small high quality glass. That was the original design brief. It also is why I replaced my Zeiss 35 1.4 Distagon with the FLE - the Zeiss is so big that IMO it does not matter how it performs optically, it just gets in the way instead of out of the way.

 

[madNbad]

Very nice.

Thank, you. Even though these are medium resolution scans, it not only shows how sharp the lens is but how versitile. After using this lab for a number of years and watching the quality never really improve was a big part of the decision in moving to camera scanning. Good luck with the Summicron. It's a nice balance of having the extra stop but still small enough not to block the finder.

 

[bags27]

I bought the Cron instead of the Lux because I hate the size of the Lux. On an M camera, it blocks a lot of the VF and it is unwieldy. It gets in the way, instead of getting out of the way of making pictures. Same thing for the Noctilux 50. The size is miserable, VF blockage horrible, and unless you use it at .95 there is no point.
The essence of RF and Leica photography is small high quality glass. That was the original design brief. It also is why I replaced my Zeiss 35 1.4 Distagon with the FLE - the Zeiss is so big that IMO it does not matter how it performs optically, it just gets in the way instead of out of the way.

Point taken! Similarly, the VC 35 f/2 APO, optically as good as the Leica version, blocks around 3x more of the VF. But the difference in price between those two is even greater than the difference between the Leica and Zeiss 35 f/1.4s.

 

[Huss]

M-A with 28 Elmarit v1 Asph and Fuji Acros II, Cinestill DF96 Monobath

 

[bags27]

M-A with 28 Elmarit v1 Asph and Fuji Acros II, Cinestill DF96 Monobath

Terrific! especially love the third one. Very interesting angle, indeed!

 

[McDiesel]

Plenty of good photos shared here, but wouldn't they all look 100% identical to any other 28mm lens manufactured within last 50 years? In fact, I can upload a few iPhone shots here and at Photrio resolution nobody will be able to tell a difference. My 28mm Ultron, Canon EF f/2.8 and Nikon AI-S f/2.8 all produce identical output, the differences are negligible and only noticeable when pixel-peeping wide-open shots.

In my extremely humble opinion, modern lenses differ only in build quality and the trade-off between weight and speed.

 

[Huss]

Plenty of good photos shared here, but wouldn't they all look 100% identical to any other 28mm lens manufactured within last 50 years? In fact, I can upload a few iPhone shots here and at Photrio resolution nobody will be able to tell a difference. My 28mm Ultron, Canon EF f/2.8 and Nikon AI-S f/2.8 all produce identical output, the differences are negligible and only noticeable when pixel-peeping wide-open shots.

In my extremely humble opinion, modern lenses differ only in build quality and the trade-off between weight and speed.

Nope. The 28 Elmarit Asph is the most flare resistant lens that I have. It really is spectacular in how it hold contrast and detail in back or side lit conditions. I also have the Nikon 28 2.8 AIS as well as 28 1.4 G, 28 Summicron, 28 7A 1.4 and I'm sure a few others.

Yes displayed at 800x1000 pixels for the internet is not going to tell you much. But we all know that already. And yes at f8 with the sun behind you everything pretty much looks the same. The differences come when you push past that. I print large - and it's worth it to me. If all you do is display on websites, then most probably not.

Differing in build quality/handling/haptics is a thing, and it does not come free. Again, you decide what it is that matters to you.