Hi Everyone,
When I travel overseas and need to pack light, I usually take my Leica M2 with 35mm and 50mm Summicron lenses (and light meter, filters, and hoods). But recently I have been thinking wide, which must go along with my increasing girth. I would like the genuine 24mm M lens or the 25mm Zeiss, but realistically would not use them all that often. But I have a clean Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 24/3.5 lens for the Spotmatic. So I bought a $20 Fotodiox M42-Leica M adapter and did a test run.
The good: the optical results were better than I expected. I do not have a genuine Leica 24, so I have no basis for comparison. Sure, it is not as "sharp" as the 35 Summicron, but so what? For $20, I am pleased.
The clumsy: Framing is a problem, but when I move my eye left and right and up and down the maximum extent across the M2's eyepiece, I think I am seeing most of the 24mm coverage. The lens blocks part of the view, and using the genuine Takumar hood is hopeless. To do: buy a 24mm finder. Focus is totally manual.
The heavy: The Takumar with its Fotodiox adapter is a big and rather heavy cylinder.
Here are some examples from Romania and from Greece. The view of a church is in Sibiu, Romania, with a yellow filter to darken the sky. The abandoned hotel is in Nerantza, Greece. The film was Fujifilm Acros, exposed at EI=80. Praus Productions in Rochester, NY, developed the film in Xtol. I scanned the film with a Plustek scanner using the Tri-X 400 profile (the SilverFast software does not have an Acros profile).
When I travel overseas and need to pack light, I usually take my Leica M2 with 35mm and 50mm Summicron lenses (and light meter, filters, and hoods). But recently I have been thinking wide, which must go along with my increasing girth. I would like the genuine 24mm M lens or the 25mm Zeiss, but realistically would not use them all that often. But I have a clean Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 24/3.5 lens for the Spotmatic. So I bought a $20 Fotodiox M42-Leica M adapter and did a test run.
The good: the optical results were better than I expected. I do not have a genuine Leica 24, so I have no basis for comparison. Sure, it is not as "sharp" as the 35 Summicron, but so what? For $20, I am pleased.
The clumsy: Framing is a problem, but when I move my eye left and right and up and down the maximum extent across the M2's eyepiece, I think I am seeing most of the 24mm coverage. The lens blocks part of the view, and using the genuine Takumar hood is hopeless. To do: buy a 24mm finder. Focus is totally manual.
The heavy: The Takumar with its Fotodiox adapter is a big and rather heavy cylinder.
Here are some examples from Romania and from Greece. The view of a church is in Sibiu, Romania, with a yellow filter to darken the sky. The abandoned hotel is in Nerantza, Greece. The film was Fujifilm Acros, exposed at EI=80. Praus Productions in Rochester, NY, developed the film in Xtol. I scanned the film with a Plustek scanner using the Tri-X 400 profile (the SilverFast software does not have an Acros profile).
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