Favorite classic ltm telephoto?

[darinwc]

FYI... ive been on a bit of a binge. I ended up with a few different lenses.
I have not had much time to experiment yet on film. But playing around with them on digital has yielded some initial opinions.

Leica 9cm f4 Elmar -small, good performance. The svelte barrel on mine contrasts nicely with the chrome focus ring. Small, balances nicely on my Canon II.

Canon 105mm f3.5 -Yes this seems to be a fantastic lens. it is sharper than the 90mm f4 elmar at f3.5/f4. Haze is a problem though. Took me 2 tries to find one without haze. Actually smaller than the elmar.. not sure how that works. I would not have considered this lens were it not for your recommendations!

These larger lenses balance better on my Canon 7:

Nikon 85mm f2 -Heavy lens. A bit soft at f2. Much better at f2.8. Sonnar type. (I have this in Nikon mount also, which performs exactly the same)

Canon 85mm f1.9 - an inch longer than the Nikkor. Again, dont know how that happens. I think its a bit better than the Nikkor wide open.

I think I will look for a Nikkor 105mm to compare with. I will try to get some examples as I have time to shoot them with film.

 

[presspass]

I've been using a Super Rokkor 85 f2.8 and an Elmar 90 f4.0. Both are tiny and light; the Rokkor has one more stop, which is handy. A nicely-finished lens with a tremendously long focus throw.