Do you guys have any experience with screw mount lenses? i see you can get nice focal lengths and F numbers quite cheaply on the ebay, and how important is sharpness? i know that sound dumb, but how much detail can say tri-x 400 resolve, id be planing on using a fast noisy film elusively.
Where are four large groups for LTM lenses:
Old Leica, mostly 50mm, plus Summars 35 3.5 and Elmar 90 f4. All are pleasing, low contrast, classic Leitz rendering. Main and common problem - quality of glass. Doesn't coop with time.
FSU - mostly for 50mm, plus 35mm Jupiter 12 and 28mm Orion 15 for common used. In opposite to old Leitz glass those have clean and more less durable optics. But mechanically they aren't even close to old Leitz.
All are aluminum with very tiny screws to hold parts together. If you are handy FSU 50mm primes once collimated (shimmed) will give results surpassing old Leitz 50mm LTMs. Those are also most cheapest one in cost.
Old made in Japan LTM. Big selection. Good results. Might have similar problems with glass as old Leitz, but seems to be less in average.
Cosina made LTM lenses. Those are new, modern and plenty. Focal length easily to get are 50, 35 and wider with matching VFs. Next to issues free in handling, but some lenses might need thread lock to be applied after extensive use. Most of Cosina LTM glass is very contrasty. But kind of flat in terms of rendering.
All of these lenses will give enough sharpness on 8x10, if not larger prints. I have most of my experience with bw, color bring different aspects. LTM Cosina made will give most predictable and well saturated, correctly balanced results, because they are modern lenses.
