Hi Joshua,
I was attracted to Leica glass due to the considerable expense and inconvenience which only Leica provides.
Of the M and LTM systems, the LTM is the favoured 39mm mount of the original Leica I, II, III series, with their a,b,c...f..g denotation. With your M6, you can go back in time and use these historical, vintage, characteristic earlier generation Leica lenses, never created in the M mount. Your M6 allows the freedom to choose LTM (with a corresponding M mount adapter) on your M6 and switch with M mount lenses.
Perhaps if you have some ideas about what your ideal image characteristics are, this would focus your thinking?
The 35mm Summaron f2.8 in its various generations is a very colourful and sprightly lens, perhaps still of that rarefied collector class, rather than photographer's class. It's a unique lens and worthy of any photographer but not at the current inflation due to collector status. Perhaps it's not the first 35mm lens to try out. Mine suffered from opaque lenticular aberrations which rendered it useless due to ageing - always a challenge with finding a useful vintage lens, not headed for the collector' market. I parted ways with my Summicron 35mm f2.0 Asph LTM mount lens some years ago: to say it was clinical is an understatement: I found it antiseptic and digital in its rendition. The myth of the Leica glow, related to photographer' error in overexposure and printing blown highlights makes it tempting for a newcomer to marvel over these lenses.... mine went to a photographer-collector, rather than a photographer looking for a lens just to get working. I've never seen one since and haven't missed it, till this thread made me recollect in nostalgia - which is never what it used to be.
Of the sense making vintage lenses, the 35mm from Canon and Nikon (rarer in LTM mount) work fine if you have the patience to find one in good vintage condition.
If size, weight and viewfinder blockage doesn't deter, the Voigtlander 35mm f1.2 Nokton is a very interesting lens - perhaps the only lens you would really ever need. It does defy the size of a small rangefinder, although benefits from the handsome Inspector Gadget matching external 35mm viewfinder. On the other hand...their handy little 35mm f2.5 Pancake Skopar a great step just to get moving at a low expense [and retain the 35mm framelines for whole frame viewing]. I still have kept my LTM version - it's just too handy and convenient to part with and its imaging qualities are very serviceable for Leica standards.
The Zeiss offerings of the f1.4 Distagon and the f2.8 Biogon remain my favourites for their contrast and rendering. The 35mm f1.4 Distagon remains fairly large in size, although the smaller vintage derived Biogon 35mm f2.8 design, remains effectively the same as its generational predecessor, with modern T* coating. I've returned to the post-war Zeiss Opton Biogon 35mm f2.8 (also coated, however not T*) - it's very unusual to find this in a LTM mount so I've switched back to the pre-war Contax and left the Leica M6 on the shelf ....
On the subject of Zeiss glass for a Leica M6, the 50mm f1.5 ZM Sonnar is a superb contemporary lens on a 1929 lens design (after Bertele) - definitely not as general purpose as a 35mm lens, although worth researching if you're after another M6 lens.
Enjoy shooting.
Kind regards,
RJ
I’ve been looking into purchasing a 35mm lens and have been aiming towards the area of summicron lens, Y ut what type? Could anyone tell me what distinguishes the M and R lenses together?
