Slightly Bewildered

Andysnap

Andysnap

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Andy Grant
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Morning all,

I have decided that I am in love with the Bessa R2 (the olive coloured one :love:) and so I am now saving up the pennies. Now, I could do with a few suggestions for lenses to go with said camera as there appears to be a bewildering array of M mount lenses and I am on a limited budget. I think I will have about £300-£350 to get both camera and a lens so any suggestions as to what makes are in my price range would be appreciated.

Ta very much :thumbs:

Andy
 
Andy

I am assuming you want a 50mm and/or a 35mm lens. You have the following options

1. Old Summicron M 50mm - the best Leica lens relative to the price . But still expensive.

2. CV 50mm lens - apparently very good, but possible less than Cron. Price wise, similar to a used and scruffy ( but fully functional summicron)

3. Leica LTM lens with an adapter - this is a pretty good compromise. The lens will be old; therefore less sharp and contrasty than a Cron, but still great lens and great value for money. Leica Summar is a very unusual lens - very old, very low contrast, but great for b/w portrait. Not very expensive.

4. Canon LTM lens - Canon LTM lens are good value for money.

Check out the Stephen Ghandy site, he has a good review of Leica old LTM and M lens in terms of quality, availability etc. ( BTW, arent the R2 body for about 200 quids, which means you have about 150 quids for lens? I think you might have to budget a bit more.)

Personally I would get a Summicron, even if I had to compromise on the body. (i.e I will get a Leica CL with the 40mm Summicron for about 350 quids)
 
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Thanks for the quick response Ujjwal. I had a feeling that I might struggle with both lens and camera for that amount so I may wait a while longer and get the best I can as I feel that the camera and I deserve the right lens.
Just one question though; what is the CV 50mm lens you mention?

Andy
 
If you can stretch your budget slightly I would recommend the CV 50 1.5 Nokton. It is my most used lens, it's fast so you can use slower films for higher quality, and the bokeh at 1.5-2 is very smooth (at least in my copy)

I skipped a 35 as it doesn't really seem that wide compared to the 50, my second lens is a 28. The CV lenses are very good, not far off the leica build quality, and about 1/5th of the price
 
Thanks Chris, its looking more and more expensive. OK it looks like I need to save for longer and curb my impatience to get the right lens.

Cheers

Andy
 
I have an L(M39) to Leica M adapter here Andy, also a spare M39 FED 50mm f/3.5. As long as you dont try to collapse the lens you should be good to go until you can afford something better... this lens is a copy of the 50mm f/3.5 Elmar, you are welcome to borrow both if you want.
 
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Andy, when you say right lens, what do you really mean though? ( not saying this as a criticism at all BTW :D)

I am a big equipment whore, but I have found that beyond a certain point there is not much of a difference between the various lens. A much bigger difference comes from the type of film and the processing and printing. ( Not counting the skill level, which of course is most important). I think the real cost of high quality film photography is in buying high quality films and processing them in high end labs.

There is a difference in look and feel of the Zeiss glass and the Leica glass - I personally love the colour and contrast of Zeiss. But even then the difference is subtle, which will be easily wiped out if you were using the Tesco films and developing them in a Tesco lab.

The reason I say this is, for me, I will not drop a whole load of cash on a very expensive glass, unless I am sure I definitely want it. For that decision, you might wish to experiment with a few leica glass first. MW classic allowed me to use some of their glasses for a day or 2 ( basically to shoot a roll) and then I returned the ones I didn't want and kept the one I wanted. It was a very cheap way for me to find out, for example, that I was not being able to use Summar properly ( my fault).

Of all the Leica glasses I have used, as I said, Summicron is the very best, both for M and R version. And Chris confirmed what I had heard before - the Nokton is ( at least, almost) as good.

( Again, none of these are criticism at all - just my observations- having bought, sold and lost a ton of money chasing the equipments :D)
 
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Andy, I recommend trying a Voigtlander lens first of all. I just looked at my favoured focal length and went for it - I'm very happy and don't desperately hanker after anything else. Mine is a 28mm f1.9 Ultron and I couldn't be happier with it to be honest. I bought it used from Ffordes Photographic whose service was excellent.

Cheers
ped
 
Ambermile said:
I have an L(M39) to Leica M adapter here Andy, also a spare M39 FED 50mm f/3.5. As long as you don;t try to collapse the lens you should be good to go until you can afford something better... this lens is a copy of the 50mm f/3.5 Sumicron, you are welcome to borrow if you want.
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Thanks Arthur I may take up your very kind offer. How would you compare the IQ of the 'Soviet' lens to the more expensive offerings from Leica etc?

ujjwaldey8165 said:
Andy, when you say right lens, what do you really mean though? ( not saying this as a criticism at all BTW :D)
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Hi Ujjwal,

By right lens I think I mean that I don't want to do my normal trick and buy something that in 3 months I'll want to upgrade, but as you say, at a certain point the glass doesn't matter quite so much which is why I nearly always get better film and have them deved professionally. I feel that if I get the camera (which in itself is not cheap) then it deserves to have a nice lens on the front, not least because I don't want to be disappointed with the results.

ped said:
Andy, I recommend trying a Voigtlander lens first of all. I just looked at my favoured focal length and went for it - I'm very happy and don't desperately hanker after anything else. Mine is a 28mm f1.9 Ultron and I couldn't be happier with it to be honest. I bought it used from Ffordes Photographic whose service was excellent.

Cheers
ped
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Thanks Ped, have looked at the Voigtlander lenses and they do look the biz and I would not discount them at all as they were designed by the same manufacturer as the camera.

So, a little more thought and a little more money required I think. Thanks for all the advice. :thumbs:

Cheers

Andy
 
Keep us up to date with it. I recently had the same dilemma with my R-D1 which is basically a Voigtlander body. I would like to see the camera when complete, too - I love those green Bessas!!

ped
 
Will do, but it could be a while yet, I have to save my pocket money up or get a paper round......:thinking:

Andy
 
Not sure my 49 year old knees and 87 year old heart could take it....

Andy
 
Andysnap said:
Thanks Arthur I may take up your very kind offer. How would you compare the IQ of the 'Soviet' lens to the more expensive offerings from Leica etc?
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No idea, can't afford a Leica one. 50 yr old eyes can't see much if any difference though ...
 
Ambermile said:
No idea, can't afford a Leica one. 50 yr old eyes can't see much if any difference though ...
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Okey doke, with you on both points there mate.
 
Cheeky youth, go to your room.... :bat::D
 
pepper said:
I'd do similar as others have said and go Russian for a lens for the time being with a screw adaptor! A jupiter 8 is a fantastic place to start.
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Just waiting on an ebay bid for a Jupiter 8. All I will then need is a camera and an adapter....:thinking:

Andy
 
Thanks Richard thats very kind of you but I'd be afraid to use it in case I dropped it....

Andy
 
Sounds just like me
 
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