Want to purchase a quality wide angle for a IIIc.Have a 90/4 Elmar, 50/3.5 Elmar and a Jupiter(Russian)35/2.8 which is useable but not great. Leaning towards the Skopar 25/4 as a middle ground wide angle. Planning on keeping the Jupiter but would sell if convinced to buy say the 35/2.5 Skopar. For general photograpic work. Curious what everybody thinks is the single most useful wide angle.

-- Gerald Widen (gerald@sfa1.com), April 09, 2001

Answers

With the wonderful little 50&90 Elmar lenses you already have and use, a Summaron 35mm/f:3.5 would be perfect to replace the Jupiter.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), April 09, 2001.

I would get the Skopar in your shoes (although it is slow). 35mm is not really a wide angle at all and there is not much there that is affordable at 28mm (which would be my favorite focal length for w/a), so I would get the Skopar - the bad thing about it is that it is not rangefinder coupled - but on a IIIc this may not be such a big deal.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), April 09, 2001.

Hi, Bill. The 90 and 50 I have are pretty good, and I'm sure were the best lenses in their day but IMO really don't compare to the best lenses today expecially in color saturation and to lesser degree sharpness. From what I've read and heard the Voitlander lenses are as good as any lens made up to about 1990 and are a fraction of the price. A 35mm lens would however be a good lens to carry with me most of the time. Having trouble deciding which wide focal length.

-- Gerald Widen (gerald@sfa1.com), April 09, 2001.

The problem with buying the Cosina lenses is you'll probably end up wanting and buying their longer lenses as well, and finally the Bessa R body, since all of them benefit from more modern technology and are better performers than the LTM bodies/lenses of 50 years ago. My IIIa and IIIf have been retired to the display case (just take them out to work them and keep them from freezing up) but if I were determined to use them I would want to keep the lenses "all in the family". The Summaron 28/5.6 was a nice lens for its day, ditto the 21/4 S/A.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), April 09, 2001.

Eventhough I own an Nikon N80 with an array of lenses, I enjoy and spend most of my time with the IIIc. I want a Cosina lens because I think it gives me the best cost/quality ratio. Those older Leica screw wides are very expensive and not up to todays standards. Still leaning toward the 25/4 Cosina or other focal length from them

-- Gerald Widen (gerald@sfa1.com), April 09, 2001.

I know they are expensive, but a truly great lens is the limited production run of 35mm Asph Summicrons that Leica came out with in screwmount a couple of years back. I'm a wide-angle kind of guy and use this lens for 95% of my shooting. I too had a Jupiter, and also found it not bad, but lacking primarily flare control. Since so much of my shootng is wide, and since my camera is a near perfect, overhauled IIIg that I use for all of my street shooting, I figured that if I really want to make top notch photographs, I should have the lens that would give me the goods, so to speak. I've managed to get a number of images in the last year that would have been impossible with the Jupiter, or older screwmount lenses, and for this reason I feel the money was well spent.

-- Bob Todrick (bobtodrick@yahoo.com), April 09, 2001.

The 25 is a really nice lens and I get surprised by the results whenever I use it. And you get a decent finder as well. I had a 28mm wide that was finder coupled and found I ended up scale focusing it anyway. The 25mm is perfect size for the smaller Leica screw mount cameras (I use mine on a CLE and it is also a nice match)

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), April 09, 2001.

I'd have a tough time deciding between the two newest Voightlanders, both RF-coupled: the 21mm f4 and the 28mm f1.9. Since you don't already have a fast lens for your IIIc, perhaps the latter should come first! As for that "keep it all in the family" stuff, why not leave that sort of thing to the Gambinos......

-- david kelly (dmkedit@aol.com), April 10, 2001.

I used 2.0 /35 Summicron LTM (demo); 2.8/35 Zeiss Biogon LTM; 2,8/35 Topcon LTM; 1.8/35 Canon LTM; 3.5/35 Summaron LTM (coated); 5.6/28 Summaron; 2.8/35 Jupiter LTM; 3.5/35 Summaron LTM (uncoated).

The best is 2.0/35 Summicron, the worst are 3.5/35 Summaron LTM uncoated & 2.8/35 Jupiter LTM (low contrast and flare).

2,8/35 Topcon is so sharp as 2.0/35 Summicron and 2.8/35 Zeiss Biogon.

1.8/35 Canon, 3.5/35 Summaron (coated), and 5.6/28 Summaron are same in its sharpness. The last two are very sharp on small f-stop (1/11- 1/22).

I agree with Bob Todrick, ASPH Summicron 2.0/35 LTM is the best, and simultaneously allows keep it in the family.

-- Victor Randin (www.ved@enran.com.ua), April 10, 2001.

Gerald. A really good 28mm lens for you to consider is the Kobalux 28/ 3.5. About $400 and comes with finder, shade and M adaptor, is multi- coated and gives excellent results. It is a tiny little thing that looks just right on a 111c. Available from Adorama

-- Steve LeHuray (icommag@toad.net), April 10, 2001.

I just noticed that there is a new 21mm f4 Skopar too in LTM due to appear soon. That might be nice too. Again (sigh) not rangefinder coupled, presumably to keep the cost down.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), April 10, 2001.

Robin: according to Stephen Gandy's site, both the new 21mmf4 Skopar and the 28mmf1.9 asp Ultron from voigtlander are rangefinder coupled.........

-- david kelly (dmkedit@aol.com), April 10, 2001.

According to the British Journal of Photography the 21/4 is not r/f coupled. The picture they showed of it in the magazine it looked very similar to the 25mm so it looks right for being non-coupled, but I don't know for certain. The 28mm is r/f coupled according to BJP.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), April 10, 2001.

Robin, and Gerald : Gandy sells them, is now taking orders for them, says not only that the new 21f4 Skopar is RF coupled but that his price is only $375 including finder! Pix elsewhere on the site show it in chrome, too. I devoutly hope the BJP is out to lunch on this one. Gandy's Voigtlander price list is at: http://www.cameraquest.com/invento

-- david kelly (dmkedit@aol.com), April 10, 2001.

David funny, I just ordered from Stephen Gandy about an hour ago a 25/4 including hood,caps and finder for $295 including shipping. Figured the 25 was a good middle ground wide and I wasn't worried about not rangrfinder coupled,it is a tad slow though.

-- Gerald Widen (gerald@sfa1.com), April 10, 2001.

the dread greenspun cutoff bug struck again: that was supposed to be: http://www.cameraquest.com/inventor.htm..................

-- david kelly (dmkedit@aol.com), April 10, 2001.

I was keeping an eye out for the 28 f1.9, but now I think it may be too big of a lens to feel right on my compact CLE. I shot a bunch with the 25 recently and confirmed to myself that it is of very high quality and totally flare resistant, and that it does not need to be finder coupled at all to get sharp images.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), April 11, 2001.