I use an Olympus slr with a 40mm. Because of the focal length and the compactness. I am going to buy a rangefinder to have next to this and wonder if Leitz has 40 mm's? Only one I heard of is the CL(E) 40 mm. Will this fit on the M7, crazy? What will I see in the finder? Opinions, thanks, Machiel

-- Machiel Botman (machiel.botman@worldonline.nl), April 08, 2002

Answers

Check out Stephen Gandy's CameraQuest website. Scroll down to CL & CLE.

-- Bert Keuken (bkkn@wanadoo.nl), April 08, 2002.

Machiel, the 40 mm Rokkor for CLE will fit very well on the M7. I have both. You will get the usual 50/75 framelines in the finder, so you will have to mentally adjust your composition. But everyhing else works fine. And, by the way, the 40 M Rokkor is a tremendous lens. As for Cameraquest site on the CLE, they did a wonderful job. It's comprehensive, informative and enjoyable. But be aware that you may experience different results in terms of Leica-CLE lens compatibility than what they publish. This, I suppose, depends on years and models of the same lenses.

-- Olivier Reichenbach (olreiche@videotron.ca), April 08, 2002.

I had a CL and the compact Summicron-C 40/2 lens. This is an excellent lens, short and compact with beautiful imaging signature. I'm not sure which framelines it brings up on the M series cameras ... either of 35mm or 50mm would be sensible ... but I sometimes wish I hadn't sold it when I upgraded from the CL to the M6TTL.

-- Godfrey (ramarren@bayarea.net), April 08, 2002.

The 40's can be modified to bring up the 35mm lines if you wish. The CLE's 40 is my favorite, as it is fully multicoated and uses the same cam profile as the standard M lenses. I use my 40 on my M3 and just "shoot loose" on the 50 lines and framing has not been an issue. The last generation 35 Summicrons are also very compact, but cost more than double what the 40's go for.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), April 08, 2002.

As usual, I join Andrew Schank in praising the virtues of the 40mm M-Rokkor for CLE. Not only is it a great performer (very sharp & nice boke, if you're into that sort of thing--here's an example of a shot where I cropped away approx. 60% of the original negative) & reasonably priced, it's also small & light. An excellent lens all around & a perfect travel lens for the M3 (field of view is approx. the same as the entire VF, i.e., including the area outside the 50mm frame).

-- Chris Chen (Wash., DC) (furcafe@NOSPAMcris.com), April 08, 2002.

My favorite focal length! I wish the Ms has a 40mm frame. I agree with all the others: the 40mm Rokkor CLE version is superb and a great price. I sold mine when I got the M6 as I like accurate framing.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), April 09, 2002.