I’ve said this before about their other lenses which come non calibrated is that when you buy them you are also buying a problem not just a limitation. I feel the same here. On the one hand if you are comfortable range focusing it does open you up to shots closer than the typical .7m focusing distance on a range finder. But the 5.6 doesn’t give you enough room for error. If size is the issue then I’d recommend the Minolta M Rokkor 40mm f2 or the Orion 15 28mm f6. The Minolta can be had for around $300- $400 and is fundamentally Leica glass. The Orion can be had for well under $200 and is a very decent lens.
Interesting vid! I like how you focus on the more affordable lenses. I wouldn't put too much emphasis on the 0.3m thing... the fact that 0.7m is the usual minimum focal distance for Leicas becomes a non-issue if you aren't using the rangefinder, especially for film cameras (where light hitting the film at any angle has less of a tendency to cause colour shifts, etc.). It's the use of the rangefinder that normally limits you to 0.7m, not the camera / sensor. Loads of lenses focus down past 0.7m (particularly wide angles) but that's fine and the image isn't normally impaired, even if it does feel a bit weird trying to guess close distances below the normal 0.7m limit. The only exception is digital sensors on ultra wide angle lenses, like the Voigtlander 15mm.
What I see as a culprit here is that by focusing to longer than infinity that you accidentally close the lens. If there is no very good hard click stop at the infinity position, this could happen very easily. Instead of this styling, I personally would prefer the traditional chrome styling. I was able to zone focus with my Rollei 35 quite well which is also a 40 mm lens - not having rangefinder coupling here might still work okay. The Zeiss lens on the Rollei 35 had a longer focus ring with more distance points to select from though.
the only bad thing (exept the look, not a fan) i can think of is, if you have this as a zone focus style lens, it should really be a fixed f8 or f11 aperture to get a greater hyper focal range for street and fast pase shooting
I have you ever used the Voigtlander 35mm f/2.5? It's 1.25mm thicker at 23mm, but can, of course, also stop down. It's rendering is lovely and its quite sharp.
I got one of these at 70 usd in China, because the company is in my city. For the price and its quality , it's a real bargain. But I can not get used to its short focus range, got some out of focus photos after shooting.
Def lost interest in this one. Have you looked at the 7Artisans 35mm f2 Sonnar? It’s my favorite Chinese M Mount lens so far. They also make a non coupled version in Fuji-X and Sony-E mounts.
@@m66096 as Paul points out the MS optics in interesting, and you really should give the Orion 15 a real look. Matt Osbourne from Mr. Leica does a great review of it. I recently got one, though I own the Leica as well, and I was pretty impressed.
That's true. But from what I've seen of the lomo lens, this 7artisans lens is much better. Sharper etc. For the price of that lomo lens it seems like you might as well just get the actual camera. Way cheaper, and more accessories that can be added
So it's basically a toy and not something I would ever shoot on film. Fair enough for 200 I guess. Honestly I would have liked f8 if we cant even properly focus or have decent distance settings. Good honest video man.
I had high hopes for it being a good Leica fit, but without rangefinder coupling or more normal distance markings it really has a lot of areas where it could be improved.
Sounds like a terrible lens for a leica (because it literally doesn't work with it's focusing system) but honestly sounds like a decent lens for a sony or similar mirrorless system.
@@benjhaisch Agreed. First time I saw someone with an M6 I thought it was a cheap point and shoot. You can cover the red dot if you are really worried.
