[Leica] Any opinions/experience with the Zeiss 4/18mm?

[leowesson at gmail.com (leo wesson)]

Nathan,

It will be interesting to see how going back to an M will change your
photography!  Enjoy.
Bid of advice:  buy the 15 CV and take the money you saved and get some golf
clubs; after all you live on a course.

Leo (who was playing in wind so stiff today that the ball kept blowing the
ball off the tee)





On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 11:55 PM, Nathan Wajsman <photo@frozenlight.eu>wrote:

> Since this is a Leica list, I expect people will be pleased to learn that I
> have decided that M8 prices have fallen sufficiently to buy one some time
> during the next few months. So I am thinking of lenses to use with it.
> Clearly, a 35mm will serve as a standard lens, but what to use for wide
> angle? The various 21mm offerings are not wide enough for me; they 
> translate
> into 28mm in film terms, and that is a focal length I never got comfortable
> with. To me, it is neither fish nor fowl: not wide enough to really capture
> the big expanse but too wide to use for, say, se?orita photos, without
> getting so close that you get slapped in the face.
>
> Leica's own WATE or whatever is called is too expensive and I have no need
> for all 3 focal lengths. The 15mm lenses from Voigtlander and Zeiss are not
> rangefinder coupled. I know that they have great DOF so focusing is not
> critical, but still I want rangefinder coupling.
>
> From what I see out there, the 4/18mm Zeiss M lens seems to fit the bill,
> both in terms of focal length (corresponds to 24mm, one of my favorite 
> focal
> lengths when I was shooting film) and in terms of reasonable price (KEH has
> one at the moment for just under $1000). But is it any good? I have read
> Erwin's write up on the ZM lenses, and it is quite positive. But when he
> wrote it, he did not have this particular lens.
>
> Anybody out there using the 18mm?
>
> Nathan
>
> Nathan Wajsman
> Alicante, Spain
>
>