[Leica] 50mm ZM C-Sonnar

[wanderjan at gmail.com (Jan Decher)]

Phil,
I fully second what you wrote.  It is amazing to what length some people on
this list go to make folks who don't buy into the overpriced Leica hype and
opt to use Zeiss ZM or Cosina lenses or a Zeiss ZM or Cosina Voigtlander
body instead feel inferior.
I use the Biogon 2.8/35 and 4.5/21mm  and am very happy with the build
quality and amazed by the optical quality.  C-Sonnar 1.5/50 and Tele-Tessar
4/85 are on my short list.
Note to Chris:  the C-Sonnar is widely available at well-known US
retailers, except for a temporary bottleneck in delivery due to the Tsunami
in Japan last year.
Jan

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Phil Forrest <photo.forrest at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Leica] 50mm ZM C-Sonnar
Really? ZM vs Zeiss semantics in a LUGger's For Sale post? That's BS
Mark. The glass is every bit as good as the best Zeiss designs and the
50mm Sonnar shows it. All the Zeiss offerings do. Before this current
iteration of Zeiss it was Kyocera who had dominion over the company.
Some lenses were made in Germany (as some of the current stable are as
well) and those lenses for Contax SLR mount were absolutely top class
designs and implementations.
They aren't just ZM lenses. ZM is specifically for Leica M mount. they
have also been made for Nikon S mount, Nikon F mount, Pentax K mount,
Canon EOS mount and I may have missed one or two off the top of my head.
If it's not Zeiss glass as you claim how does a 21mm or 28mm ZM lens
perform at the same level or better than the current Leica designs?
"Zeiss" glass doesn't matter in that case. It could be plastic Holga
glass for all the people who actually make photographs with their
lenses care over those pontificating about how Leica or old
Zeiss or Schneider or whoever's lenses were the best...
Phil Forrest