Zeiss Hologon for Leica M

[Edi Weitz <weitz@math.uni-hannover.de>]

Hello everybody!

German photo company Schaja in Munich offers Carl Zeiss Hologon 8.0/16mm
lenses (currently in production for the Contax G1) that are modified to be
used with the Leica M mount. They're made up of 5 elements in 3 groups and
have an 106 degree angle of view. The price is DM 4798 for the lens plus DM
1790 for the modification. This includes the original full two year's
guarantee, an accessory viewfinder and a graded filter to compensate the
light fall-off at the edges. Like the old Hologon this lens cannot be used
with the M5 or CL Leicas and you cannot use the TTL meter of your M6
together with the lens. For the price of DM 1790 they'll also modify your
own G1 Hologon if you already have one.  

As far as I know the original Zeiss Hologon for M Leicas (was it 15mm?) was
produced only between 1973 and 1976 and only about 450 pieces were sold. 

If you want more information:

        Photo Classics Schaja
        Maximilianstr. 32
        D-80539 Munich  
        Germany
                
        Fax +49 089 292506

DISCLAIMER: Neither am I connected to any of the above-mentioned companies
nor did I ever use this lens. (I couldn't afford to buy it.) I just thought
this might be interesting to some members of this list. My apologies to the
experts if this is an old hat.

By the way - what do you have to pay if you want to buy one of these OLD
Hologons? And for those of you who already have it: Is such a super-wide
angle lens really of any use for a viewfinder camera? Just curious... 

Bye, Edi.