[Leica] 15 mm cosina

[Summicron1@aol.com]

Somebody said:
>Great images but doesnt focus to infinity on a M-6

That's strange, it does on my M2. It's a standard L39 lens with no rf
coupling and works fine on an M adaptor - I use an old 135/35 one. It's
amazingly good *for the money*, and surprisingly free of any gross
distortion. Vignettes a bit - maybe 1/2 stop - but that's hardly
surprising. The supplied viewfinder is truly excellent, by any standards,
but lacks a frame. I use this lens more than I thought I would.


I couldn't agree more.

There seems to be a bunch of people on this list determined to damn the 15 mm 
voigtlander by either faint praise or outright misinformation. Mine focuses 
fine at infinity, has a LOT less light fall-off on the edges than I thought 
and that mostly when used wide-open.

I have before me an 8 by 10 print of the Double Arch (the one at the start of 
the third Indiana Jones movie) formation taken at Arches National Park on 
Ilford XP-2, shot at sunset when the whole formation is in shadow and back 
lit. The shadow detail, from light areas to dark, covering about 3 f-stops in 
difference, is excellent, the tonal range is very good (part of that is the 
film, i admit) the image is sharp edge-to-edge and, yes, it is focused at 
infinity. A beam of sunlight showing through the arch and hitting a wall of 
sandstone doesn't glow or flare, buth olds its detail nicely.

I was using it on an M-3, by the way, but also use the lens on my CL.

There is some stretching distortion from the lens especially around the outer 
1/3, the "egg-shaped" distortion you get with any super-wide. Shooting people 
it is a bit obvious, but on landscapes it doesn't show at all. Like any 
lens/tool, you have to know how and when to use it.

How can a good lens be so cheap? If I were Leica I would be worried because I 
think Cosina is trying to muscle in on their territory -- they have an 
automatic rangefinder body coming out -- and is trying to steal market share 
by selling lenses cheap. Which may be good, Leica/Solms probably need some 
competition to make them get a little more customer-aware and price 
sensitive. They've had a free ride for too long. 

In the meantime, I got a good lens cheap. It goes nicely on my CL along with 
my 25mm Canon and other stuff. 

But it doesn't say Leica on it, and I didn't have to mortgage the house to 
buy it, so it must not be any good, right?

charles Trentelman
Ogden, "I can go to Arches Any Time I Want", Utah