OM2n vs Leica M or Pentax LX

[User_502260]

I don't use any Leica equipment but I have used many of the other types discussed in this thread. My Pentax K equipment in these focal lengths includes a 28/2.8 M, a 50/1.7 M, a 50/1.4 Sears (Ricoh), a 55/1.8 SMC Pentax, a bunch of 50/2 M lenses, a 135/3.5 M and a 135/2.5 Takumar Bayonet. The 50/1.4 Sears lens hasn't been used much. There were two versions of the 28/2.8 M lens. I'm not sure which version I have but the results are good. My favorite standard lens is the 55/1.8 SMC Pentax. Both 135s are good but the Takumar Bayonet needs to be stopped down a little.

 

I don't have an original Zuiko 28 yet. My two 28s are a Vivitar 28/2.5 Fixed Mount which is excellent and a Tokina EL 28/2.8 which seems fine. I also have a 35/2.8 which I need to test. The 50/1.8 black front is very good. Also very good are the 50/3.5 and the 100/2.8. My results with the 135/3.5 have been good too.

 

I have many Minolta MC lenses and I wrote about some of them a few years ago for CameraShopper. The 35/2.8 keeps having the same problem. Oil migrates from the helicoid to the aperture blades. When it is working properly is it a nice sharp compact lens. For a general purpose 35 I like the 35/1.8 MC. Both fast and slow MC lenses are very nice. Focusing in dim light is easier with the 28/2.5 but the 28/3.5 is also very good. On a sunny day I like to carry the slow lenses.

 

Color rendition is a tricky issue. I have to believe that most people who talk about it are shooting slide film. The differences are much harder to discern with color print film because the negatives are filtered when they are printed. One of my favorite lenses is a 35/2 Canon FD S.S.C. with the concave front element. I haven't given it the UV treatment so it has a yellow cast. I use it for b&w print film and color print film. It is extremely sharp and the yellow cast does not show up on prints made from color negatives. For people who scan color negatives, the exact color rendition of a lens shouldn't be a big issue either. It isn't bad to know what your color rendition might be on slide film but if you aren't using slide film it shouldn't be a deciding factor.

[tekkie]

If you don't like the rangefinder experience, then go for it. Personally, I think that I'd keep it

and buy an Olympus body/ lens for not so much $. This was mentioned earlier. I just sold my

Minolta 9 (which I loved) for a Nikon D200, but I am struggling to part with my M6TTL. It

makes you think and compose in a different way and the Leica optics are suberb and much

sharper than the Olympus. I found the Olympus lenses variable, but having said that, I

bought a lens for my son recently and it put my Minolta to shame.

 

The Olympus body was the best for me. Aperture and shutter adjustment is so

instinctive......but don't lose the Leica yet.

[richard jepsen]

Dan, I just returned from a short trip to Santa Fe, NM. The Leica stayed home as I can't justify the cost of a M mount wide angle and my Minolta 28mm f/3.5 is a flat field, well corrected optic. I do wish my current equipment was as small and light as the M.

 

At the Andrew Smith Gallery I inspected a couple of Michael Kenna's B&W prints. Seeing unmounted prints from Kenna and Paul Caponigro make me realize as much as I desire the contrast control digital provides I have not seen a digital print which looks as deep and rich as silver gelatin examples from the two photographers mentioned above. For color digital seems to equal film but I'm still hooked on B&W since developing my first print 26 years ago.

 

"Art is distortion in favor of truth. B&W is less like life at the surface but more like life at the core." -- Robert Adams

[gerard_canavate]

Keep the Leica and buy OM gear : it's so cheap these days...

[dave_bernard]

Olympus was the first out with a petite SLR in the very early 70s, but the other makers saw the writing on the wall. If a compact SLR is your goal, also consider Pentax MX or even Nikon FMx family, all roughly the same size as the OM, give or take.

 

Lens are a little different matter- focal length for focal length, Oly's lenses tend to be smaller and lighter (and arguably less tough) than the Nikons, for example