3.5 Heliar 50mm vs Modern Leica lens

[henri_straat]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone had experience with one of these - the one that

Steve Gandy gave rave reviews about, as well as the Popular Photography

magazine.

 

I have the chance to pick up one that has been parted from its original Bessa

body. I wanted to match it with my Leica IIIf, because I prefer shooting in

strong lighting conditions and my old red elmar - as beautiful as it is, just

can't handle the strong back lighting that it is faced with. The flare is out

of control and the hood just doesn't do it.

 

I really want to try the combination of my old Leica with excellent modern

optics, especially optics that are up to par with a modern Leica lens.

 

Does anyone know whether the coatings on this lens are equal with the modern

elmar 2.8 M? Especially for shooting in high contrast conditions? I will be

shooting only outside, stopping down to F8, 11, 16 in a place with strong

sunshine.

 

Thankyou for any information with this as it would be much appreciated.

 

Henri

[kentish_townie]

Henri,

 

Isn't the Heliar a Nikon rangefinder mount? I'm not expert on this, and will no doubt be

corrected if I'm wrong, but I don't think that this will work on your Leica.

[michael s.]

Actually, Cosina-Voigtlander has made a number of modern lenses it calls "Heliar" available in ltm.

 

But I can't answer Henri's question about the lens. I can say the modern Elmar 50mm f/2.8 was my first, and for quite some time my only lens for my rangefinder. And I agree: it's just excellent.

[Troll]

Lucky you!<P>Please report back whether the lens is really as good as Pop Photography said.

[jtdnyc]

Here's Erwin's comarison of the Heliar and the Elmar:

 

http://www.imx.nl/photo/voigtlander/voigtlander_cosina_lens_hel.html

[james_cooke]

Its an excellent lens. It was available in both Leica thread mount with T101 kits and Nikon Rangefinder mount with the Nikon Historical Society Bessa S. There were 2000 made in LTM and 500 in Nikon S mount. Its classic look and being collapsible makes it perfect for an older thread mount Leicas. It is a modern high quality 50mm lens in every sense of the word. Flare resistant and sharp at all apertures. In fact stopping it down from wide open doesn't increase performance all that much its so good wide open. It is superior to the 50mm Elmar but its also slightly slower. Its probably the finest 50 you could get for your old Leica. Dislikes? I would have to say that its a bit too high contrast for my liking but others like that quality so you may as well. It does have that 3D look you often see in Leica and Zeiss lenses. If you can get it at a good price go for it. Popular Photography said it was one of the best Lenses they have ever tested. Well its not overly hard to make a good 50mm lens let alone a slow one like this but still that shouldnt detract that it is a great lens.

[maddoc]

I had this lens (as part of the Bessa T-101 years kit) but sold it together with the kit. Nice lens but the aperture ring didn't really click-stop so I had to check for correct aperture setting all the time and finally gave up.

[jari]

I have a Nikon S-mount version of it with Bessa R2S body. Some sample shots are at my Flickr-page <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jsuominen/sets/72157601634391881/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/jsuominen/sets/72157601634391881/</a>

[henri_straat]

Thankyou for all of the wonderful response!

 

The article by Erwin Puts was very interesting and has swayed my decision towards the Heliar as opposed to the 2.8 Elmar. I plan to purchase it over the coming week,

 

Thanks again,

Henri