Does anyone know if this lens materialized, as per Gandy's early info...? If so, anyone heard about it in use?

-- shawn (shawngibson_prophoto@yahoo.com), October 06, 2000

Answers

Shawn, I'm the one who gave Gandy the info on that lens. I had sent Cosina an e-mail question, and when they responded they told me they were coming out SOON with the 28mm f1.9 as well as a 90mm f3.5 in the Leica screw mount, and few other new lenses for the manual focus SLR cameras. No date was given, and I had a feeling it may be after the first of the year or a few months still.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), October 06, 2000.

Thanks Andrew, again...

I'll just have to wait and see, I guess. I've also heard that we (Canadians) are going to be getting a Voigtlander distributor soon, so maybe the 2 will co-incide...

-- shawn (shawngibson_prophoto@yahoo.com), October 06, 2000.

Shawn, I saw on the LUG site that the British photo magazine, "Amateur Photographer" has a review of the 12, 28 and 90mm Cosina lenses. I looked here in Florida, but we are about two weeks out of sync with the delivery of foreign magazines to our news stands. There was some mention of "first of the year", so that is probably true.

In the mean time I attached two web pages... one is press release, the other the standard Voightlander Bessa R, which now includes the 28 and 90.

Interestingly, there is now a 75mm f2.5 color heliar in SLR mount... for most of the standard cameras. News release:

http://www.cosina.com/Press%20release%201.htm

lenses:

http://www.cosina.com/lenses.htm

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), October 06, 2000.

This is really good news. Thanks Al. Why a black hood on a chrome lens though, Cosina?

-- shawn (shawngibson_prophoto@yahoo.com), October 06, 2000.

It is probably easier to build a totally black hood, (the inside HAS to be black to prevent light from bouncing around), then to make a two tone, silver and black.

My chrome Summicron had a black hood... I kind of like the contrast.

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), October 06, 2000.

hummm...I just realized this was coming from a guy (me) who has never owned a chrome lens. big duh on my part. The chrome Vgtlndr. lens hood on the cameraquest site are all chrome from what I could tell...and I assumed that was normal in the RF world.

ps I'm getting my CL a week today. Can't wait; the test roll came out fine. 28-50-90 here-I-come.

Now in what order? O these confounded decisions. I think I'll start with the...with the one which presents itself to me first! Prob'ly a Summicron 50mm f2.

-- shawn (shawngibson_prophoto@yahoo.com), October 06, 2000.

These lenses look very tasty I must say. I like their 75mm and 125mm SLR lenses - they have a look of the marvellous Contarex/Zeiss lenses of the 60s.

The 28 Ultron is very attractive - I wonder how it will compare with the 28 Summicron. I also wonder what the price is...I feel I might have to get one for my CL if it is a reasonable price (hang on didn't I want the 15mm Heliar?)

-- Robin Smith (rsmith@springer-ny.com), October 06, 2000.

Yeah, I agree...it's almost tempting to go 28, 50, 75 Cosina. I mean, the body (CL) is built in Japan, why bother pretending I'm rich? The proof would be in the pudding, though. Literally 99% of the pics in my portfolio are done with German glass (Zeiss), because they happen to be the ones I like the most...just noticed this over a drink the other day when a photog friend asked me what was what lens and body wise as we went through my photos. It almost blew me away. Out of 40 photographs, 37 were with German lenses, the rest were Nikon.

On that, I'm sure I'd see the difference b/t Leica and Cosina glass.

-- shawn (shawngibson_prophoto@yahoo.com), October 06, 2000.

Shawn,

You are really vacillating on the lens choice... just get them all, (ha! ha!). I suspect my percentages would be similar to yours if I could enjoy using my 90mm Leica lens. It is just a great lens, but I can't use it as effortlessly as my Nikon SLR with 105mm, (which is not too shabby either).

I think the key is... use what you CAN use. The sharpest most contrasty lens on the least ergonomic package won't produce as well as a pretty good lens on a camera / lens combo that you are truly "one" with. My Leica is a bit better than my Nikon when I use a 35 or 50mm lens, but I get better pictures with my Nikon for longer lenses... regardless of the potential advantage of the 90mm Leica lens. For me, the handling is part of the formula. It doesn't show up on a MTF graph... but it is important.

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), October 06, 2000.

Curiouser and curiouser...

Here's a Japanese company using a German name to market lenses which can be used on German and Japanese Cameras... all advertised on a Polish web server!

-- Tse-Sung Wu (tsesung@yahoo.com), October 07, 2000.

I'm very encouraged that the new 28 appears to have a decent tread on the focus ring--the indentations on the 35/1.7 are so shallow as to be purely decorative--I'm still trying to figure out how to hang a tab on mine so there's something to hold onto!

-- Michael Darnton (mdarnton@hotmail.com), October 07, 2000.

For anyone who is interested, I just got back an e-mail from Cosina. The 28mm f1.9 will be available in January 2001. Also if your interested, the 75mm color heliar lens for SLR mount is optically identical to the RF version, modified in the lens body to be used on SLR's

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), October 09, 2000.

I had a close up look at these lenses whilst at photokina, they were not available to the general public however. They both looked lovely and the test picture I took with the 28 was wonderfully crisp, (the 90mm shot suffered from camera shake). The 28 is in fact the fastest lens of that focal length ever made for rangefinder cameras, just. Availability from late this year here in the UK. Jem Kime

-- Jem Kime (jem.kime@cwcom.com), October 18, 2000.

Voigtlander have the Japanese practice of giving having weird maximum apertures, probably just to be apparently faster than the Summicron 28mm. I very much doubt that the lens really is f1.9 (just as many reflex f1.8 lenses are more likely f2 in reality). Leica and Zeiss have never really entered into that numbers game. Isn't it a bit like having a price of 29.95 which sounds less than 30?

-- Robin Smith (rsmith@springer-ny.com), October 19, 2000.

I like whole number f-stops unless I am using a stepless shutter. If my exposure is determined to be 1/15th at f2.8, and I want to go faster for hand holding, my next speed is 1/30th at f2.0. My automatic SLR's can go "in-between" speeds steplessly, so there may be some benefit to those fractions. But I think Robin is correct, a one point..."something" is more exciting than 2.0 as far as marketing.

There is some redeeming qualities to Cosina's honesty though. They could have called their 50mm lens a 1.4 rather than a 1.5, which is more universally understood and desirable. In a 1994 test, the M series 50mm Sumilux was tested by "Popular Photography" as being f1.5... a result argued by hard core Leica people, but math is math, and the F-stop is determined by simple division. But in real life, you would never see a 0.1 exposure difference on film... the shutter aren't that accurate on the "M's" anyhow.

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), October 19, 2000.