Hi there,

Dose anyone how to work m3 with a 35mm lens? What about use Cosina 35mm finder?

-- Gino (mhcgino@yahoo.com), June 21, 2001

Answers

Gino, if you have not yet purchased a 35mm lens, you can get one (used) made for the M3. It has an optical viewing unit attached to it, which allows the camera's finder to show the 35mm field. There are Summiluxes (f/1.4), Summicrons(f/2.0), and Summarons (f/2.8) out there with these "goggles" or "eyes" attached.

If you already have a 35mm lens, you can use any 35mm or variable finder in the camera's accessory shoe.

Regards,

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), June 21, 2001.

Gino,

Look through this old thread. it has the same question, plus a lot of answers and opinions.

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=128965

I used googled 35mm lenses when I was using the M3. To me, it was a bit bulkier than I liked for an M body, so I eventually moved to the M2 and M4 so I could use the lens only. Back in those days, there was no Cosina / Voigtlander and the real Leica 35mm finders were hard to find and very expensive. If the Voigtlander option was there for me, I would have tried it. By all accounts, the finders are pretty good.

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), June 21, 2001.

Gino,

I am sorry for the above link. IT IS THE WRONG ONE! Below is the correct link for the 35mm lens on M3 information.

I have to remember... coffee first, and then computer.

http://greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=003zaS

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), June 21, 2001.

My pick for a 35mm on an M3 is the 35f2.8 Summaron. Its a top notch performer, and fairly compact. The problem with any of the lenses with eyes is that the eyes get foggy after 40 years and are expensive to have cleaned. I took mine half apart myself and cleaned most of the dirty film out, but to get at the last few surfaces requires breaking glue and re-alligning the whole thing -beyond my tinkering skill level! People have mentioned about the view being distorted from the eyes and I really don't find the view too bad now that I cleaned most of the fog out. The images from my Summaron have great color and contrast with nice bokeh on the backrounds. Sharpness is up there very close to the Summicron. One advantage to the lenses with eyes is it leaves the flash shoe vacant for flash or a meter. Those lenses with eyes also focus very close (about .6 meters)with full parralax correction, and of course you can focus and compose in the same finder.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), June 21, 2001.

I used a Kiev 35mm finder on mine with the 2.8 Summaron. Very nice, but I hated having to remove my MR meter each time. In the end I decided I don't like separate viewfinders. I have tried the goggles 35mm and like them too, but the lenses are an awkward size and shape for any bag. The Cosina finder would work fine. Some people guesstimate bearing in mind that the extreme edge of the v/f is approx the 35mm field of view. I found this difficult if you wear glasses.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), June 21, 2001.

The nice thing about the 35mm lenses with goggles, is that the projected frame line shows 100% of the image at infinity.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), June 21, 2001.

Hi, Gino:

M3 with Summaron with goggles is my experience. Very nice lens. Small, good looking (to me, of course), not that heavy and very sharp. I have had NO problems with the "eyes" so far though the lens is older than 40 year. The viewfinder works great with them: clear and contrasty though I have read of problems on both respects from other readers in this group. In short: I love it. I own only one other 35mm, a Nikon in my FM2n SLR and like the Summaron's images the better. Same as sharp as the Nikon´s (not to be said here) or better but with the light quality some call "magic" and which I call "pleasant" only. But special . . .

Regards, Gino.

-- Iván Barrientos M (ingenieria@simltda.tie.cl), June 23, 2001.

Here's something you can try. Cut a piece of black electrician's tape about an inch and a half long. Place the tape on the top of the cM3 over the center frame window. Have the tape extend out far enough so that when pushed down, it will cover the frame window.

Now, when you are using the 35, push the tape down over the frame window. This will cause all the frames to disappear leaving the window only. The outer edges of the window just about match the scene taken in by the 35. If you wear glasses, it won't work because you won't be able to see the edge of the frame.

This approach permits you to keep the MR meter mounted when using the 35.

-- Bud (budcook@attglobal.net), June 30, 2001.