21mm Super Angulon

Tom A said:
Interesting, mine is 2917099! this is from the last batch of S-A that Schneider made for Leica. Did you get the correct hood for it?
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Tom, How Cool is that... aside from You & Eric sharing the 21st of August :)

The lens comes w/ hood
If I do not use the Hood is Flare & Vignetting more Dramatic ?

Best to You- H
 
Helen, I advice you to use the hood - a/ the front element is virtually impossible to replace (shudder to think of the cost) and b/ because it is a wide angle, stray light from the edges can flare the image a bit.
It is a lens that works well both with "soft" contrast films and also with very "punchy" black/whites (Jean Loup Sieff style). Try to find a red or orange filter for it as that will give a truly dramatic look.
I will shoot some more with mine, once we are back on April 1. Sooner or later the weather will improve and picture taking will be less of a dodging the shower sport than it is today.
Oh, Helen, somewhere there is a collector going nuts right now - sequentially numbered S-A's and the last batch at that! Hope he has nightmares!
 
Tom, if Schneider made the Super Angulons did they just make the glass and Leitz made the mounts or did Schneider make the entire thing for Leitz?
 
Not to speak for Tom, but generally yes, Pan-F is punchier than TX (though dev techniques can change that) ... Another softish film is FP-4, as is APX 100.
 
"Soft contrast " films would be XX and Tri X (though depending on the developer to some extent). Older emulsions as a rule have a bit longer tonal range - but also more grain.
Modern T grain films like Tmax and newer emulsions like NP 400 Presto and the Acros 100 has the "look" of more bite to it. It is highly subjective and very much depends on your developer, your exposure etc.
Al/ Schneider made the 21/3,4 for Leica - I dont know to what extent it was assembled by them and supplied ready or they only shipped the lens cluster though. Judging from the construction though (aperture ring, lens barrel design etc) I suspect that they were shipped ready made to Leica, checked at the factory and packaged in Leica boxes - somewhat similar to the Zeiss Hologon 15f8 in the late 60's and early 70's.
 
Thanks Tom. I always wondered about the Super Angulon's parentage, and I guess I still do. I came near to getting divorced because of my lust for a Hologon when they first hit the market. I'm glad that I waited the 35 years or so until the Heliar hit the market. The few test shots I did with a friend's Hologon really weren't that compelling.
 
Al, I agree. I had two of the original Hologon's. One for 6-8 month when it came out in the early 70's - late 60's. Interesting lens, but very impractical. F8 as the widest (and only f-stop) and f18 if you didn't want solid black corners. Not useful for editorial/press work!
Later I picked up a used one (early 90's0 - rather pitiful state, but it only confirmed my past experiences with it).
It is a hyper focal lens and really does not focus to infinity. It has some use for doing architectural models and "drama" shots.
The Heliar is optically a better lens as it will focus and also give you a choice of apertures. The, new, coupled one also has an advantage as it will take 52mm filters and is coupled. AS most Nikon F users - I have a box full of 52 mm filters, left over from the 70's-80's. I think there is even a "star" filter among them. Remember those! OK, that on a 15 would distort the world view substantially!
The ZM 15f2.8 is impressive for its speed, size and price! Performance is very good, but at that price - it should have been coupled!
 
No, even at $4000+ the ZM 15f2.8 lacks rangefinder coupling. In general use it probably doesn't matter - but if you were to use it on a M8 or a RD1 it now becomes a 21 or 24mm - and this is were coupling becomes an issue. This is critical for close up stuff - and you be surprised how much of that you will do with a 15! Even at f4.5 and close in (say 0.6-0.7 m) you will see "fuzziness" creeping into the distance at f4.5. Shooting medium to infinity no problem - but in close - watch out.
I am looking forward to trying the coupled 15 next week in Japan - not with a M8/RD1 - but with my M2/R4M instead. Always liked it in the uncoupled version, but the 52mm filter and the coupling makes it even more attractive.
I have shot with the 15f2.8 and it is impressive, but big and for that kind of money - I can buy a lot of film (and a coupled 15f4.5 too).
 
fbf said:
no worries. It's common. same here....:D
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People like you sell and make people like me happy I have 2 one black and one chrome, do u have any more guys :D
I'm actually looking for a dirty black one (with clean lenses) for taking pictures.
 
Tom, I never learn. I've been married and divorced since then also...LOL Yes, i remember all of those cool Starburst, Rayburst, etc. filters that Spiratone used to sell! I miss Spiratone! If you go to my blog http://thepriceofsilver.blogspot.com and look at the post for March 1, 2009 there's a color shot of the Barry College chapel made with one of those filters but I'm not sure exactly which one. Someplace around I have a whole bunch of strange 58mm filters of that vintage. I should look for them and have some real fun with the 15.
 
Even Hasselblad succumbed to these! I had a whole box full of various strange optical filters for that kit. Remember the Softars? I had the 1,2 and 3 of those for my 100f3.5. I once asked Victor Hasselblad about them and he said "OK, if the subject is less than 20, no Softar, 20 to 30 Softar 1, 30-40 Softar 2 and 40-50 Softar 3. Beyond 50 - all three stacked and kick the tripod!
 
I had a couple of genuine Softars for my Hasselblad and a couple of Spiratone diffusion filters in bayonet I for my Rollei T and Minolta Autocord. I thought that the Spiratones gave just as nice an effect as the Zeiss made Softars and they were a fraction of the price.
 
Well, there was a very nice chrome f3.4 with the hood and finder on evil-Bay but I got outbid. I feel depressed! Prices for this lens seem very high at the moment and I'm going to keep my Super-Angulon-lust at bay.
 
Al Kaplan said:
you also might check out the 19mm f/3.5 Canon in LTM if you run across one. It has a signature very similar to the f/3.4 Super Angulon.
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I was out with my new 19mm F3.5 Canon FL yesterday, shooting XX with M2. That -is- a great combo, the Canon is a nice alternative to the Super Angulon F3.4, which I have considered, but costs have always put me off. With a finder, the SA would be double what I paid for the Canon, with a finder. And as Al says, the two lenses do have similar "looks" to them. I'm using mine, via the Canon Lens Mount Converter B, and a Leitz M adapter ring.

The 19mm finder really wants to scratch my eyeglasses. May put something over the eyepiece. It's a very fun lens to use for Sunny 16 photography, in fact I'm taking it out again today, to finish off this roll. :)
 
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