Orion-15 28mm f/6

Zarya (Sunrise) FED, Orion15, ILFORD HP5 Plus 400 (as 250)

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David Murphy said:
Surveying eBay, it looks as if a good Orion-15 will run about $215-$250 these days. However another $75 - $100 will also purchase a decent Canon 28/3.5, and a just a bit more money can purchase an Avenon/Kobalux 28/3.5. These are all quite compact 28 LTM's, that are not particularly fast.

The Canon has arguably similar optical quality to the Orion, but the Avenon is undoubtedly a superior lens by any technical metric (based on my direct experience with it and the Canon). Both the Avenon and Canon are also more than a stop faster than the Orion as well.

Therefore it begs the question: Is the Orion-15 worth the current price? I think only marginally so. A few years ago it could easily be purchased for less than $200, but not today. This lens appears to be evolving to more of a collectible lens, albeit one that also has merit as a shooter.

In regards to comparisons of the Orion with the Summaron, some of these comments regarding the optics may be true, but I sincerely doubt the build quality of the Orion comes even close to the Summaron (at least if it is anything like any FSU lens I have seen). On the other hand, the price one must pay for Leica mechanical craftsmanship in this case is quite steep here. The LTM Summaron 28/5.6 seems to sell for at least $2000 these days, almost as much as the new M Summaron models.
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Good point, David

If the Orion-15 was priced a little bit more than say a Jupiter 8 lens then it would be totally worth it, but the Orion-15 was never a common lens and always a bit pricey (and a bit of a specialty lens too by the standards of eons ago) and even with its serious design limitations in speed and less than stellar mechanical construction and the infamous FSU luck of the draw quality lottery it still a desirable lens for many photographers.

But as you point out, for a little more money better made and more useful 28mm lenses for RF cameras are out there and a much better buy when all things are considered.. and they are not as rare as hen's teeth.
 
xayraa33 said:
But as you point out, for a little more money better made and more useful 28mm lenses for RF cameras are out there and a much better buy when all things are considered.. and they are not as rare as hen's teeth.
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I believe buying any of these lenses can be justified for its own sake. Otherwise you can just buy the CV28/3.5 which blows them all away many times for a bit more $.
 
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