mandoflex's photostream

I found this sweet new-old-stock Elmar-M 50mm in Photografica, Copenhagen. I am a irrationally attracted to lenses of the 4 element Tessar family (although Leica would probably claim this lens to be a derivate of their Anastigmats and Elmax).
The lens was in production from 1994 to 2007. I don't think it was produced in large numbers because I rarely see them in the many 2nd hand shops of Tokyo. Not many raves about the lens on the net, thus it's lack of availability is not due to some internet hype.

I went into Photografica to ask for availability and pricing of a used sample, was surprisingly told that they had a couple of new available. It was priced at the 2007 list price, and with DK sales tax (25%) removed and the benefit of the strong yen, the price came down on the irresistible voigtlander level.

The Ultron 28mm f2.0 and the Nokton 35mm f1.4 SC.
The 35mm is amazingly compact for a 1.4 lens but not so much with the LH-6 hood. The 28mm handles exceptionally well. Very short focus throw, good heft and firm aperture ring.

After a seemingly long period where Tokyo shops and Japanese online stores were completely dry on Voigtlander lenses, the availability seems to pick up again. The 28mm from Cosina/Voigtlander was on my wish list for a long time - well, for as long as I have had a M6 with 28mm framelines.
While browsing the net for information on this lens, I noticed Tom Abrahamsson's trick of placing black tape over the frameline illumination window. This should in theory remove the framelines exposing the whole finder with only the rangefinder patch visible.
I tried but on my very early M2 model (I know Tom isn't too exited about the early button rewind M2's so his M2's are probably newer and may have a slightly different construction?), the rangefinder patch window seemed to allow sufficient light to illuminate the 90mm framelines anyway.
Regardless; if you use the whole window of any 0.72 mag M finder, you will have your 28mm viewfinder and thus no need for an external finder.

The lens itself is has a surprisingly nice feel and wonderful heft (considering the pricepoint) - can't wait to see the results.