A new Perspective - Canon FL 19mm R

I bought a new lens....I bought a Canon lens....but this round, its not a Leica Screw Mount lens.

It all started when i read about the various lenses that Canon produced for its rangefinder series and i realised that the widest lens that was produced was a 19mm f3.5 lens.

Benny owned a nice copy of this lens in ltm, but given the price of it now, its definitely out of my reach...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ngminchai/4566863629/

So when i started googling, i noticed that for the 19mm, there was a total of 3 versions produced. The ltm was one of it, and then a FL 19mm was build for the SLR and followed by a later copy FL 19mm R (which stands for Retrospective).

Quoted off here
World's highest quality super-wide-angle lens with the fastest lens speed of f/3.5 in its class. Because it is a retrofocus type, through-the-lens focusing can be performed, and the entire 96-degree field of view can be recorded on film. Optically, the various aberration compensations are excellent. It is especially free of astigmatism and image distortion is held to less than one per cent. Therefore, clear and sharp images are possible to the outermost edges, and overall sharpness is superb. It is a lens that is regularly used by professional photographers.

I found my copy thru evil bay. Seller was nice to help out with the cheaper shipping but took me super long to discovered that it has arrived..
Anyway i was looking at the FL instead of the FL R, given that the size seems slightly smaller but nonetheless...

Same optical performance, yet a fraction of the price of the ltm and FL versions




Oh and not to start a new set of system, i got the Canon Converter B to use it on my Leica M. Well, by mounting it on the M, its not rangefinder coupled....so in a way, unless you are confident of your zone focusing, if not, the choices of FL lenses on the M bodies are limited to only wider lenses...


Mounted on my M4-P, its as heavy as the Canon 50mm f1.2 ltm mounted on my M2.


Well, it totally attracts alot of attention on the streets...

The pictures from this lens is a totally new perspective for me. The widest lens on street that i had used most often is the CV 25mm f4 and while i tried shooting the same way as the 25mm lens, it didnt really work out well for me.

To get the similar framing, i need to shoot at 0.5m on this 19mm lens compared to focusing at 1m on the 25mm lens. Of course, why should i shoot it like the 25mm lens? I should change a new perspective in shooting!
So here are some pictures that i took over the weekend..








Its really a once in awhile lens to carry out on streets. I still prefer the compactness of the CV 25mm f4 on streets...maybe i should explore landscape with this lens. As far as i noticed, the distortion is little...


Leica M4-P, Canon FL 19mm R
Kentmere 100 @ 200, HC110