Wide angle 28 mm M-lenses are less commonly used with rangefinder Leica M-cameras since they fill out the whole viewfinder frame window leaving very little space between frame lines and viewfinder border. But the 28 mm full-frame field of view can provide an advantage over the bit longer and more standard 35 mm focal length. Faster 28 mm wide angle lenses with the Leica brand name are very expensive, but Leica 28 mm f/2.8 lenses exist in a wider variety and are most often more than sufficient regarding depth of field and sharpness. It takes some effort to gig through available Leica 28/2.8 lens versions and figuring out pros and cons of each and how newer lens versions improved over older ones. The newer Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit-M versions are aspherically corrected ones and are named ASPH lenses. They ensure optimized sharpness with lower refractions towards the corners of the frame, are more compact but also the  most pricey ones. From experience I prefer a bit more vintage M-lenses which Leica made in the 80s and 90s - they often have a unique rendering and still give excellent sharpness with digital M-camera sensors. Benefit with these kind of lenses is a much better price/quality ratio when getting a decent deal for a mint looking used lens copy. I was lucky years ago getting the Leica 25/2.0 Summicron-M version IV pre-ASPH lens made in 1991 (also nicknamed bokeh-king) which is a joy to use. Recently I found a great copy of a Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit-M version IV pre-ASPH lens made in 1996 for a decent deal. It's not a collector lens, but I read that it has become difficult at this point to find good copies of this specific lens version also including the unique hood Leica sold in combination with this lens version. Prices for this lens range around $1800-1900 depending on condition and accessories like lens hood, lens pouch and original box, and I bargained it down for a bit less than this (my copy did not come with original lens pouch and box but with the original hood and caps). I expect the value of this lens to increase in years to come since the market is already thinned out to find this lens version easily.

The Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit-M version IV lens is barely mentioned in online reviews - most reviews focus on its direct Leica ASPH successor lens version instead which is better known. This lens was focused to be used on Leica M film cameras which was also the usage of the first owner who sold me the lens. I instantly tested this lens on my digital Leica M-E 240 camera, and I can already tell upfront that it falls nothing short of being perfect with the digital sensor, too. There is no corner unsharpness, severe vignetting, nor color aberration seen wide open at f/2.8 which can potentially be an issue with older wide angle rangefinder lenses. This lens has its maximum of sharpness at f/4.0 and keeps it the same at smaller apertures. Smaller aperture only changes the depth of field but doesn't improve sharpness! Typical for a Leica Elmarit-M lens, it provides excellent contrast already at f/2.8. 

Left: Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit-M E46 lens version IV without hood attached to Leica M-E 240 camera; Right: Lens with lens hood and lens cap
 

I also have the smaller but also very good Cosina-Voigtlander 28/2.0 Ultron ASPH M-mount lens version I which is more modern than this Leica 28/2.8 lens. I bought this lens several years ago for $450 used in mint condition. The Voigtlandner lens is a stop faster but has approximately the same lens size and also 46 mm filter diameter. Wide open it shows more vignetting and lower contrast than this 28 mm Elmarit-M lens at f/2.8. Stopped down, the Voigtlander lens performance is then very similar in quality, but differences in the image background blur remain. 

Left: Cosina-Voigtlander 28/2.0 Ultron-M lens version I; Right: Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit-M E46 lens version IV. Both lenses have about the same size. The Voigtlander lens has a protruded convex front lens element. Both lenses have 46 mm filter diameter size and weigh the same (253 grams without hood).

The 28/2.8 Elmarit-M E46 lens comes only in anoidized black finish. No chrome version exists to my knowledge. This lens is described as being as good as the 28/2.0 Summicron ASPH version I which makes the Elmarit an excellent bargain. The MFT carts of both Leica lenses look very similar in performance just that the Summicron version is obviously one stop faster at f/2.0 than the Elmarit. The lens I describe in this review is also called Leica 28/2.8 E46 lens due to its version-specific lens diameter size of 46 mm. It originally comes with the fitting Leica lens shade #12547 including the clip-on Leica cap #14013 (made of thick rigid plastic!). Both - lens hood and shade together - go now online for about $200. This plastic cap sits well on the hood and doesn't fall easily off like other Leica lens hood caps tend to do - for example the flimsy one on the earlier mentioned Leica 35/2.0 Summicron-M version IV lens hood which I nearly lost twice. The lens shade/hood of the 28/2.8 clamps with click on the outside of the M-lens easily and sits tightly. It has an opening in the upper corner allowing to look through when composing through the viewfinder of a Leica M rangefinder camera. Even this hood appears bulky on my first impression, I got very quickly used to it. There is still some lower right corner blockage of the viewfinder from the front of the lens but practically I didn't see it as a problem when composing my 28 mm shots. I always have used this lens with its hood attached and have never observed any kind of flare issue so far. 

The aperture ring is a riffled full ring and has click-stops. Apertures range from f/2.8 to f/22 in half stops. When moving this ring, the finger can easily hit the attached rim of the attached lens hood - there is not much distance between them. Focus ring comes with standard Leica focus tab ranging from 0.7 meters to infinity focus. Scale is both in meter (white color) and feet (yellow color). The focus ring moves below the 0.7 meter mark with its hard end stop which is important to remember since it might offset the minimum distance focusing with the rangefinder patch focus. There is a hard stop set correctly at infinity. Make sure to have it set at the 0.7 meter mark and not below for minimum focus distance with rangefinder focusing - not an issue with LiveView or EVF attached on digital M cameras. 

Bell Works
Both photos taken with Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit-M version IV lens at f/8.0. The left handheld at 1/45 sec (ISO 400), the right photo with tripod camera support at 1 sec (ISO 200).

Bell Works Bell Works
Fireworks photos taken with Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit-M version IV lens at f/8.0 and 2 sec exposure time at ISO 200.

Sunset with Mountain Goats close to Shippensburg, PA
Holmdel Horn antenna (left, f/8.0) and sunset (right, f/4.0) taken with Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit-M version IV lens.
 

A direct comparison of Cosina-Voigtlander 28/2.0 Ultron and the Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit version IV lenses is shown in the photos below. Both photos were taken with camera mounted on tripod at f/8.0 and with circular polarizer in the same position. Sharpness and contrast-wise, both lenses perform exactly the same. But the Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit lens is a tiny bit wider on its wide end compared to the Voigtlander 28/2.0 Ultron. It is visible in the position of the end of the tree branch in the upper left corner of the frame. The Leica lens hood does not fit well over the third party circular polarizer 46 mm filter - I attached it loosely on the filter to give at least the flare protection without sacrificing image quality. No problem with this filter on the CV 28/2.0 Ultron lens - the thin screw-in lens hood fitted around it perfectly. 

Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit-M lens  

Top: Photo taken with Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit-M version IV lens and circular polarizer at f/8.0, ISO 400
 

Voigtlander 28/2.0 Ultron M-lens

Top: Photo taken with Cosina-Voigtlander 28/2.0 Ultron Version I M-lens and circular polarizer at f/8.0, ISO 400
 

Pros:
+ Price/quality ratio (bit of hidden gem in Leica's lens line)
+ Very well built, rigid feel
+ Contrast and sharpness already wide open at f/2.8
+ No flare issues
+ Well sitting lens hood and hood cap
+ Forms beautiful 8-blade sun stars

Cons:
- Less compact than other Leica 28/2.8 lens versions
- Larger protruding lens hood
- Tiny space between aperture ring and attached lens hood
- No hard stop at minimum focus distance of 0.7 meters
- Lens hood does not fit well over third party 46 mm filters
- Hard to find as used lens currently

Cosina released in 2019 the Voigtlander 75 mm f/1.5 Nokton aspherical lens as addition to its Voigtlander's vintage line. Cosina has really stepped up the game with their more budget-friendly but high quality M-lens line providing suitable alternatives to much more expensive Leica counterparts. Obviously one lens won't mimic exactly the same look as the other, but for the most part a less expensive Voigtlander lens will do its job just fine for all what is needed. I am using several Voigtlander M lenses on my Leica M rangefinder cameras since many years to complement my Leica lenses, and I have been always been happy with them. Since I only had one suitable tele M lens suitable to be used both on digital and film - my Leica 90/2.8 Elmarit version I lens - I was curious to test this new Voigtlander 75 mm Nokton lens to fill the focal length bracket between 50 and 90 mm. I read and watched a couple of YouTube video reviews showcasing this lens, and in May 2021 I purchased this lens in new condition from Camera Quest for $900. The lens is available in both black and silver versions for the same price. In the past I had some trouble with the black paint on other Voigtlander lenses because it tends to come off quite easily at focus rings and focus tabs. This was one reason why I decided to go with the silver version here to avoid the black paint issue. Second reason is that the silver version complemented well to my Leica M3 and the anthracite look of my M-E 240. 

What's in the Box:

The lens comes in a quite typical Voigtlander lens box with styrofoam padding. Inside are both the lens and the lens hood separately in plastic bags. As usual, Voigtlander does not provide a lens pouch for the lens which would have been a nice-to-have here regarding the value of this fast lens. A very crude lens information card is supplied in the lens box lacking any kind of specific technical details of the lens built. No warranty card was included. But at least Cosina finally included the lens hood in the package which was always a complaint in the past with other CV lenses that the hood was sold separately for quite an expensive amount, or that the hood was fixed on the lens which limited usage of filters to the exact filter diameter of the lens. 

Lens Built:

First, some technical specs of the lens: the lens weights only about 350 grams, has 7 lens elements in 6 lens groups including one aspherical lens element. It has 12 aperture blades to allow for smooth circular and oval bokeh circles. 

The lens built is excellent and fits to the style of other well built Voigtlander lenses: all metal with clear and precise distance and aperture scales. The scales are in black on my silver lens version and very easy to read. The distance metering scale is very accurate to focus between 0.7 and 5 meters. Between 5 meters and infinity the focus turn is very short, so here you need to be careful to turn just the right amount for getting the focus wide open correctly. No focus tab is supplied with this lens which is not needed either in my opinion since the focus ring is wide enough itself. The aperture ring does half-stop clicks between f/1.5 and f/16. The distance between each aperture stop is equal throughout the aperture range which I prefer to have. 

The lens hood with black paint inside has no thread itself but is placed instead with lock screw onto a black plastic-coated metal ring. This ring is screwed into the lens filter thread. Unfortunately this black lens hood attachment ring does not fit well to the rest of the silver lens design - I wish it would just be a silver metal ring fitting the rest of the silver lens design. With the black lens version, this is no issue at all obviously. Any kind of standard 58 mm filter can be placed inside this hood ring before the hood is attached. If no hood is needed, the filter can be directly placed into the lens thread instead of the hood ring. The black plastic Voigtlander lens cap sits either directly on the lens, on any attached filter, or on the hood ring. The dual lens cap clamps make the cap sit well on either of them. 

With the attached lens hood, the rangefinder camera's viewfinder blockage is about 15% in the lower right corner of the 75 mm frame lines with about 0.7x viewfinder magnification. When the lens is attached to the Leica M3 with 50, 90, and 135 mm frame lines available, only the 50 mm frame lines are shown. Best is to manually move the M3's frame line level to 90 mm to compose then in between the visible 50 and 90 mm frame lines to estimate 75 mm focal length. 

Leica M-E 240 with silver version of the Voigtlander 75/1.5 Nokton lens. The engraved black scales accentuate well on the silver built. 
 

The removable black hood ring with 58 mm filter thread does not fit well to the silver lens design. It will be fully hidden when the silver lens hood is attached though. The original lens box is shown in the background.

Leica M3 with silver version of the Voigtlander 75/1.5 Nokton lens attached. Compare the look of the lens without black hood ring in the former image!

Lens Focus:

This lens uses two kind of ways to focus: Between 0.7 and 5 meters focusing is very precise with the focus ring which is ideal for portraits. With 0.68x to 0.72x rangefinder patch magnification, focusing wide open at f/1.5 can be challenging. You might need to take a few shots with slight change in focus to have one with best focus, or you use LiveView or external EVF with magnification tool to adjust the focus. Alternatively, the Leica 1.4x viewfinder magnifier will help for rangefinder focusing for sure here. Between 5 meters and infinity the lens focus turn is very short and might be difficult to allow precise focus in this distance range.  

For minimum focus distance (MFD) at 0.7 meters, the lens can be a bit tricky: the focus actually turns a bit closer than 0.7 meters which will lead to misfocus with the rangefinder which is limited to 0.7 meters (like the M 240 for example - it is only 1 meter with the Leica M3!). I always need to remind myself to set the distance scale first to exactly 0.7 meters for close-up shots and then adjust my distance to the subject accordingly to focus with the rangefinder. This is common with Voigtlander lenses, some I have go even further down in focus distance like my CV 35/1.2 II which has a MFD of 0.5 meters. It's a no-brainer when the focus is taken with EVF or LiveView because the limitation to 0.7 meters doesn't play a role here. 

When taking some photos at MFD of 0.7 meters, the lower left corner of the rangefinder focus window shows a bright silver reflection in my M-E 240 camera which derives from reflected sun on the silver lens hood. It is like a reverse viewfinder corner blockage just this time within the focus patch window. I am still able to focus but the silver corner patch blockage is something I didn't observe before. By removing the lens hood, this blockage disappeared (therefore I was able to exclude any camera issue). Also the issue isn't seen at longer focus distance above 0.7 meters. Not sure if the same occurs with the black lens hood. 

I did not see any focus shift when the lens is stopped down. 

Photos taken with Leica M-E 240 and Voigtlander 75/1.5 Nokton lens wide open at f/1.5. For the first five photos a 3-stop ND filter was used to accomplish f/1.5 at available shutter speeds. Focus was done with the 0.68x rangefinder.   

Bokeh, Bokeh and Image Quality:
 

Main reason to get such fast short tele lens is to shoot wide(r) open to achieve beautiful out-of-focus blur this lens is known to deliver. I can only confirm this property from my experience sop far - I love the smooth bokeh available between f/1.5 and f/2.8. The bokeh circles tend to be more oval towards the borders and corners of the frame leading sometimes to a smooth circular bokeh pattern in the background. This circular bokeh is by far not as obvious as in my vintage Leica 50/2 Summitar lens, but it definitely adds to the vintage look achievable with this 75/1.5 lens. Image quality is superb - this lens combines well modern sharp lens properties with good micro contrast and vintage looking depth-of field. I did not observe much of chromatic aberrations wide open which is likely mostly avoided due to the aspherical lens element. The lens doesn't seem to flare much with the hood attached - shooting against the sun wide open can cause some purple flares. There is some slight corner vignetting at f/1.5 which I actually like for many of my wide open compositions. Stopping down the lens a bit will reduce the vignetting significantly. 

At f/8.0, the Voigtlander 75/1.5 Nokton lens astonishes with excellent sharpness throughout the frame without any vignetting in the corners of the frame. Color rendition is typical for Voigtlander lenses providing a warmer look and rendering. The lens achieves excellent sharpness beginning at f/2.8. Wider open, the lens has more classic rendering qualities compromising between modern sharpness look and vintage rendering.  

Photos taken with Leica M-E 240 and Voigtlander 75/1.5 Nokton lens at f/2.0 (top) and f/2.8 (bottom). Painterly bokeh with beautiful depth of field transition even when stopped down a bit. 

Sunset photos taken with Leica M-E 240 and Voigtlander 75/1.5 Nokton lens at f/8.0
 

Lens Competitors closest in Price:

No longer made, the Leica 75/2.4 Summarit lens is a suitable competitor to this Voigtlander lens (the f/2.5 version is not as good in performance as the newer f/2.4 version which is also represented by the prices they are going for). About $1500 more expensive in the current used market, the f/2.4 Summarit lens has supposed to have more micro contrast wide open making it feel more like a f/2.0 lens.

Also the Leica 75/1.4 classic Summilux lens no longer in production comes very close in performance to the Voigtlander 75/1.5 lens. But it costs at least about 4x as much. 

The 7Artisans 75/1.25 lens is the cheapest alternative in the bundle but does not achieve the optical image qualities of the CV 75/1.5 lens. Other test reviews state it is less well corrected optically and less sharp; also it is much bigger and heavier. Its bokeh wide open might be a good alternative though. 

Below my summary with pros and cons which I experienced with this lens so far. Overall a great value for the price and likely one of the best  Voigtlander M Nokton lenses available. 

Pros:

+ Very well balanced lens when mounted on camera
+ Sharp wide open in the center with correct focus applied
+ Amazing and smooth bokeh
+ Bokeh circles can in specific situations lead to some vintage-like circular background rendering
+ Smooth focus ring which allows precise focusing between 0.7 and 5 meters. 
+ Excellent built
+ Combines modern lens characteristics with vintage lens properties
+ Comes with removable hood in vintage look
+ Available in two color versions (black and silver) for the same price tag

Cons:

- Thin lens rim to attach and detach the lens on and from the camera (you can easily turn the focus ring instead!)
- Too thin red line to mount lens on camera (better visible red dot on the lens mount side would have been better)
- Very short focus turn for distances between 5 meters and infinity making it hard to focus correctly in this range
- Weird lens hood reflection in lower left corner of rangefinder patch in sunlight at MFD with silver lens hood
- Lens allows a bit shorter than 0.7 meters MFD which can easily lead to misfocus with rangefinder focusing when not keeping the lens exactly at the 0.7 meter distance scale set point. 
- No lens pouch supplied and no details on the lens info card about lens built or specifics. 
- Black lens hood ring does not fit well optically to the rest of the silver lens design

If you are fortunate enough to have at least one film and one digital camera, and you feel comfortable shooting with either medium, then sooner or later you might ask yourself: do I take my film or digital camera today - or maybe both? I found myself struggling with the question very often - important enough regarding decision-making that I decided to write in my blog about it. This is also meant to be a guide which medium - film or digital - to select depending on expected circumstances while taking photos later. 

1. Weather and Time

This is a very critical factor to make a suitable choice: during which season, and at which time of the day. I found that spring definitely benefits from color photography with blooming flowers everywhere for a couple of weeks. Combine this scenario with sunlight - better in the morning or afternoon sun to provide more yellowish glow with backlit flower petals to the scene - and you will benefit from vibrant photographs. Both media are fine to use here - digital will surely do a good job here, and it is the safest bet to get home with excellent results. But for photos to stand out in regard to color saturation combined with blues sky, you might also consider grabbing either a Kodak Ektar 100 color negative film or a daylight color slide film. The latter forces you to expose very accurately, better slightly underexposed half a stop to avoid clipped highlights with the slide film. With negative film, always overexpose a bit to avoid too dark shadows without any detail. Slide film will provide you instantly with the "real" film colors whereas negative film needs to be adjusted according to the film back white balance which can be tedious. There is a difference between digital and film - but with good post processing, someone can make digital files look like a close match to the film shots. A circular polarizer is recommended to be used both with digital and film. The colors will be a bit more saturated and especially the sky will look more blueish in contrast - great with yellow/red flowers! 

Left: Leica M7 with Fuji Provia 100F color slide film with 35 mm lens, Right: Digital Sony A7R with 90 mm lens

Outdoors in summer, colors tend to fade quite a bit or are overpowered by lots of green. In summer, I often tend to shoot mostly B&W for this reason. Scenes tend to be contrasty and filled with highlights and shadows bringing out patterns well. Related to B&W photography is infrared (IR) photography which is best to do during the mid of the day when the sun is brightest. Foliage will turn out bright white in IR with sun reflecting from the leaves or needles. For B&W, my preferred choice is film - I have the choice of multiple B&W films which provide me either with larger grey gamut or with high contrast. During bright sun conditions, I normally choose either Ilford PanF+ 50 or Ilford FP4+ 125 since I prefer wider grey tonal range over very contrasty looking results. A digital camera can be set to monochrome mode which will save the JPG file in B&W but keeps the hopefully also saved RAW file in color (exemption are Leica monochrome cameras which only see in B&W). I find it nearly impossible to reproduce B&W film photos with digital files - both work of course but with different outcome. Same is true for IR: film infrared photos look different than post-processed digital IR files in B&W. Try both in parallel - either just B&W or for IR - to see what you prefer and if film is worth the effort for the difference seen. A well taken B&W (or IR) negative will shine when printed from it in the darkroom on photosensitive paper - impossible to reproduce with an inkjet printer. 

Left: Leica M3 with Fuji Provia 100F color slide film, Right: Digital Sony A7R, both with 50 mm lens

Left: Leica M6 with Rollei Infrared 400 B&W negative film with 25 mm lens, Right: Digital IR-converted Canon 5D MkII with 50 mm lens
 

Fall is a great time to go again with color - only this time yellow-orange/red tones will be dominant. Any vibrant color film will work here as well as digital. A great time in late fall also to take photos of sunrises/sunsets - I love taking those with Fuji Velvia 50 slide film. The film brings out orange/red colors in a very unique way, very different from other films and especially digital. ISO 50 allows longer exposure times and negligible grain. Best time also to take photos in the fog early in the morning - overexpose about one third or half a stop in this kind of scenes. 

Left: Leica M3 with Fuji Provia 100F color slide film with 50 mm lens, Right: Digital Sony A7R with 21 mm lens
 

Left: Leica M7 with Kodak Porta 400 NC color slide film, Right: Digital Sony A7R, both with 35 mm lens. Circular polarizer was used in both cases.
 

Winter is clearly the best time for B&W photography but can also provide good opportunities for color. Snow will always make the reflective meter underexpose - make sure to overexpose scenes with snow on the ground at least half a stop or better one stop. 

Kodakt Ektrachrome 100

Left: Leica M3 with Kodak Ektachrome 100 color slide film with 50 mm lens, Right: Digital Leica M-E 240 with 28 mm lens
 

Schneider-Kreuznach Retina-Curtagon 28/4 lens

Left: Leica M6 with Kodak TMax 400 B&W negative film, Right: Digital Sony A7R, both with 21 mm lens
 

2. Events

I prefer taking photos of events with people present with lots of changing light situations - for example both outdoors and indoors - in B&W. Film is the more forgiving medium here due to its lower 35 mm film resolution compared to digital full frame format: in case the camera shakes a bit indoors at wider open aperture but with 1/15 sec, the photo will still look okay even if it is a bit blurry. With digital you have the option to go higher with ISO to avoid slow shutter speeds but only with Auto-ISO option in the camera - otherwise you likely will lose the moment when trying to change to higher ISO manually and doing the reverse when heading outdoors again. Clipped highlights in an indoor environment taken with digital are very common - but can be fully avoided with film. I am more focused on capturing a moment when using my 35 mm film camera whereas I feel more distracted by my digital camera to review the taken photo directly afterwards on the LCD camera screen. 

Left: Leica M6 with Ilford FP4+ 125 film and 35 mm lens

3. Street Photography

All in for film here! In street photography, you need to be fast, and I often found it beneficial to take photos from my hip instead of wasting time to focus. Zone focusing is critical - best use a 35 mm manual focus lens between f/5.6-8.0. In sunny weather, an ISO 125 or 200 film suffices, in cloudy conditions definitely go with an ISO 400 film which can be pushed up to ISO 1600. This guarantees fast enough shutter time to take the shot with movement. The smaller and less conspicuous the camera, the better - best is a rangefinder camera which can be easily be seen as a modern Fuji mirrorless camera. There are many suitable digital camera options which are also preferred by street photographers - one is the Leica Q series - but the higher sensor resolution compared to film allows for less error margin while taking photos. And a bit of film grain make film street photos stand out from the rest, too!

Leica IIIc with Ilford FP4+ 125 B&W negative film and 35 mm lens

Leica M7 with Kodak Ektar 100 (left) and Kodak Porta 400 (right) color negative films, 28 mm lens

4. Portraits

Both media work well here - it comes down to personal choice. Digital offers the big advantage here to see directly after the shot if light, aperture, and exposure were selected correctly, or if something should be changed. Film keeps you in the dark until the film is developed - long after the subject has left the studio. For B&W portraits, I still prefer film over digital for reasons mentioned earlier. I might even use a larger format film camera to decrease depth-of-field and get for example the medium format look. But even with 35 mm and a faster lens, you can create some great artistic work in portraiture. You could try shooting both digital and film, but this takes more time - okay if you have a patient and understanding model. If you do it commercially, stick to digital here. The workflow is faster and more reliable. You can also show the customer the photos using the camera back with the screen.   

Leica M6 with Kodak Ektar 100 color negative film (left) and Leica M7 with Ilford FP4+ 125 B&W negative film (right), 50 mm lens
 

5. Fine Arts

I prefer nearly 100% film when it comes to fine art photography. Why? Because I don't need to hurry here, it is mostly a static scene where I take either time to prepare the scene (still life) or walk the scene to find the right angle to a subject. Film helps me to be totally focused on the composition and immersing into the scenery. I select the surprise in the outcome on film over the gratification of success with digital. The simpler the better here from my experience. But it is a subjective feel - somebody else might just do as well with digital. 

Leica M6 with different kind of B&W negative films and lenses between 21 to 50 mm

6. Decoration and Macro/Close-Up

Without doubt, do yourself a favor and do it digitally! Even I love film shooting, this is not the situation to use it - it will only lead to frustration. You better have an electronic viewfinder (EVF) to ensure correct focus applied before releasing the shutter. Film rangefinder cameras can normally only go down to 0.7 meters as minimum focus distance top the subject. With digital, there is no limit - with the right tools (for example diopter lens, extension tube, or macro lens) you can get as close as needed to the subject. It is a huge benefit over film. Since the focus is very shallow in macro photography, review the taken digital photos to determine if another shot should better be taken with improved focus. 

Digital close-up photos taken with Sony A7R (first three photos) and Leica M-E 240 with VF-2 (last photo)
 

7. Sports

I am not a sports photographer, but this is another area where film simply can't compete with digital. Formerly professional sports photographers were highly paid by magazines to take the fast photos needed in sports - everything had to be quick from taking the photo to the fastest possible development time for film. Nowadays even amateurs can take breathtaking sports photos with an average tele zoom lens. This is due to the improvement in digital cameras regarding shutter speed, shutter priority and Auto-ISO modes, image stabilization, and excellent AF capabilities. Any kind of film camera remains an underdog at best here.