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Noctilux 0.95 first impressions. (on M8)


bpalme

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I just got the lens a couple of days ago...

Some things I knew about the lens before I got it but still wanted to give it a try.. such as the heavy weight and super thin DOF that makes it hard to focus. But that's what also gives it the magic.

 

So I took it out and about in Silao Mexico for some street shooting. I got a couple of keepers but they were of buildings so not something you would buy this lens for. Silao is full of third world Mexico character with very few whitey types like myself. A couple of people I asked for a photo and they stopped for me. Sadly when I got back to see the results I did miss focus... even though I had time to stop and try to focus. Maybe I was too close with some but I made a conscious effort to keep a little distance so the DOF wouldn't be too thin.(3-10 meters) Now I'm wondering if maybe my finger was partially blocking the rangefinder window and hampered my focusing.

 

I'll keep practicing but I don't see this as being my street shooting lens. As far as the weight I have the RRS plate and grip so I thought it felt good with the grip. I don't think I would like it too much with a naked M. So the weight really didn't bother me too much.

 

A little too tight framing on the M8 for my taste...so I'll reserve final thoughts after I get it on an M9. From what I gather it's even harder to focus it on an M9?

 

When I got my first Apple computer I didn't think I would like it but now I can't go back to PC.. so I'll give it much more time and practice. :D

Taking pictures of my wife at home fairly close up.. it blows away the Nokton 1.1. Impressive.

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...A little too tight framing on the M8 for my taste...so I'll reserve final thoughts after I get it on an M9. From what I gather it's even harder to focus it on an M9?...

Focusing should be slightly easier on the M9 if the lens and your finger ;) are OK. The rangefinder's effective base length (EBL) needed by your lens at full aperture is 26mm in round figures for the M9 vs 35mm for the M8. Given that the available EBL is 47mm on both bodies, your M8 is probably not the culprit if its rangefinder is calibrated properly.

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I also got the Noctilux before I got the M9 and shot it on my M8.2 for a while. I didn't truly appreciate the Noctilux until I put it on the M9, it's magical on the M9 ( sound like a little girl, sorry).

It does take some getting used to and you need to choose what you focus on very carefully so that you get a crisp focal point. Don't give up on it, but once you put it on full frame, I think you will really see what it can do.

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you might want to check your focus on the M8, but if you are getting an M9 shortly, just get it.

 

I think the noctilux must be so much better on the M9

 

I had a 50mm Summarit f2.5 on the M8. It was great on the M8 but awesome on the M9

Now I have a 50mm summilux. At first I found it difficult to focus but now I can focus really fast.

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Thanks all. This gets me even more motivated to get an M9. Do you all have any problems focusing the Noctilux while on the go?.. as in streets scenes where the environment is changing constantly. I don't mean action shots really.. just shots at .95 where you may only have 1-2 seconds to focus and snap.

The focus ring was really stiff when I first used it.. so stiff I actually thought something was wrong with it but it is loosening up.

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in the 'street', it might be useful to keep the lens set to 3m (or whatever distance is typical/comfortable for you) so that final focusing is only a short turn to the left or right.

 

if your focus is 'almost' correct for a given subject, it might sometimes be faster for you to take a step forward or back to finish focusing.

 

just fyi, when i sent the noctilux (bought used) in for 6-bit coding for an m8, i sent the camera with the lens and asked the factory to check/adjust the focus 'together'. this may be standard practice these days when coding older lenses for use with the digital Ms.

 

greetings from hamburg

 

rick

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From January to June of this year I used my (f1) Noctilux exclusively. It was a deliberate - some would say arcane - effort to become intimately familiar with a lens I fell deeply in love with once it had been properly calibrated by Leica in NJ (see Own the Night ). That included not a little amount of street shooting.

 

My conclusions are that the Noct is a perfectly fine tool for nearly anything you'd use a 50 Cron or a 50 Lux for. It's bigger and heavier, of course, but not to the point that that becomes an issue. Certainly an M9/M8 + Noctilux remains a much more compact package than the typical DSLR + whatever zoom. And after you've used it for awhile, the longer focus throw of the Noct becomes second nature - to the point that when you eventually return to a normal short-throw M-lens the focusing of the smaller lens seems coarse in comparison.

 

Street shooting, like much of photography, frequently requires anticipation. If you get in the habit of pre-setting your focus distance to the approximate distance of what you anticipate, you'll find the time needed to "finish" the focus is very quick. I've never found focusing the Noct to be a problem - virtually all my shooting during those six months was at f1. Certainly from 3 meters on you should have enough depth of field to nail most shots, with just a little practice.

 

I'll also agree with the others here that the unique signature of the Noct is much more evident on full frame than on the M8.

 

Enjoy your new lens. You have the Summa Cum Laude of optical magic...

Edited by Jager
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I'd highly recommend getting your camera calibrated to the lens if possible.

Initially, both of my M9's seemed 'ok' with the Noctilux, but both tended to back focus from the factory. It was ever so slight at 1-3 meters, but with such a shallow DOF, it meant that I wasn't getting a high percentage of shots that were spot on.

I took the cameras and lenses to Leica in HK, they quoted my 3 weeks. No thanks!. So I went to a independent specialist who calibrated the cameras in a few hours for about 25 USD each.

 

In both cases, the specialist told me the infinity adjustment was slightly off. Then made minor adjustments to the close focus.

 

Now the focus is accurate and has helped me nail alot of shots I wasn't getting before.

 

Its hard to hold to a m9+Noctilux with your fingers crossed!

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!.35x adjustable magnifiers live on the viewfinders of my Leicas, but for the Noctilux (mine is the last of the f1.0's) I put a Leica magnifier underneath the adjustable magnifier (the Leica having having threads allowing stacking; the Japan Exposures version doesn't). The resulting 1.68x magnification means I see just the 50mm frame in an 0.72 viewfinder, and makes focussing much easier.

 

Chris

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I've had no problems .... which is a surprise considering I have had endless focussing issues with several 50/1.4 asph and my 75/2, 90/2. Although the focus throw seems similar to most other Leica lenses, the much larger barrel allows much easier fine adjustment.

 

I also have a Japan exposures 1.35x mag with variable dioptre adjustment and I feel this is the key, particularly if you haven't got perfect vision .... unless you have a perfectly in focus viewfinder image you will never get accurate focus with this lens wide open.

 

The first thing I did when I got this lens is adjust my M9 to this lens... and I have to say that the adjustments needed with the infinity roller adjustment and the near point cam were so small that they are beyond the capabilities of the extremely crude system that Leica has for carrying this out...... I ended up with it almost spot on more by luck than judgment.

 

Quite how Leica manage to do this to the tolerances that most of us want with these lenses given the volume of throughput they must have eludes me.....

 

Anyway, the basic point is that if everything is set up accurately you should have no difficulty in achieving accurate focus in all but the most difficult circumstances

Edited by thighslapper
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Calibrating is a good idea - mine seems to back focus at mid distances, it's ok close up. It's enough to miss a load of shots wide open, which is annoying. I had an f/1 before which was badly back focusing and it was perfect when it came back from Solms with my m9. A joy to use. I'm just not 'feeling' the new one at the moment.

 

I have a 35 on order - when that comes in, it's straight off to Solms with the lot of em.

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