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Leica Apo Summicron M Aspherical 75mm F/2.0 Lens ASPH vs Summilux M 75mm

 

Give us your list of pros & cons.

[Guest camera man]

75mm APO a great lens, for me no cons and it is cheaper than the new 50mm APO.

[Tonki-M]

think of all the wonderful things on expensive Leica glasses, such as the APO design of the 90mm APO cron, the close focusing correction of the floating elements in 35 lux fle, 50 lux asph. Add all of them up and you get the APO 75 cron. perfect in its own right. comparable to the 90 APO cron in every way. 75 lux is too large for my taste, so i never had too much experience with it..but the 75 APO cron is the one i like.

[Paul J]

I bought the 75 Summilux. It's one of my favourites. Jaw droppingly and ridiculously sharp stopped down and magical wide open. The tonality is incredible. It's so good that I have no need to try the APO which is more corrected and perfected. My Summilux has a light but easily corrected cyan cast. The look wide open of the Summilux is like nothing else, something the APO can not replicate. So I think with the Summilux you get the best of both worlds. Crazy sharpness stopped down and also sublime wide open rendering. Wide open mine is more than sharp enough. The depth of field is a mere wafer. Less than the Noctilux. This makes it on the tricky side to focus but you get better with use.

 

It really is close to the perfect portrait lens I think.

[egrossman]

The 75mm Summilux is my favorite portrait lens. I second everything Paul says about it's magic, painterly look wide open. Stopped-down, razor sharp. Two lenses in one package.

 

This photo of my son was shot wide open on an M9.

 

Erik

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[lct]

Nice pic. Having the 90/2 pre-asph, i never felt the need to try the 75/1.4. Too big for a 75 i guess. The 75/2 is indeed a superb lens the same class as the 90/2 asph in a smaller package. Not the best ones to shoot less than perfect skins though.

[egrossman]

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The 90mm Summicron pre-ASPH is on my list of lenses to try; I've heard wonderful things about it. Having said that, nothing will make me give my 75mm Summilux.

[Bill W]

I have owned both and they are both superb. The lux is a heavy beast and has a long focus throw. I have the cron now and it is probably easier to focus in the digital world at least for me. You cannot go worng with either. Like every Leica lens, they each have their own individual flavor if that makes sense.

[mmradman]

Tried both and finally settled for Summilux - why;

 

Easier to focus lens with longer focus throw, about 180 vs 90 degree.

 

Summilux - ideal portrait lens for every situation, some suggestions:-

f1.4 good for ladies over 21 years old

f2.8 good for babies

f5.6 good for Marlborough man

 

Summicron - sharp wide open so where is portrait magic in it?

At f2 showing onion ring (moulded aspherics) in OOF highlight rings.

As sharp at f2 already so overloaded with perfection doesn't provide me with means to achieve different looks.

 

Already have Summilux 50mm ASPH, Summicron 75 is close while Summilux 75 is unique so rather have two different than two similar lenes.

 

Heavy - easier to keep steady.

[egrossman]

Here's another sample from the 75mm Summilux just to show how gorgeous the bokeh is. It almost looks impressionistic.

 

My wife likes how it renders skin tones wide open.

 

Erik

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[thompsonkirk]

Hi, Ben –

 

The Summicron is what folks call a 'clinical' lens, IMO not especially suited in character to your jazz work or portraiture. The Summilux is a beautiful Mandler lens, but hard to focus spot-on at f1.4. For image quality, I'd go with the latter. Just my 2 cents.

 

Kirk

[MarkP]

Here's another sample from the 75mm Summilux just to show how gorgeous the bokeh is. It almost looks impressionistic.

 

My wife likes how it renders skin tones wide open.

 

Erik

 

Stop showing me this stuff

I really like my 2.0/75 Summicron ASPH and 'm trying really hard NOT to buy the Summilux .

 

Having said that my1.0/50 Noctilux is no slouch regarding painted/impressionistic rendering & bokeh.

[pfhrased]

I'd rather have the cron. The lux has gorgeous bokeh, and it's still sharp at f1.4 - but I found the chromatic aberration showed up so frequently and was so hard to get rid of in lightroom that 90% of my f1.4 shots ended up requiring a black and white conversion.

 

I also found it was just a touch dull on greens.

 

This said, the lux was utterly beautiful, and I partly regret selling it. I don't have the cron yet, but I prefer the more modern rendering it yields.

[Paul J]

Here's another sample from the 75mm Summilux just to show how gorgeous the bokeh is. It almost looks impressionistic.

 

My wife likes how it renders skin tones wide open.

 

Erik

 

Impressionistic is certainly the word for this lens, wide open. It really does paint with the light.

[egrossman]

Mark, I've heard that Mandler designed the 75mm Summilux using the same optical formula as Noctilux 1.0, except that it has one additional element.

 

I also read somewhere that the 75mm Summilux was Mandler's favorite lens.

 

Here's one more that illustrates just how sharp the Summilux is wide open, together with that luscious bokeh. Resistance if futile .

 

Erik

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[jlindstrom]

The 75 lux is pure magic. Having said that the ergonomics weren't for me in the end. It's a big beast with long focus throw, which meant I was missing most moving targets. Or boring the still ones looking for that contrast snap on the rf. 8-)

 

So I sold it to fund other purchases. Of Mandler designs I also like the 90 elmarit-m and my current 50 pre-asph. Especially the 90 is priceless.. the 50 is really nice but I'm still wondering about the 50 asph.

 

Of the 75's I'd get the cron. That's another lens I've lusted after for a long time.

 

//Juha

 

 

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[IkarusJohn]

I sold my 75 Summicron because I found the focus throw frustrating. It is a lovely compact lens, and when you get the focus right very rewarding. It has the reputation for flare, but I didn't ever see that.

 

Instead I bought the 75 Summilux, and haven't looked back. Yes, it's big for an M lens (lens size is not a factor in my decision to use an M camera), it's similar in size to my 21 Summilux, and to my Noctilux. It shares the design of the Mandler designed 50 Summilux (accordingly to the Leica guidebook).

 

For my first Whitewall print, I sent in a landscape taken with my 75 Summilux. Printed at 105cm across the bottom, it is perfectly sharp. Wide, well you can see the results above. I use a 1.4x magnifier to deal with the wafer thin depth of field.

 

To cure the predictable regrets over the sale of the 75 Summicron, I bought the 90 AA Summicron.

 

The 75 Summilux is one of the lenses I would hold to my dying breath.

 

 

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[egrossman]

John... it's interesting. I find the 90mm AA much more difficult to focus accurately than the 75mm Summilux. I sold it and decided to stick with my 90mm Elmarit instead. Honestly, looking at the output side by side for portraits, I could see little difference between the AA and the Elmarit.

[IkarusJohn]

Yes, I was expecting the 90 AA Summicron to be a beast to focus. It hasn't been a problem.

 

 

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[CheshireCat]

Here's one more that illustrates just how sharp the Summilux is wide open, together with that luscious bokeh.

 

Erik, good shot and bokeh, but at web resolution it hardly shows how sharp the lens is