Your favorite Leica lens?

[indergaard]

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The lens that's "wow'ed" me the most with it's images straight out of the camera is the 21/3.4 Super-Elmar.

Talk about pop, clarity and fantastic color and contrast straight out of the camera! Wow!

 

It's not my favorite focal length. Not anywhere near. But the results this lens creates is just fantastic! But results-wise it's my favorite Leica lens.

It's wow'ed me more with it's performance than any other Leica lens I've tried (including the 50/0.95, 50/1.4 ASPH, 35/1.4 ASPH FLE, 75/2 APO, and so on).

[pgk]

I do love the the pre ASPH Summilux as well - (so much so, as even having different versions of it - my favorite being a nice user infinity lock version), but I would hardly call the pre ASPH Summilux ergonomic (it is WAY to cramped in it's controls as it is so compact and especially when using with it's contemporary 12504 lens hood it feels like changing a car tire through a keyhole of a locked fireproof door with a crowbar and superglue.

I found your post fascinating, but I actually really like the compact, almost delicate, operation of this lens. I do find it an enjoyable lens to use, physically. To me it embodies what RF photography lenses should be about; small size, light, well built, slightly idiosyncratic (it terms of output and filters) and rather pleasing to the eye. Just my view though.

 

Oddly enough I could probably just about live with this lens and the 75 Summilux (later version) as a two lens set-up, if I really had too. But the 75 contradicts just about everything that I like about the 35 Summilux; its too big, too heavy, still very well built though, takes a large filter (not much compromise or idiosyncrasy here) and is too large to look good on the camera. But all is forgiven when it produces a result which I find delightful.

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[Carduelis]

My favourite lens is the 28 mm Asph Elmarit f2.8.  Although it is not my most used lens, I really appreciate the small size and low weight of the lens and the excellent sharpness it delivers.  Great choice for travelling and for hiking. 

[vhfreund]

50 mm Apo on the M 246 and 35 mm Summilux FLE on the M-A

[Neko]

 My favorite is the 50 APO. The 90AA and 35Lux FLE are wonderful too. All mounted on my Monochrom.

[rsolomon]

It changes for me from time to time which I think is a nice felling. Right now 75 cron using evf

[105012]

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50mm Summarit 2.5, followed by 135mm APO-Telyt.

[willeica]

I like them all, but for image quality it would have to be the current 50 Summilux. For character it would have to be the 5cm Summar. My most frequently used lens by far is the current 35mm Summicron. 

 

William

[Bill Livingston]

My most used lens by far is also my Summicron 35... But this particular question has been fascinating me since this thread started.

 

I read all the comments with great interest... and the comments from most people were so convincing that found I agreed with almost everyone!

 

So I decided to look at a few pages of photos where the lens wasn't immediately identified to see if there was a particular 'look' that appealed to me... and there most certainly was... and not what I expected. 

 

I looked at the LFI galleries, Flickr and various Leica Facebook pages and looked at each photo and decided whether I liked the 'rendering' or whether there was a 'look' that I liked... trying as much as possible to ignore the actual image... in other words, completely opposite to the way I normally look at photos. I tend to be an 'image', or content person, not a 'rendering' person, at all... 

 

Yet I consistently identified two lenses I loved the look of... first came the Summilux 50 ASPH... which was by far the look I liked the most... followed, further back than I would have guessed, but the Summilux 35 FLE... and then the occasional 21SEM... not much else.

 

Which is weird and not what I expected at all.

 

I have a Summilux 50 ASPH, which I don't use nearly as much as I should... although I like it when I do. I find it hard to nail focus and end up more frustrated and besides, I don't believe I 'feel' or 'see' in the 50 focal length as much as I do a 35... Clearly I am wrong!

 

Yet the 35FLE came a fair distance behind when it came to the 'look' I liked... I fully expected that to be the lens I would identify as first choice and is very much a lens I would love to own.

 

Weirdly, I didn't pick any 28mm as I was looking through literally hundreds of images, yet that was likely to be my next purchase (given that a 35 FLE is just too expensive for me new and they rarely come up used at sensible prices).

 

And I found the Summicron 35, my most used lens, as too 'clean' and a little sterile whenever I came across one... yet that is the lens I use most of the time!

 

I think I'm going to take my Summicron off my M and force myself to use the 50 Lux for a few weeks... its certainly a focal length I used to use years ago in my film days and obviously I still have an unconscious affinity with it... and then sell the Summicron and Elmarit 90 and try to fund a 35FLE...

 

But then I think, isn't a 35 and a 50 just a little too close? Shouldn't I go back to my original compromise and just get myself a 28 to go with the 50 Lux?

 

Or should I keep what I have and just buy the 21SEM which I have a hankering for every now and then..?

 

Jeez... no wonder we all have these issues!

 

I am in the (un)fortunate (but very much first world quandary) of not having enough money to buy what I want, when I want and not feel it... but have enough money to be in a position where I could buy what I want... but I would feel guilty as hell about it, would probably have to keep it a secret from those around me... and I would feel so unbelievably selfish... so not something I feel I can do... 

 

I think a 'selling spree' is needed to assuage the guilt... Unless anyone on the UK has a 35FLE they don't use and would swap it for a newish (two year old) 35 Cron and a 90 Elmarit (six bit converted) and a little cash...?

Edited October 27, 2016 by Bill Livingston

[jlindstrom]

^ have a look at the Zeiss zm 35/1.4

 

It's half the price of FLE and a tremendeously good lens

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[spydrxx]

Bill - years ago I had the money to buy whatever I wanted, and like a drunken sailor, I did. But then it was so hard to choose which lens to use....some got lots of use, others sat in the closet and rarely got used, even though they were deemed to be "better" lenses. Disaster hit and I sold everything....but eventually, eased back into the Leica world...and in the process made better choices for what I was actually shooting. I discovered the characteristics of some of the older lenses and my passion was reignited. I no longer drool over the latest and greatest, although I enjoy reading abut others' experiences...I just go out and shoot with what I own...making the "me" adjustments instead of obsessing over the lens. I think, in the process, that my anxiety and blood pressure has gone down. How sweet it is

[jrp]

The 50mm Summilux is an extraordinary lens (as is the 50mm APO Summicron). But if you need wider, then the Summilux 28mm or 35mm are superb, if not quite as attractive in their rendering. As some one above has pointed out, the 35mm Zeiss f1.4 is at least as good as the Leica lens. I find that I use a 21mm more than I would have expected, but I tend to take the Summilux for its look more than the slower but more perfect Leica. You shouldn't neglect the Voigtlander lenses either, for their distinctive look an relatively good value for money.

[pgk]

I do love the the pre ASPH Summilux as well - (so much so, as even having different versions of it - my favorite being a nice user infinity lock version), but I would hardly call the pre ASPH Summilux ergonomic (it is WAY to cramped in it's controls as it is so compact and especially when using with it's contemporary 12504 lens hood it feels like changing a car tire through a keyhole of a locked fireproof door with a crowbar and superglue.

 

Having used this lens more recently, and with the 12504 hood, I have to disagree I'm afraid. To me its remains the neat, small and easily usable lens which typifies what Leica lenses should be all about - and quite ergonomic (my hands are 'medium' sized too.

[michaelwj]

Bill,

A very good analysis of our most modern dilemma. Which lens to buy, and then which lens to take!

 

I am a 35 shooter. I've tried to use a 50, and have very successfully used one in the past. I seem to constantly try to get back to it (shooting a 50), but although I like the photos I get with it, I don't like using it. Friends even comment that I should get a 50 because I take good photos with it. But... the photos don't carry enough meaning for me, they feel emotionally detached, like I'm an outside observer, whereas with a 35, I feel immersed in the photo and there is an intimacy that is missing with the 50. Oddly it is not related to how close I am, but that the photos seem closed off by the narrow field of view.

 

So, when I look at photos that others have taken (where I have no real emotional attachment to - I wasn't there) with a 50 (or even a 90 or longer) I like them, and I think to myself that I should try a 50 (or 90) again. The photos are excellent, the rendering, the subject isolation, compression, and lack of distractions all work really well, but then again, I find that the opposite is true in what I like in my own photos - I like depth, perspective, and other things in the frame to carry the story in a single image. Isolated details - such as faces, or details of a landscape or building - make great images, and I can see tham working in a series of images such as a book, but they don't stand on their own for me. It's taken (taking) me years to get to this endpoint. When I look at the final destination of all my photos, those shot with a 35 or wider seem to make it to my wall, where those taken with longer lenses are relegated to my computer and never seem to get printed. 

 

That was really just a very long-winded way of me saying that sometimes just because you see photos taken with a lens that makes images you like, it doesn't mean that you have to like it. It could be that you prefer to shoot with a 35 over a 50, regardless of what images each is capable of? I love almost every image I see from the 1.4/75, but there is no way that I can see myself shooting with one.

 

So after all that, your most used (but not favourite?) is the 35 summicron. So be it, no need to buy anything else (although there are 5 versions of it...).

 

I also fully understand that others feel the exact opposite to me

Edited October 29, 2016 by michaelwj

[michaelwj]

50mm Summarit 2.5, followed by 135mm APO-Telyt.

 

 

I think you are the first person to list a 135mm lens.

 

Can I ask what it is about it that you makes it a favourite?

[CYBORA]

35 Lux FLE , because this is the only Leica lens I have 

 

Saving for the 50 lux... 

[james.liam]

35 Lux FLE , because this is the only Leica lens I have

 

Saving for the 50 lux...

Save a little a little longer for the 50 APO

[Bill Livingston]

Thank you for the answers I received on my long and winding attempt at explaining where I am with this at the moment. All valuable input.

 

Michael, thank you in particular. The moment I read your post I understood exactly what you were saying and, actually, you are right... the 35 is really the lens I feel most comfortable with in my own photography and yes, you are absolutely right to point out that just because I enjoy the images and rendering of the 50 lux in other people's work, it doesn't necessarily mean that is 'my' focal length.

 

I feel instinctively that I am a 35 shooter nowadays... and although I'm happy I have the 50 Lux... all this means is I'm even more convinced that at some point in the near future I will end up with the 35FLE. I really should have bought it when I bought my M-P... but I was already feeling I had spent too much on myself and ended up with the Summicron as a compromise... although to use the word compromise when talking about a lens of the Summicron's quality and price is really inappropriate.

 

This forum isn't all that helpful when it comes to reigning in my tendency towards retail therapy... I started reading here a couple of years ago with an idea that I would buy a used M8, moved on to a M9P which I very nearly bought from Lieca Manchester (Stephens as was) and then ended up with an M-P from Leica Mayfair when it was released... and since then I have bought the Summilux 50 to add to the 35 and couldn't resist a 90 Elmarit after reading a few posts... then of course there is the perennial temptation that is the SL and I still want to get a Q for my son...although a used M of some description and my Summicron passed over to him would probably be a more cost effective long term purchase.

 

Sigh....

[105012]

I think you are the first person to list a 135mm lens.

 

Can I ask what it is about it that you makes it a favourite?

 

Hi Michael, the 135mm gives just the right angle of view for moderate compression of perspective pictures. And it is a wonderful, wonderful focal length for natural perspective portraiture. I use a pair of M3's, so the most accurate rangefinder in the Leica range. The APO-Telyt is light and compact for a 135mm, a vital attribute.

 

On the 50mm Summarit, the handling of this is just about perfect. Without a hood, it is pocketable. I love the echoes of the Summicron/Summaron 35mm (v1) in the design of the Summarit (unfortunately lost in the stubby 2.4 re-design). And it has a firm aperture ring, no Leica Random Aperture Syndrome!

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[pgk]

I think I'm going to take my Summicron off my M and force myself to use the 50 Lux for a few weeks... its certainly a focal length I used to use years ago in my film days and obviously I still have an unconscious affinity with it... and then sell the Summicron and Elmarit 90 and try to fund a 35FLE...

 

I think a 'selling spree' is needed to assuage the guilt... Unless anyone on the UK has a 35FLE they don't use and would swap it for a newish (two year old) 35 Cron and a 90 Elmarit (six bit converted) and a little cash...?

 

A word of warning. I sold my 90mm Elmarit-M and discovered that it was a bad move. I now have one again. Its an unpretentious lens which is surprisingly effective IMO. Think very carefully before disposing of such lenses.