jlindstrom

Actual lenses may have changed, but 28/50 focals stay. It’s the do-it-all combo for me. And now it’s all summicrons, meaning light and very capable.

So perhaps it's a F-stop vs. T-stop thing. They both share the same calculated F-stop value, but in reality transmit light differently causing difference in T-stop and thus in real photos as well.

Referring to some earlier posts in this thread speculating on differences between same, indicated, aperture values of Noctilux and APO. There was, based on comparing how image backgrounds look, speculation that the values don’t hold true - either nocti has larger f-stop than indicated or APO smaller. Perhaps the indicated values hold true and there’s another factor in play. The lens rentals test shows differencies in focal length between the lenses. This will also have affect on the look of the lens. Noctilux is said to be actually 52.5mm and the APO is measured at 51.5mm. This difference should account for something, right?

Picture of the end result, my new light weight travel kit. And the mandatory cat test shot 😂 On my computer, zooming into our cats left (side of the pic) eye, I can see my own reflection taking the photo. And this was at f2. Crazy!

This is where I ended up after letting go of the Noctilux. The whole setup now weights less combined, than M10 + Nocti. It's now a neat & light weight travel package. But it's always a very personal choice and I'm sure you'll be happy with yours, which naturally is the only thing that matters. From the very little testing I've had time to do with the APO, it's incredibly sharp.

The nocti felt heavy, so swapped it to APO. When I used it, I was ok with the weight - but it wasn’t getting the use. So weight had the effect of leaving the lens on the shelf. Will most likely miss the 0.95 at some point, but not that often. From 2.0 onwards, I don’t care if nocti is just as good - I didn’t change it to get better IQ. I had zero complaints about noctis performance, it was just perfect for me. I could have also swapped to summilux, but that wasn’t financially sensible. There was no way of doing it, without significant monetary loss. With this swap, my 2.5 years ownership of the nocti cost me roughly 50€/month. I may or may not add summilux to my lenses at some point, but most likely not. If I do, it’ll be a hard choice between last pre-asph and current asph as both have their virtues. Currently I’d probably get the pre-asph. Only time will tell, wether this swap made sense. Just about to embark on a month long trip to Spain. I’ll know more after that. And I always carry my gear in a light weight shoulder bag (bare bones bag evolution) and have a wrist strap on the camera.

Yeah, that’s what I figured as well. But at the moment, it’s the only solution in time for my trip. Only cost 7€, so figured it’ll be better than nothing.

Tomorrow is the day... in goes the Noctilux and out comes the APO. Just in time for my trip to Spain. Now just hope for the 39 -> 46 step-up to arrive in mail in time. ND filters in 39mm size are hard to come by. As I already have a ND4 for my 28/2 asph in 46mm size, I figured I’ll give a shot for the step-up.

a.noctilux I understand, what you mean. But that’s not for me... Having one lens on camera and second in pocket is already causing almost anxiety for not using the one in pocket 😂 In many ways tri-elmar would be the perfect choice. Just one lens and nothing more, still having 3 focals. But it’s a tad slow for my liking... Now the next thing to do, is focus on taking photos. Been using the iPhone far too much lately and it’s got me back to my lazy & bad old habbits with framing. Too any photos trying to ”get everything” in, which always makes for a very boring photo. Get closer & focus attention to details!

Ok, having done lots of soul searching on this. Went through my lightroom archives and looked at how much was .95 and how much something else. Also looked at the distances and the subjects. I have to say it isn’t even close to 5% that was utilising .95 and not all of those were actually even keepers. What benqui described earlier fits my photos as well, meaning mostly travel & family. And also the subject seems to be most of the time 2-3 meters out. So I went and took the deal. It’ll take a couple of weeks to get the APO. Naturally there are few shots, where I will miss the nocti, but workarounds do exist. In worst case, I’ll later on add 75 APO summicro, 50/1 nocti, 75 Summilux or some 90mm for the portraits. But I’m pretty certain that won’t happen. So, when this swap is done, I’ll have the 28/2 (latest) and 50 APO. Light weight and very capable set for travel etc.

Tnx for your insight benqui 👍 Travel, street, portrait & family photos pretty much defines what I use my camera for. And all these within the context of family memories. I’ll dig deeper into my lightroom archives and meditate some more. The weight savings is something like 300g, which is a lot.

I’m based in Turku, but visit Helsinki area almost every week, so I just might get back to you on this. Thanks for offering a helping hand 👍 That perception of different dof at same f, do you think it’s really a dof thing or just difference in how the contrast falls off? I’ve been under the impression that same focal and same f equals similar dof, as it can be calculated. You mention Noct on SL doesn’t need ND. Is that because SL can be set to a lower ISO or what’s the reason behind this? Milan_s: I wish I could afford such luxury, but unfortunately can’t at the moment. SMAL: Absolutely true. I used to own Summilux 75 back in the M8/M9 days. Before cla at Leica, it was a nightmare. And whilst it was bang on with the M8, it was immediately off when I got the M9. Luckily my Noctilux seems pretty perfect on my M10. I attribute missed shots more to my own fault than calibration, as there is more success than misses.

^ Unfortunately I don’t have the luxury of such rental service in Finland, so it’s pretty much always a buying a pig in a bag. Had an interesting read, with Thorsten interviewing Peter Karbe about the APO and it’s relation to Noctilux. It was pretty much stated that, Noctilux stopped down to f2 and beyond performs the same as APO. Even of there would be some differences, I’m sure my skills wouldn’t be enough to separate them. So in that sense there’s nothing to gain technically. So the decision is pretty much: large size and 0.95-2.0 vs. small & light and loss of wider than f2.0.

It always is. For me it’s just the way my mind works. I like to bounce off ideas from different people. It’s partially collecting bits of information & experiences and also just as much about clarifying my own thoughts, having people challenge my ideas. Basically a good conversation, just over the forum👍

Ideally I’d have both or actually four of them... 50 pre-asph summilux, 50 summilux asph, 50 apo and the nocti. Unfortunately I cant fund that.. or I could over time, but won’t. Having several lenses is not for me. I have 2 lenses and that’s already hard to choose from 😂 I’ve had both the summiluxes earlier and liked them both. I ”upgraded” from the pre-asph to asph to nocti. And I’ve gone through more than enough cameras. Sometimes owning several cameras and lenses for each. None of that is for me. So I guess the one thing certain is that I’m bad at deciding about my aims when it comes to photograpy - really bad. At times severe GAS kind of bad. Probably the wise thing to do would be to embark on some kind of one lens, one camera policy and use only the nocti and then after a while decide.