Review request - AA50/2 vs 50/2

[skinnfell]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Before the Apo-Asph cron was launched, I had serious plans of buying the rumored new baby. 50mm is by far and away my favorite and most used focal lenght on Leica both film and digital. Of course when the new one turned out to cost more TWICE that of the (already brilliant) 50lux, some v e r y careful considering is called for if I am going to upgrade. (which would mean selling 35,50,75 crons).

 

I would like to see a side-by-side comparing the "current" 50 summicron versus the Apo-Asph 50cron and/or possibly the 50lux.

 

In particular, unprocessed 100% crops of center and corner performance wide open and stopped down (f11) is interesting.

 

Flare is hard to test but 50cron has a lot of it (which bugs me a lot), while 50AA supposedly has none. It would be interesting to test this too.

 

The current 5-600 pix previews is hardly enough to judge this lens other than perhaps bokeh and general color.

 

Being as astronomically priced as it is, it would be interesting to see how much of an improvement there is.

 

PS. I have seen the ming thein blog review but would like a comparison within leica lenses.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[jaapv]

A bit hard, as the number of lenses on the market is zero and likely to remain so for quite a few months.

[giovanni]

Before the Apo-Asph cron was launched, I had serious plans of buying the rumored new baby. 50mm is by far and away my favorite and most used focal lenght on Leica both film and digital. Of course when the new one turned out to cost more TWICE that of the (already brilliant) 50lux, some v e r y careful considering is called for if I am going to upgrade. (which would mean selling 35,50,75 crons)..........

 

Is that very little bit of image quality improvement so much important for you that you would sell 35 and 75mm lenses so losing a lot of flexibility???

[gjames9142]

Leitzwollen is a disease, or at the very least, an expensive compulsion. Unless you sell large prints for a living, there is little economic sense to dumping your gear to replace one of the best lenses Leica ever made. How many images do you lose to flare> How many of these have been compelling pictures that you otherwise could have sold or published ?

[bocaburger]

Flare is hard to test but 50cron has a lot of it (which bugs me a lot),

 

I've never encountered flare with mine...maybe I should send it to Solms for recalibration . If it "has a lot" of flare as you say, then why would it be hard to test? Just take side-by-side shots with your lens and you should see flare vs no-flare in all those situations where the current lens bugs you a lot.

 

Being as astronomically priced as it is, it would be interesting to see how much of an improvement there is.

 

Just go ahead and buy the lens. I guarantee anyone who does will see a huge improvement over the current version

[01af]

I had the opportunity to play with a prototype Apo-Summicron-M 50 mm Asph for a few minutes and fired a few shots with it and the Summilux-M 50 mm Asph on the M9. The Apo-Summicron's performance is incredibly good and definitely better than the Summilux's.

 

In a wide area around the frame's center, the difference in sharpness is not so great because here, the Summilux already is excellent. However near the borders and particularly in the corners, the Summilux's sharpness (at f/2.8) falls off significantly—and the Apo-Summicron's does not. Not at all. Moreover, the Summilux exhibits some minor lateral chromatic aberrations and the Apo-Summicron simply does not. Also the Apo-Summicron's foreground and background bokehs are extremely smooth which I guess is the most obvious difference. Someone said the Apo-Summicron was a transparent lens—that's a very good way to express it. Transparent indeed. Your files will be all picture, no lens. I'd say if you can afford it then the lens is worth the money.

 

Still, there are a few negative points to mention. First, the built-in hood is mechanically well-made and convenient to use but way too short to be useful. Second, the vignetting basically is the same as the regular Summicron's and thus slightly stronger than desirable for such an expensive lens ... but I guess that's the price to pay for the small size—the lens is only insignificantly bigger than the regular Summicron-M 50 mm. Third—and that's my biggest concern—the focusing pitch is as steep as the Summilux-M 50 mm Asph's and hence, way too short to consistently put the plane of focus exactly where you want it to be. A lens like the Apo-Summicron-M 50 mm Asph should put more emphasis on accurate than on quick focusing (by the way, the same is true for the Apo-Summicron-M 75 mm Asph). For example, the Noctilux-M 50 mm Asph, with its longer focusing throw, is much easier to focus accurately and consistently.

[skinnfell]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Thank you 01af that was the kind of answer I was looking for (save for a full side-by-side test).

[Printmaker]

I'm sure we would all like to see some side by side tests. Personally, I have been looking forward to the release of this lens for about 2 years fully expecting it to come in around $3,000. When it came in at twice that figure, I realized I'd now be picking up one of those wonderful used 50 ASPH Summilux that will no doubt be traded in on the Apo Summicron.