Focusing with the Noctilux

[mardag]

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Ok, my mistakes, not Issues. But come on. Here how I list it

 

Advantages:

- One extra Stop for low light condition (which by the way, ITS RARELY THE CASE, with my Lux I shoot 99.9% of the time. But never the less, its an advantage)

 

- The BOKEH is magic. But than again, this depends on the taste. Some argue the 50 lux bokeh is better

 

Disadvantage:

 

- Heavy, defies the whole purpose of having a compact camera does it

- Very difficult to focus and obtain sharp results at wide open

- VERY expensive (three times as much of the Lux 50)

 

Now you all tell me, am I missing something here??? Dont get me wrong, this what I do when I normally considering buying something, same process I went through before deciding buying my first M9. I am sure Nocti owners have a good reason if they are honest enough. I know I wont, especially after spending 10 grand on it

 

Ok I´ll give at try!

 

I used to play the violin at the music academy in stockholm. At that time I had a great interest in bows(the stick you use to play the violin:)), partly because my teacher (a great teacher from Chile who played with Igor Oistrahk brother to David Oistrahk) had a thing for bows. He used to say "a good violinst needs at least five good bows". And by that he meant different bows with different characteristics, good legato bow, spiccato bow and so on. Some people would say(how can you justify the cost:)), why would you need dedicated spiccato bow when you play legato 95% of the time? Well, maybe your thing is to play pieces where there´s lots of spiccato!

I think it´s the same thing with lenses, my thing is to shoot wide open most of the time(wedding photography). Most people don´t. I like to be able to separate the subject from background even though background is quite close to subject. I like to be able to get the same feeling as my 85 1.2 canon with a 50mm lens(meaning more surrounding in the frame and still short depth of field).

Drawbacks, yep they exist but I have other lenses that cover those needs. And again it´s not that difficult to obtain sharp results with this lens(See my wedding post). The cost issue, the french bows I bought 17 years ago(for the cost of a noctilux) doubled in value. I think it´s quite safe to say that a noctilux won´t lose that much in value(If I had that money in stocks I would´ve lost more lately). And as a reference most of my violinst friend have invested 3-5x more in violins and bows compared to the cost of a noctilux althought their crappy musician salaries, it´s just a matter of priority. If cost is an argument or most bang for the buck, then I would suggest an old 5D with a canon 501.4(you would´nt se a difference in an A2 print compared to the M9, at least not stopped down, correct sharpened).

 

Weight issue, well I did buy it for other reasons. If I want a compact setup I´ll use my 35mm cron v4.

 

If someone asked me what rangefinder setup I would recommend (having just one camera and a couple of lenses) I would suggest a M9, 50mm summilux ASPH and a 28mm summicron.

 

Cheers:)

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[salim]

Thanks Mardag, I think I understand what you are saying . But the missus would want a better justification

[mardag]

Thanks Mardag, I think I understand what you are saying . But the missus would want a better justification

 

I read somewhere that all you need is a few beers a good tripod and an understanding wife:)

[mardag]

Many nice images on your blog by the way!!

[salim]

Thanks Mardag

[erl]

Disadvantage:

 

- Heavy, defies the whole purpose of having a compact camera does it

- Very difficult to focus and obtain sharp results at wide open

- VERY expensive (three times as much of the Lux 50)

 

Now you all tell me, am I missing something here??? Dont get me wrong, this what I do when I normally considering buying something, same process I went through before deciding buying my first M9.

 

Salim, your 'disadvantage' list is only one of perception.

 

- Heavy! Not at all. I have worked with it for about 10 years and never considered it heavy. I do consider dSLR's heavy and bulky however. But then they become light if you compare to some MF cameras. You see, it is all relative to how you want to think.

- Difficult to focus! Not more than any other Leica lens. However, it is slower to focus because of the long throw. This is greatly facilitated by adding the 'Steer' from LeicaGoodies.

 

- Expensive! Remember you are talking Leica here! If you have to judge your tool on it's cost, rather than it's performance, you are probably shopping outside your comfort zone. Price does not deliver performance!

[salim]

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Remember all the above was comparing to the 50 Lux. So its heavier, three times as much expensive and more difficult to focus wide open in comparison to the 50 Lux. Makes you wonder why would anyone go to the nocti over the lux putting the above in consideration

 

Anyway, I think I understand, is one of those thing, either you love it or hate.

[a.noctilux]

If you NEED it, you buy it .

 

If you WANT it, you buy it .

 

If you justify it, you DON'T buy it.

 

Nothing logical with any Leica gear if price is in balance.

 

Neither am I logical.

After years of Noctilux's use, ...

I discovered the vertues of Voigtlander Nokton 1.1/50.

The focus throw of Nokton is just half of the Nocti 1 : 90° for 180° from 1m to infinity.

But that's another story.

 

Arnaud

[IkarusJohn]

Remember all the above was comparing to the 50 Lux. So its heavier, three times as much expensive and more difficult to focus wide open in comparison to the 50 Lux. Makes you wonder why would anyone go to the nocti over the lux putting the above in consideration

 

Anyway, I think I understand, is one of those thing, either you love it or hate.

 

All true. It just depends on how much you want the extra stop, and the magic of the Noct. If you see it as magic. I'm still on the fence.

 

Cheers

John

[jaapv]

Expensive fence

[Guest]

All true. It just depends on how much you want the extra stop, and the magic of the Noct. If you see it as magic. I'm still on the fence.

 

Cheers

John

 

Listening to the same repeated talk over the years will do the trick It keeps coming and being there on the forum ad nauseam it keeps selling.

 

Regardless if it makes sense or not, or if any professionals of world wide reputation use a Noctilux or not.

Steve McCurry and Sebastiao Salgado use 2.8 / 24-70 zooms.

 

Not having big, heavy teles for the M system, it is the most expensive lens and half of them might have been sold for this reason mainly.

 

And it makes us accept the price difference between the Summilux Asph and all other 50mm lenses more easily.

 

PS Sitting on the fence is not that expensive.

Collecting exactly the same pictures taken at 1.4 and at 0.95 and posted here, while sitting on the fence.

[erl]

I still have trouble understanding why some of us criticize those of us who choose, for very good reason, to use different tools, especially when the task in hand has not even been described. Just an observation.

[fjheimann]

I ran crazy first with the 0.95.

Got new glasses and the 1,25 mag.

Now it works. Absolutely important is superclean glass on both sides of the finder.

Meanwhile I use a correcting lense, my correction is 2.5 so I took 3.0 which works fine.

Greeting,

Franz

[*Mark*]

perhaps you should not think to long about it - you are loosing extra time before you can enter a waiting list for it...

[mardag]

I still have trouble understanding why some of us criticize those of us who choose, for very good reason, to use different tools, especially when the task in hand has not even been described. Just an observation.

 

I think it reflects the atmosphere in this forum, check out this thread from DPI forum where they have a warmer tone towards each other.

 

Topic:Is buying a 55K camera justifiable... in the name of hobby? (Phase One IQ180, a noctilux is cheap in comparison:))

Is buying a 55K camera justifiable... in the name of hobby? - The GetDPI Photography Forums

 

One member even commented on the possitive responses to this post:

"These are very refreshing comments in response to a post that would be easy to criticize."