40mm Summicron - The Perfect M8 Lens?

[WestMichigan]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

The head of the Photo Program I attended at Grand Valley State would bemoan me not remembering f2 to f2.8 is a full stop. I still don't remember for sure actually! It's been a rough decade and a half since college.

 

I fully understand that it is rare the lens design that is gangbusters starting right at from it's full aperture settings.

It is just that in the image for f2, I clearly make out much of the obvious transitions and shape edges of the f2,8 one and in my experience if I saw that low contrast and veiled shadows in one of my images or a customers images I was working with, the first thing I'd be looking for is a smear of finger grease on either the front of the lens or better yet one on the rear lens element.

Maybe it's my life's biases from having seen a sea of horrible photographs go through my hands running a photolab in a pharmacy for so long!

I could probably build a garden wall out of all the 4x6 prints with the wrist strap hanging in the frame!

The good old days of film,

they were expensive and

wasteful for the majority of

snaps taken by punters!

(sorry, I'm an american but been watching too many british mystery movies lately!)

Sincerely

Richard Ward

 

WestMichigan - f/2.0 to f/2.8 is a full stop.

 

As for lens characters changing at wide open aperture and being stopped down, this is not an undocumented phenomenon. Most lenses, if not all, are some what different, usually softer wide open than one stop down. The same is true for all the lenses I own (especially the super speed ones - Voigtlander Nokton f/1.2, 24mm Summilux, 90 Summicron)

 

That said, the 40 Summicron being the "BEST" lens on the M8? That's highly arguable.

[Advertisement]

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

[Thomv]

Hi ThomV,

I'd say that f2 in your test is definitely a big step down from f2.8 in image quality. For no reason beyond my innate curiosity I wonder why the lens, any lens, would be so dramatically different in image quality with less than a full stop's difference in aperture setting? It almost looks like the only difference between the two images could be accounted for by a good lens cleaning!

:-)

Richard

 

Today I ran a new test. 1.5m distance, proper light, sturdy tripod, self timer exposure. Indeed, this is better. The differences I now see between f2.0 and f2.8 is some loss of sharpness and falling contrast (softness), as to be expected. Below are 100% crops, taken from the center of the pictures.

 

It is not the best lens for the M8. It is one of my most used lenses though :-)

Thom

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[lct]

Yes a bit soft at f/2 as usual with pre-asph Summicrons. More so on edges and corners, as usual as well.

[WestMichigan]

Thanks for the re-run of the test!

It's always a nice addition for all of us when you or any one of us give examples and demonstrations of what's being discussed.

Kudos.

 

The 'decline' in image quality from f2.8 to f2 now seems more like what I would expect. I couldn't put my finger on it before, but I now realize that my expectations were based on the 40mm Summicron only opening up to a relatively fast f2 while the decline I was seeing in the previous test was more like that of an old 1.4 lens design. ie: competent above f2 or f2.8 but a low contrast hash wide open.

 

Sincerely

Richard in Michigan

 

Today I ran a new test. 1.5m distance, proper light, sturdy tripod, self timer exposure. Indeed, this is better. The differences I now see between f2.0 and f2.8 is some loss of sharpness and falling contrast (softness), as to be expected. Below are 100% crops, taken from the center of the pictures.

 

It is not the best lens for the M8. It is one of my most used lenses though :-)

Thom

[najibs]

I've owned the 40mm Summicron on my M8, but in my opinion the Voigtlander 35mm f/2.5 color-skopar works better on the M8. The rendering is nicer, as are the colours. Also, it's sharp wide open at f/2.5, whereas the 40mm wasn't as sharp wide open. It's a half stop difference, but I just like the CV35 a bit better. That's just my opinion, of course.

[roguewave]

Just got one in excellent conditions.

What a wonderful thing to find again the 50mm FOV.

But I modified it, because on the M8 the 35mm bright lines correspond exactly to what the lens catches, and that wasn't the case with any other lens I tried.

 

Why do some of you recommend not to modify it?

 

Ordered from eBay an adapter ring to mount steadily the UV/IR 39mm filter, because as it is, it detaches itself from time to time.

 

Regards, Alex

 

That is not entirely true.

 

In fact, just using the entire frame provides the best framing.

[Erik Gunst Lund]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

My 40mm f/2.0 Summicron-C Leitz is sharp at 2.0 and very sharp from 2.8 to 8.0 then diffraction starts to kick in on the M8u

I would defintely not call it soft.

Only the very far corners are not perfect.

My 'standard' lens.

 

After shooting some more, sadly I have now seen that the lens flares a lot when shooting for instance a city at nighttime, very bad, lamps and lights gets smeared towards the edges, so I will definitely not recommend it for that type of photography.

 

My favorite 'standard' lens is now the 28 2.8 ASPH Elmarit it has no flaring problems and it's sharper in the corners wide open and similar size.

[lct]

Yes the Summicron 40/2 has some flare indeed but the Summicron 35/2 pre-asph v4 is not significantly better and the Summilux 35/1.4 pre-asph is even worst from this viewpoint. Those are lenses from the seventees or earlier though. Modern lenses are sharper at full aperture and flare less generally, which is the case of the Elmarit 28/2.8 asph. Beware that the latter is more contrasty than your Summicron though so blown highlights are less easy to avoid. But you know this already. Great lens anyway.

[fWord]

The most recent sample crops posted by Thom were a bit of a surprise actually. I've seen sample crops elsewhere and don't remember them being quite so soft. There was a comparison with the Nokton 40/1.4 at another website which shows the Summicron still has the edge over the Nokton at f/2, but obviously the latter does open up one more stop to f/1.4.

[jgp]

I realise this is a pretty old thread but I just stumbled across it while thinking about another lens for the M8.2. FWIW, I don't think the 40mm cron-c is the best choice for the M8... the filters for this lens pretty much don't exist anymore, meaning that you'd have to shoot without a UV/IR cut filter. I realise you can do this but it's not ideal on the M8(.2). As others have noted, it also won't activate the 35mm framelines (which are closest to its focal length) without destructive modification.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love the lens. I've used it on film Leicas and it's a serious performer. I just don't think it's a strong contender for the title "Perfect M8 lens"!

 

My front runner for an affordable great lens for the M8 would be the Zeiss 35mm Biogon-T F/2. It's ultra sharp and has virtually no lens distortion - it actually holds it's own against the 35mm cron! Plus it activates the correct 35mm framelines, takes normal 43mm filters and works out to be a 46.5mm lens (with the 1.33 crop).

 

Anyway, sorry to revive an old thread.

[stevesurf]

My favorite "standard" lens for my M8.2 is the Leica 35mm f/2.5 Summarit-M with the Leica 50mm f/1.4 Summilux M or Zeiss 25mm f/2.8 Biogon T* ZM as I need tighter or wider shots. The bokeh on the 35 is wonderful see below with M8.2: