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It's a fabulous lens - tack sharp, compact and very easy to use.

 

I'm not sure I would ever forego the 75 Summilux for the APO 90, though.

 

PS - I have been meaning to add that an image I posted elsewhere on the forum of the Matukituki Valley (looking up towards Mt Aspiring), near Wanaka was taken with a loaner Monochrom and the 75 Summilux. I had it printed by Whitewall to 105 cm on the long side (not without some trepidation) - it is, in the flesh, perfect. Beautifully sharp, handheld at ISO 320, f/5.6 from memory. The thing I love about this lens is that used wide open, it has all the character of the pre-asp 50 Summilux or even the f/1 Noctilux, but stopped down it almost has the sharpness of its ASPH successors.

 

Not going to lose the 75mm Summilux. Ever. But I am considering buying the APO ASPH in either 90 or 75. It's more about colour and contrast continuity when working with other ASPH focal lengths on a job.

 

I agree that the 75mm Summilux stopped down is sublime. I don't even think a lens could actually be sharper.

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Summilux 75 on M8.2 outside & inside the Albula Railway Museum Berguen, Suisse:

 

 

Old 'Rhaetian Crocodile'

 

 

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Rhaetian Railway Ge 6/6 I 407 metre gauge C′C′ electric locomotive (1922 Commissioning - 1985 Withdrawal)

 

 

 

Old railway wagon, damaged by Alpine rockfall

 

 

 

 

Albula Railway Museum Berguen, Suisse,

M8.2, 'lux 75, Sept. 2012.

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Old-fashioned hanging lamp

M8.2, Summilux 75

 

 

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Flüela, Suisse, Sept. 2012.

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I love the way this lens deals with black shadow detail and paints with a thick pastel like rendering. I miss focussed Olive at f1.4 but still like the picture. First and last f1.4, middle f5.6

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Basel, Marketplace

 

 

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M82., 'lux 75, ISO 640, f 1.4, 1/180 sec., 14. Dec. 2013.

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Maybe Leica is afraid that sensors are too critical for 75mm at 1.4, which is technically beyond the reach of the rangefinder. With film it wasn't that critical. CS gets a lot of requests for lens adjustments over different camera's nowadays, I'm afraid this does not contribute to their profit.

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Hi all,

I'm curious; given the 75 lux is so popular, why is it not part of Leica's current crop?

Paul

 

Supposedly the glass is full of chemicals and substances which are now either illegal to use or too expensive to obtain and make work. I can't remember which. It wouldn't surprise me if we see an update at some point though.

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Apparently, it was Mandler's favourite.

 

I'm not aware that Peter Karbe has ever explained why he doesn't like this lens. It is based on the Summilux (II) 50, rather that the Noctilux f/1 as is often suggested.* Thankfully, it doesn't have the Noct's "swirly bokeh"; it has high contrast, good colour and is flare resistant. What more could you want? Character wide open, sharp as a tack stopped down!

 

Does anyone know why Peter Karbe doesn't like it? Is it just because it doesn't have any aspherical surfaces or floating lens elements? I guess it is the pinnacle of lenses for a design of that type (people are very complimentary of the Summilux (II) 50).

 

Cheers

John

 

*See Erwin Puts Leica Chronicle and the Leica Pocketbook.

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Apparently, it was Mandler's favourite.

 

I'm not aware that Peter Karbe has ever explained why he doesn't like this lens

 

 

Karbe is known for his promotion of OOF rendering (AKA bokeh), and IMHO he is responsible for the hideous rendering of the later Noctilux. The man is strung between aesthetics and MTF, which is impossible to rationalize in scientific metrics.

 

He chose MTF. His posturing of "F stop is to change rendering" is bull. I cannot believe he believes it.

Edited by pico
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Hi, John!

 

My guess is that Karbe doesn't like the residual longitudinal (or axial) CA of the 75 1.4 (red focusing in a different plane than green and blue) at large apertures.

 

http://www.2020mag.com/ce/2020exams/107855/fig4-5.jpg

 

In a B&W picture, it just appears as "Leica Glow." But in color pix, it muddies up the color distinctions in fine details (the blurry red image contaminates shadows with red, while letting small highlights drift cyan). This is very hard to correct for - unlike the lateral CA most of us encounter these days (magenta/green fringing in one direction, without as much of a loss in sharpness).

 

I.E., it is not that the 75 lacks aspherics or floating elements, but that it is the antithesis of "APO-chromatic" performance - except when stopped down.

 

I've had two since the M9 came out - got rid of them both, but only because I didn't want to carry the weight or the value around on journalistic assignments. The overall performance was not an issue - but it did take a lot of post-correction in some pictures, to clean up the non-APO color artifacts in fine details.

 

For the era in which it was designed, it was a phenomenal achievement, matching or surpassing (at f/1.4-f/2.8) slower Nikon/Canon 85 f/1.8 lenses of the time (and Mandler's own non-APO 90 Summicron) - for resolution at large apertures. And one of the sharpest Leica lenses of any type, when stopped down. So Mandler's pride was also justified.

 

But I am considering buying the APO ASPH in either 90 or 75. It's more about colour and contrast continuity when working with other ASPH focal lengths on a job. - Paul J

 

You might want to try out the 75 Summarit before jumping - and save many bucks. It definitely shares the same family contrast, color and resolution of the 75-90 APO teles and wider ASPHs. Only limitation is the 0.9 meter close focus limit.

 

And shows that Peter Karbe can also do non-ASPH, non-FLE lenses.

 

A nice 'contrast' (henh-henh!) to the 75 Summilux: 100% crop from M9, ISO 800, f/2.5.

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Edited by adan
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Karbe is out to do a few things, going by my observations:

 

1. make the oof area as neutral as possible so the focus is on the subject and not the bokeh (the 50 AA is the best example of this)

 

2. reduce Astigmatism which typically causes "the Leica glow"

 

3. make use of all the leica knowledge of glass types and manufacturing processes to break new ground and establish Leica as a top rank technology player (50 Lux ASPH, 50 AA, Noct 0.95, 75 AA etc.)

 

4. make the wide open performance (sharpness, color contrast, micro contrast) and closer apertures performance excellent so the only thing you gain by stopping down is dof

 

5. make the focus throw shorter than older leica lenses thereby making them faster to focus and more useable on the street

 

and maybe some other points of view i haven't noticed / are not in my active memory at the moment

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Thanks Adan - very informative. I tend to use the 75 Summilux with my Monochrom, so I don't have problems with CA at all.

 

Thanks also, GodParticle - the focus throw on the Noct 0.95 is also long, so I'm not sure that observation applies to all Karbe designed lenses. The AA Summicron 75 is particularly bad in this respect, whereas its 90mm sibling doesn't seem as bad in practice. For fast focusing street, I guess the 50 Summilux ASPH is the better bet. The AA Summicron 50 also has a short throw, if I recall correctly (I don't have this lens and don't plan on getting it).

 

Cheers

John

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i also did a weight comparison of all the lenses you see, will upload the images tomorrow

 

i think most of us carry our leica lens in the leather pouch and i never find the weight of a leica lens including the weight of the leather pouch

 

so i took the bare naked weight of the lenses (including front and back caps) and a second image per lens enclosed in the leather pouch

 

it's only a few extra grams in the end but i wanted to know and maybe some of you do too

 

images coming tomorrow

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