What do you think of the price of the new 50mm Summicron?

[jaapv]

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If Leica cannot sell the quantity they aim to sell, the price is too high.....

I do not think their selling target s very high. The market may surprise them.

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

[sm23221]

It's probably a better investment than FB stock.

[Messsucherkamera]

What do I think? Several things:

 

1- It is dammed expensive (didn't say it is overpriced; there's a difference).

2- It costs less than the 0.95 Noctilux, which did not produce nearly as many shrieks of horror when it was released.

3- I think I want one but I know I can't afford one. Am I seething and throwing a tantrum over the latter fact? Not in the least. I'm not childish enough to think I am entitled to every single thing I want. I would like to have a Hinckley Sou'wester 51 too - and people in hell want snow cones.

4- I think that if I can ever afford this lens without selling a kidney, I will buy one. Until then, I will be content making photographs with my pre-ASPH 50 Summilux.

 

JMHO.

[Washington]

If the Leica super-duper cult keeps buying this nonsense.... it's only going to get

worse....... more expensive.

[Messsucherkamera]

It's probably a better investment than FB stock.

 

My MP has been a better investment than any stock I have heard of. This lens may well do likewise. It seems that beating the return on stocks is not that big of a feat for Leica lenses and bodies (film bodies at least).

[Jeff S]

My MP has been a better investment than any stock I have heard of.

 

Guess you don't pay attention to the markets. As one example, Apple stock appreciated 6,754% during the time Jobs was CEO.

 

Jeff

[jaques]

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i think it is overpriced, full stop. I will stick with my 1970's summicron which is perfect for me- and probably better made than this new lens.

 

I for one do not believe the hype... the increased price is not justifiable to me in relation to the increased sharpness- sharpness that hardy anyone (anyone at all?) actually needs.

 

I believe Leica chose the pricing in a fit of smugness after a massive year where they made huge profits: 'just what will the market accept?'. I think it is a very clever move on their behalf- and will enable them to increase the profits they make on well heeled customers who buy into Leica for the first time with a new M camera- and new 'standard' lens. People for whom money is no impediment to desire...

 

I also guess the majority of people who buy the lens will have absolutely no requirement for the quality it offers...

 

I think they will sell all they can make- at least for the next 12 months. I know lawyers who can make 7,000 USD in one day- and then their are billionaires who earn millions a week in interest alone... people who spend $15,000 on a pen will consider this lens cheap...

[lars_bergquist]

True if you compare your 21 at f/5.6 to the new 50/2 at f/2.8 but otherwise... Anyway the latter is the best 50/2 ever made by far. Its fair price is the one photogs will be prepared to pay for it. Don't ask me how much, my GAS attack is too severe at the moment.

 

First, I did compare them wide open. And then, both at 5.6.

 

Second, you must understand – and choose not to disregard – the fact that it is far more challenging to design a 21mm lens with its 90° angle of acceptance, that a 50mm lens. So we are comparing a moderate-speed 21mm lens with a moderate-speed 50mm lens. The comparison is valid.

 

In my main posting I cited unique special glass as one (hypothetical) reason for the high price. There may of course be another. The general optical layout of the Apo-Summicron is the same as that of the Summilux ASPH. The reason for that is of course that both lenses are the outcome of a design study that was done in the late 1990's. But when you compare the actual drawing you will see that most of the elements in the Apo have a far more extreme curvature than in the 'lux. It is also unbalanced: An anorectic front half and a bulimic rear. The whole design looks strained, even painful, while that of the Summilux is far more relaxed. Clearly, Herr Karbe had unusual problems. The lens may present unusual problems also in the assembly and the quality control (extremely narrow tolerances). And mind you, quality testing represent more than half of what you pay for a Leica lens, and that has always been the case.

 

Since last autumn, when I bought the 21mm Super-Elmar, I am fairly immune to GAS. I am covered by superb glass (not exclusively Leica, to be sure) from 18 to 135mm. A new atttack can come only if Leica bring out something that lets me do something I couldn't do before, and want to do. Like that coming EVIL camera.

 

The old man from the Age of the Leica IIIa

[lct]

It is always difficult to compare lenses of different focal lengths of course but it is you who compared the 21 to the 50, not me.

As brilliant as it can be, the 21/3.4 is outperformed by the new 50/2 in every field, which is not the case of the Apo-Telyt-R 280/4 to take another example of a near-perfect lens if any.

[pico]

My MP has been a better investment than any stock I have heard of.

 

Hear this:Apple (AAPL), Fastenall (FAST)... with FAST being the best performing stock in the history of the market.

 

It is strictly a personal thing, but I don't consider production cameras an investment. By the time I consider replacing a lens it is rather worn. And gosh, the lens under discussion has far more perfection than I can exploit. Its IQ out-resolves this user.

.

[Overgaard]

What I thought when I saw the new 50mm APO-Summicron-M in Berlin was that it was interesting that Peter Karbe finally had made the lens he has been working on for so long. I know Kaufmann said he had made a "masterpiece" (some time before Berlin, without telling what it was exactly).

 

But standing with a Leica M Monochrom that goes to 10,000 ISO in one hand and - what I happened to have - in the other hand a Leica M9 with a Noctilux, the relevant question in the coming months will be: Why have a Noctilux f/0.95 when you can have a compact 50mm that is more detailed and overall better - and even for less money?

 

The Noctilux for artistic purposes I guess. Then again, I have often had people comment on my 50mm Summicron-M f/2.0 (the 1964-model) "oh, that Noctilux is so nice." I think Noctilux is a shooting style rather than a matter of f-stop. Meaning that if you shoot artistic with a 28mm Summicron or 35mm Summilux or 50mm Summicron and play with light the way a Noctilux can do, you can create Noctilux aesthetics with even a Summicron.

 

In any case, time will tell. Most of us will probably decide to ... have 'em all but use mainly one lens. And the new 50mm APO-Summicron-M ASPH is a good bet on a lens one would use all the time.

 

PS

One more thing to note: The new 50 ASM haven't been out with beta-testers. All the Leica M Monochrom testers had the camera but not that lens. To me that means it might be undergoing a few changes still. My hope is that the newly developed lens hood will increase in diameter so the lens is the came diameter all the way from body to lens shade - just like the 50mm Summilux.

[marknorton]

The howls of protest that this lens is too expensive come, I'm afraid, from those who do not understand what's involved in developing cutting edge products. It's a case of diminishing returns where rapidy increasing complexity and cost yield smaller and smaller incremental benefits.

 

Also, apart from the cost of the materials and the processes involved in making it, the lens embodies intellectual property and an implied licence to use it; that has to be paid for along with the development and tooling costs recouped over a forecast production volume.

 

It strikes me as a much better proposition than the execrable M9-Tit and don't get me started on the hideous Hermes things. I just hope it will be bought and used to full effect by real photographers. For the performance it offers and the work which went into developing it and goes into making it, it's more than good value, it's a bargain.

 

What's holding me back is a comment in the Karbe video to the effect that only the M9-M will do it justice. I'm not in the market for one of those and will wait until we see what Leica does later in the year. However, if the Noctilux which is more expensive still can be the success it has been, it's difficult to see the APO Summicron, which stretches performance in a different direction, not doing the same. And more.

[georg]

I just looked it up:

In Leica Fotografie International ( 4/2006 and 6/2004) an aspherical 50mm Summicron is mentioned. The optical formula and performance characteristics are the very same but it also says that such a design was rejected because it would be too expensive... I guess the market conditions have changed. Let's see if it works out, as long as the "normal" lens-prices are not drastically increased because the "demand is just there"...

[farnz]

... I believe Leica chose the pricing in a fit of smugness after a massive year where they made huge profits: 'just what will the market accept?'...

Of course Leica would have but without the smugness with which you look to denigrate it. The primary aim of any business is to maximise profit. If the business is not maximising available profit then its shareholders will soon demand that it does.

 

Pete.

[SteveYork]

I just looked it up:

In Leica Fotografie International ( 4/2006 and 6/2004) an aspherical 50mm Summicron is mentioned. The optical formula and performance characteristics are the very same but it also says that such a design was rejected because it would be too expensive... I guess the market conditions have changed. Let's see if it works out, as long as the "normal" lens-prices are not drastically increased because the "demand is just there"...

 

That's where I read it!!!!!

 

This lens is for people who are passionate about their photography, because only they will spend so much on a lens that -- as a practical matter -- you probably won't see much of a difference to the naked eye.

[SteveYork]

Of course Leica would have but without the smugness with which you look to denigrate it. The primary aim of any business is to maximise profit. If the business is not maximising available profit then its shareholders will soon demand that it does.

 

Pete.

 

It's not that simple. A business needs a view of the horizon too. Some would say that Leica is alienating a significant portion of their customer base. But long as folks continue to purchase and use their products, it doesn't matter.

[swamiji]

I will have one some year, not next, but maybe the year after... If the choice is this lens or a M10, I think I will take the lens.

[Ellie]

I just saw the excellent pictures posted (as a flickr link) here http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m9-forum/238952-there-any-pictures-using-50mm-apo.html#post2072689!!

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Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[pop]

Being a youngest child, I am quite accustomed to wearing clothes my brother has grown out of (but never his shoes, thanks God).

 

In this vein, I have bought three new objects from Leica: a spare battery for the M8, one IR/UV blocking filter for the M8 and an M9. All the rest of my equipment I bought used. I can wait for the 50mm Summicron if I feel the need.

[pico]

Of course Leica would have but without the smugness with which you look to denigrate it. The primary aim of any business is to maximise profit. If the business is not maximising available profit then its shareholders will soon demand that it does.

 

Pete.

 

What happened on January 18, 2012 that made Leica stock jump? (rhetorical) And can you purchase Leica stock, really? It was my impression that two principals are trying to hold it all.