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One or two focal lengths for leica newbie?


andyedward

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Ask your dealer if he has some "used" lenses in stock u can borrow until the 50 APO arrives.

Or even buy one from him and return it as a trade in.

 

Else, buy a used 50 leica and sell it when the 50 APO arrives. Doesn't matter with one, elmar, cron or even lux as long as its used.

 

If u like the 50 focal length, don't buy a 35 because u might keep it, buy the lens u like most.

 

Oh, and be sure the 50 apo indeed takes longer to arrive ;)

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Get a 35 Summicron. It's relatively cheap, good, easily available and you can use it immediately. The 50 APO is such rare and expensive commodity that you may not have the heart to take it out of its pristine case, when it does ship.

 

Anyway as Lars says, the two are completely different lenses.

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Get a 35 Summicron. It's relatively cheap, good, easily available and you can use it immediately.

 

Alternatively if you want a 35....

 

Get a 35 Summarit. It's relatively cheap, good, easily available and you can use it immediately.:)

 

An excellent but under-appreciated lens.

Many discussions on it here in the forum.

 

Personally, I think having a 35 and a 50 is perfectly reasonable as they are very different.

If I take out only one lens out it is usually a 35 or 50.

but I agree with John that a 28 (or 21) very nicely compliments a 50...food for thought.

Edited by MarkP
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First off, I agree with Bill that these kinds of question are mostly unanswerable. But, in this case I think you have an opportunity here.

 

I would take the opportunity to purchase a 50mm 1.4 Summilux, some would say the greatest 50mm lens ever made to date. This would provide you the chance to get used to 50mm before you get your "perfect" 50 APO.

 

When you get your 50 APO you can know what you are comparing it to. I bet that a lot of folks will like the 50/1.4 much better than the 50 APO.

 

If, you prefer the APO then sell the Summilux or keep both. The Summilux is cheap comparatively.

 

Get a 50mm Summilux if you are a 50 guy, it is a must own/try lens. I like the images I get from this lens more than any other lens I own, period.

Edited by RickLeica
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Everything's been said already.

 

Except - given that you say you'd buy the 35 Summilux when finances permit and that you've gone for a film M as your first rangefinder - that you should not buy the 50 APO but instead the 50 Summilux and the 35 Summilux.

Edited by Scarlet
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Just before the 50 Apo was announced I was in a position to buy the 50 lux, but when Ming Thein descibed the image quality as what-you-see-is-what-you-get, I chose the Apo and handed my d3x over as a substantial deposit towards it, so it's a done deal.

 

In retrospect, I could have ordered both the 50 and 35 lux for a few bucks more than the 50 Apo alone, but I was too stubborn to change my mind. I knew I'd buy the 35 lux sooner or later and could justify both as they would be one-off purchases. With the 50 Apo, it's high wide-open contrast also appealed, though how this differs from the 50 lux at f2 I shudder to think. I've seen some beautiful images taken with the 50 lux - it's rendering has a special quality to it.

 

The local leica dealer said my MP would arrive in 3 weeks, but at the 6 week mark I'm beginning to think he's lost my contact details, so I'll give him a call on friday. At least the zeiss 35/2 will arrive a couple of days after I order it! The only recent purchases which have arrived are a few rolls of Adox and Porta.

 

My photographic life was going well until last year when I bought a 100/2,8 elmarit-r, but now I'm broke and have no camera to show for it...........

Edited by andyedward
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If you have a hankering for the 50 APO I'd go for it. I have a 50 Summilux (VII pre asph) and a 50 Elmar-M and have used both the 50 APO (briefly) and Summilux ASPH

 

They all have different personalities. I do like the rendering of older glass and love the pre ASPH, but that is preference only. The current 50 1.4 is stunning.

 

The 50 APO I wanted to 'knock' for being too clinical and pointless. I didn't and it isn't IMO.

I was really surprised how remarkable this lens was. It was somehow more real and honest, not harsh or 'sharp' just incredibly 'right' and 'being there' I could not justify ownership personally but I was very impressed and exptected not to be. It certainly left an impression :cool:

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I must be a bit daft because I just don't see the finer differences between lenses. Sure, I can see there's a difference between a Summitar and the 50 Asph. And that my 50 pre-asph is - on occasion, because it depends a lot on the light and other conditions - different than the Asph and, in fact, more akin to the Summitar. But I don't see the "finger print" or rendering of lenses and admire those who say they can see this in an image. I guess my eyes are just not sufficiently attuned to seeing these finer differences between lenses.

 

Reminds me of Puts's comment in his article on "Masterpieces":

The current Summicron is an outstandingly good design, but so is the ZM Planar or even the Canon EF 1.8/50mm.

 

Yes, that's the $100 "nifty fifty" he's discussing.

 

We all see what we (want to) see. Whatever floats your canoe etc.

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Me too, but which 35 and which 50?

 

Which kind isn't so important and depends on what kind of rendering you like. I think it's best to find the focal lengths you like and research yourself what rendering you like the look of and how it re-presents you and your work.

 

For me it's the 50 Noctilux .95 and the 35 Summilux FLE. I have more lenses now but I could easily live with these two alone. The Noctilux and M9 is now my everyday workhorse (replacing Blad/P65+ and Canon 1Ds III) AND every day personal camera.

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After a little while you will see what you like about a lens and what you prefer about another. In some shots it will be very obvious on others less so.

 

Particularly if you take a shot of the same subject under the same conditIons. Then compare, not at a pixel level but at an overall image and look. How for the same f stop the transition between and out of focus happens. If the image depth looks different, how sharp, how it deals with light and highlights and tones etc.

 

If you walk into a room and like the decor. It will take time to understand what you like and why you can recognise a look more quickly. Go into enough rooms and you build up this knowledge and can then pick up on the why more readily which allows for more creativity

 

Ultimately if you don't prefer one image over another then stop there, however I suspect you will quickly get to know your lenses and which ones you like and which you don't

 

I didn't like the 35 Summicron ASPH or the 75 Summarit, both perform better than the lenses I replaced then with. But they render differently

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A missed hip shot with my 50mm Summilux VII at f1.4 at the weekend, out of focus all over can sometimes tell you a lot about how a lens renders, pure mistake but I can see the pre asph old Summilux in this ! (Sorry for going off topic !)

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Thanks Sensei. I feel there's hope.

 

You can only validate things once they have become familiar and you have learned to repeatedly identify them. So it's simply a matter of experience and of familiarisation.

 

There's a regular saying with clients. "I like it but I can't tell you why". Or more difficult "I'll know what I like when I see it"

 

The same goes for Audio. What an untrained ear will say is "amazing" an audiophile will be able to describe it to a tee and tell you that there is a gap in the crossover and there is detail missing in the bass.

 

Unless your relate it to your pictures and particularly the message in your pictures and use it as a tool then it's just pointless academics.

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I'd pick up the first decent 50mm I could find to use as a stop-gap. Doesn't matter too much what it is but it'll get you familiar with the focal length characteristics and you'll also get a clearer comparison when the 50 APO arrives. An old screw-mount Summitar or vintage Summicron would be interesting for little cost and provide a real alternative to the newer lens so you wouldn't risk redundancy as you might with, say, a new Zeiss lens.

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Got an old 40 coming my way just to see how I like the FL. Trouble is I like the 35 and now am liking the 50 more often since I got the 0.95.

 

In a thread a month or so ago I mentioned that some photographer friends have found themselves migrating from say the 35 to the 50 over time as there skill levels or whatever change with time. Maybe there view of life becomes more narrowly focused.

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if everything had to go the last thing would be the 35mm 1,4 ASPH. It is what the machine was made for.

 

if almost everything had to go, I'd keep the last 75mm 1,4 too, it is virtually the limit of what the unaided rangefinder is good for (with my eyes).

 

Going on walking hols however the kit contains the tri elmar (28 50 35) which with faster slides is nearly as good, and the 90 goggles macro (new type) which is such a lovely clean piece of glass and (with huge effort) quite versatile.

 

Going up to London I may deliberately bung on only the 50mm 2,8 collapsible, same reason, it imposes its style and only 4 elements gives incredible results, and it makes me work the scenes.

 

But the 35mm would be the last to be torn from my dying fingers......

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Thanks Sensei. I feel there's hope.

When you own different lenses you will very clearly see the difference.

I own the 50 cron , Summilux ASPH and Noctilux 0.95.

Big difference from the cron to the ASPH lenses. The noctilux is about the same rendering as the 1.4. The extra stop give is a little more drama wide open.

 

Here's a small comparison thread I made:

Which do you prefer? 50 mm comparisons: Leica Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

 

On a real human face the ASPH lenses render warmer which most people seem to prefer.

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if everything had to go the last thing would be the 35mm 1,4 ASPH. It is what the machine was made for.

 

But the 35mm would be the last to be torn from my dying fingers......

 

I have just received a 35/2 zeiss, but when the 50 Apo arrives I'll order a 35 lux. Back when I owned a d3x, reading 35mm F mount lens reviews never persuaded me that their wide-open performance was worth paying for, despite having need of one. The 35 lux has an excellent reputation, though.

 

When I first began photography with a d700, I'd look at the price of leica luxes and think: "WTF, I'll never pay that much for a lens"!, but two years later I bought an elmarit-r 100/2,8 and it's gone downhill from there........

Edited by andyedward
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