sm23221 Posted March 31, 2007 Share #1 Â Posted March 31, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) I shot right into the sun with my Summicron 28 f/2.0 @ 5.6 in my backyard to do a lens flare check. Do all Leica lenses exhibit no detectable flare or is it just this lens? If so, I'm very impressed! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted March 31, 2007 Posted March 31, 2007 Hi sm23221, Take a look here No flare.. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
35mmSummicron Posted March 31, 2007 Share #2 Â Posted March 31, 2007 if you look at the grass at the bottom, you will see a subtle rainbow flare. Â but the new leica lens designs are VERY flare resistant. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lars_bergquist Posted March 31, 2007 Share #3 Â Posted March 31, 2007 The 28 mm Summicron ASPH is famous for its resistance to flare. So were all its slower predecessors, curiously enough. Generally speaking, retrofocus wideangle lenses are pretty good. The 35 mm Summilux ASPH is also very good. Its predecessor from 1962 however was useless in any situation with light sources in the picture, backlighting or even high contrast. Â The current 50 mm Summicron (I judge from a specimen from the middle 1980's) is quite sensitive to flare from large areas of high illumination, e.g. a cloudy sky above dark woods, or a window with a sunlit landscape outside. The old Summilux was better, and the present Summilux ASPH is extremely good, also in the handling of reflections. Â Teles are notoriously flare-prone. I have no personal experience of the current aspherical lenses, but many 90 mm lenses have been quite sensitive. The dear old 135 mm Tele-Elmar f:4 however was outstanding. Â The old man from the Age of Uncoated Lenses Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lars_bergquist Posted March 31, 2007 Share #4  Posted March 31, 2007 I shot right into the sun with my Summicron 28 f/2.0 @ 5.6 in my backyard to do a lens flare check. Do all Leica lenses exhibit no detectable flare or is it just this lens? If so, I'm very impressed!  A comment on your picture. There are several forms of stray light. Flare is properly a veil or light haze over the whole image or a large part of it, lowering contrast. Sometimes we speak of 'veiling glare' around highlights. Haloing is rings or discs of light around light sources. Irradiation sounds like being nuked, but is just irritating. It means that a bright background 'eats away' at dark-contoured objects in front of it. A good test of this is naked boughs and twigs against an overcast sky. Last out are internal reflections, usually showing up as bright mirror images of light sources or of the diaphragm aperture.  No lens is totally immune to this. There is always a breaking point, the question is, where? If you look at your palm picture, you will see a bit of irradiation. There also seems to be some lowering of contrast due to general flare. This is always best seen in shadows. It would have been interesting if you had made a horizontal image, with the sun well outside the picture, and then compared the dark hedge in the two pictures. – The rainbow mentioned is not flare, however, but a reflection.  This is nevertheless outstanding performance. I use that lens as my 'short standard lens' on the M8, and I love it. With rangefinder lenses in general, it is a good idea to do some experimenting in order to find out where the limits are.  The old man from the Age of Uncoated Lenses. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ho_co Posted March 31, 2007 Share #5 Â Posted March 31, 2007 Michael-- nice shot, nice back yard, good demo of 28/2 Leica quality! Â Lars-- Thanks for a good, straightforward description of the various kinds of stray light that impact our photography! Â [if only we could get as concise an answer to your question (http://www.leica-camera-user.com/digital-forum/20406-m-ttl-question.html) in regard to delay between the pre-flash and the 'real' flash on the M8! Everyone says "too long," but it sure would be nice to quantify that!] Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dvsalim Posted March 31, 2007 Share #6 Â Posted March 31, 2007 The current 50 mm Summicron (I judge from a specimen from the middle 1980's) is quite sensitive to flare from large areas of high illumination, e.g. a cloudy sky above dark woods, or a window with a sunlit landscape outside. The old Summilux was better, and the present Summilux ASPH is extremely good, also in the handling of reflections. Â how about the noctilux? thinking about buying a used noctilux. any problem with this lens? flare or misfocus? what to consider about buying this lens? thanks Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sm23221 Posted March 31, 2007 Author Share #7 Â Posted March 31, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) Thank you for your comments. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lars_bergquist Posted March 31, 2007 Share #8  Posted March 31, 2007 how about the noctilux? thinking about buying a used noctilux. any problem with this lens? flare or misfocus? what to consider about buying this lens? thanks  No personal experience of the Noctilux (I am not made out of money, and I am not into weight-lifting) but rumour says it is about as insensitive to stray light as the old second-version pre-ASPH Summilux, which is pretty good. And that lens I have owned and used.  I regard the present flap about back-focusing as pretty close to neurotical. Half a century ago I learned that using a superspeed lens wide open was something you never did at close focus distances. First because performance was better a couple of stops down (it still is, as a rule, even if the general level has improved) and second because depth of field with a 1.0, 1.4 or even 2.0 lens at one meter is so thin, that just shifting the camera from landscape to portrait or even taking a deep breath can make your subject slip outside it. Also, a rangefinder (like a matte screen) is just a focusing aid, not the word of God from the burning bush.  This of course goes in spades with the shallower d.o.f. we can expect with the smaller sensor of the M8. (Please see my contributions to the thread about hyperfocal with the C/V 15, where I actually give a formula.)  I admit to owning a Summilux 50mm ASPH, but not because it is faster than the Summicron, but because it handles stray light much better.  The old man from the Age of f:6.3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riley Posted March 31, 2007 Share #9 Â Posted March 31, 2007 FWIW this was shot with a Canon i forget what lens it was, but it was a lens fault that required a recall Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sm23221 Posted March 31, 2007 Author Share #10 Â Posted March 31, 2007 That's pretty serious. I own many Canon L lenses, and, while the flare/halo control is good, my Leica lens exceed all of them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
35mmSummicron Posted April 1, 2007 Share #11  Posted April 1, 2007 unfortunately flare gets even the best of them. the attached shot is a grab i did with my 35mm Summicron ASPH with the square hood on, no filters. the latest 35mm F2 design is quite well known for its flare resistant properties.  and NO there is nothing wrong with my M8 or my 35mm lens--just posting to say that even though Leicas are amazing, they are not foolproof. you still need a knowledgable photographer behind the lens.  .....good thing you can review your shots on the M8 now   FWIW this was shot with a Canoni forget what lens it was, but it was a lens fault that required a recall   [ATTACH]31797[/ATTACH] Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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