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APO Summicron 50/2 ASPH: Central veiling flare / fogging


pajamies

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Please have a look at Ken Rockwells description of the APO Summicron 90 mm asph.

This lens has a problem with very bright light spots and shows an enormous coma.

I don't know if the APO Summicron 50 mm asph. has the same problems with very bright light sources.

 

All the best

Guy

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I can induce a veiling flare quite easily on the 50 APO by taking a picture in the direction of the sun, with the sun roughly 20 degrees above top frame of the photo. It is bothersome and I do wish Leica had included a longer hood, even at some cost to the design aesthetic. On the other hand, other Leica 50s I have used have the same problem to varying degrees, and in all other respects, this lens is spectacular.

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I hope this is relevant and of interest.

Taken yesterday morning (APO 50 on MM) at f16 it is quite the biggest flare I have ever encountered, it bounced straight off the water.

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Here are a couple of shots showing central veiling...open and stopped all the way down to 16. Lovely contrast open...but when closed....!

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Here's a better set of the earlier images...each set of three shot at 2/5.6/16. You can see that even at 5.6 the problem is visible. Am sending this as 3 threads given image quotas!

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Second set...

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Last set...

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Thanks Ian...I know the problem you refer to on the 75mm...I have much worse problems with this lens with central veiling flare! Has been back to Solms but they were unable to fix it...am seriously thinking of trading down to the 75 summarit (which I don't believe suffers from this problem) as I just can't rely on the summicron as the flare seems to creep in very easily if light in front or to sides. Very frustrating. Jim

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The silvery ring here look curious though. I can't seem to recall having seen the same in other Leica lenses but i may be wrong.

 

I have a number of these in my Noctilux. I'm almost certain it's the bevelled edge of the lens element. I have never had this issue though.

 

The APO is a much smaller and tightly packed lens so perhaps this has more of a baring on things.

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Jim.grover....good display of the issue.

 

This provides more reason for me to be content with the already terrific Summilux asph, which required service to fix the 'sticky' focus turn, common in some samples. I wouldn't want to deal with another potential sample variation issue with Leica, especially one affecting IQ.

 

Jeff

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Agreed...I need to send this back (sadly). It's also the case that as it fogs in the centre, you lose focus sharpness at the same time, so even processing doesn't fix it.

:(

Thanks for posting these images, I agree that they clearly show the problem in the center when stopping down.

 

Looking forward to Leicas reply.

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Obviously I need to do some more testing with mine and not with the sun creating flare. Has anybody heard from Leica regarding this issue and does it present itself with every APO 50 released so far?

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I hope this is relevant and of interest.

Taken yesterday morning (APO 50 on MM) at f16 it is quite the biggest flare I have ever encountered, it bounced straight off the water.

 

This is a plain reflection of the sun hitting the water surface, not the same issue...

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This is a plain reflection of the sun hitting the water surface, not the same issue...

 

Looks related to me, just more intense. I don't have this shooting with other lenses. This is not an abnormal shot, it shouldn't be flaring like that.

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