Jump to content
🇩🇪 Neu: Leica SL3 Reporter ×
🇺🇸🇬🇧 New: Leica SL3 Reporter ×

The Dilemma of 50s: 50'lux or 50'APO-cron

Guest odeon

By Guest odeon
in Leica M Lenses

Recommended Posts

leica lux

leica lux

Posted
Posted

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Do you have a handle on the Leica part number of the lens you are getting? WIKI lists 2 black models- and black paint version and a black chrome version I guess. I have asked Mitch if his ft scale and lens "50" was in red which I have seen on more than one, but he says his is in yellow.

 

It's a chrome version.

I clearly see on the pictures of the actual item that the ft and focal lenght "50" markings are in red. Rest is black.

 

According to the part number the lense is from year 2000.

The wiki seems not to be 100% covering part numbers.

 

P.S. Glad to see Leica Lux is not getting a Cron.

 

I'm banned to lux :(.

 

Just kidding...before I pulled the trigger on a Leica M did rent an M-E for some days, and it came with this pre-ASPH e46 lense.

That lense and the M-E converted me to Leica ;).

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • Replies 50
  • Created
  • Last Reply
pieterpronk

pieterpronk

Posted
Posted

I have the Summilux as I feel it's a nice compromise between just plain sharpness and performance excellence of the apo summicron and the out of focus game and character of the Noctilux. While I would love to try out a Noctilux, I have learned from other big lenses (Zeiss Biogon 35mm f2, which isnt even THAT big), that size is a big aspect of what I want from a lens.

 

That said, I would pick the Zeiss planar instead of the Apo summicron if I wanted another 50. It's not as sharp but I have always loved the Zeiss character and pop, and Ming Thein's comparison with the APO convinced me that it is close enough in technical performance, but has some extra pop, character, and more light gathering.

 

I would pick the Summilux pre-asph over the new Summicron because I find sharpness to be a bourgeois concept. :) Now, character, on the other hand, is something to pay for and something cherish once you find a lens of which you like the character.

Link to post
Share on other sites
dugby

dugby

Posted
Posted
I have the Summilux as I feel it's a nice compromise between just plain sharpness and performance excellence of the apo summicron and the out of focus game and character of the Noctilux. While I would love to try out a Noctilux, I have learned from other big lenses (Zeiss Biogon 35mm f2, which isnt even THAT big), that size is a big aspect of what I want from a lens.

 

That said, I would pick the Zeiss planar instead of the Apo summicron if I wanted another 50. It's not as sharp but I have always loved the Zeiss character and pop, and Ming Thein's comparison with the APO convinced me that it is close enough in technical performance, but has some extra pop, character, and more light gathering.

 

I would pick the Summilux pre-asph over the new Summicron because I find sharpness to be a bourgeois concept. :) Now, character, on the other hand, is something to pay for and something cherish once you find a lens of which you like the character.

 

I actually formed the exact same opinion a few months ago, and bought a Zeiss ZM 50mm Planar and also the latest ASPH 50 Lux.

 

Ming Thein's two reviews (AP cron vs Planar and his other 50Lux review) were both very compelling about the Planar's capability in my buying decisions with a 50Lux.

 

So for less than the price of the 50 APOcron, I've got two outstanding lenses.

 

Most importantly the Planar is my urban jungle lens

Link to post
Share on other sites
Carduelis

Carduelis

Posted
Posted

I had a dilemma on 50s about six months ago in anticipation of buying a full frame Leica M some day. I did n't want to spend the kind of money for a 50 APO'Cron so narrowed it down to either a used 50 mm Summicron M or 50 mm Asph Summilux. I ended up going to a Leica dealer that had both used lenses in and after trying them both out settled for the 50 mm Summicron M. The reason being was that I found that the Summicron was sufficiently sharp and lighter than the Summilux and seemed the best lens for travel and landscape photography, my main photographic interests. From my understanding of MTF profiles, the Summilux has excellent sharpness wide open, but at a slight cost of the MTF profiles tailing off more than Summicron towards the edges particularly at f5.6. I have recently seen that the photozone.de website also demonstrates exemplary edge performance for the 50 mm Summicron M. It will be interesting to see how the photozone.de results turn out if they ever test the 50 mm ASPH Summilux and 50 mm APO'Cron some day.

Link to post
Share on other sites
AndyMc

AndyMc

Posted
Posted

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Hi All ive been lurking for a while and been the owner of an M8 with Elmarit 28mm .. just bough a Lux 50mm v2 pre Asph.. hope I've been lucky as I've bought from an online dealer...

Think I paid a fair rate for it. Any tips on this lens gratefully received.

 

Andy

 

Sent from my GT-I9305 using Tapatalk

Link to post
Share on other sites
platypus

platypus

Posted
Posted

I would pick the Summilux pre-asph over the new Summicron because I find sharpness to be a bourgeois concept. :) Now, character, on the other hand, is something to pay for and something cherish once you find a lens of which you like the character.

 

A bourgeois concept! that's amusing :) But it seems as though are you inferring that sharpness and character are mutually exclusive?......surely not!

Link to post
Share on other sites
pieterpronk

pieterpronk

Posted
Posted
A bourgeois concept! that's amusing :) But it seems as though are you inferring that sharpness and character are mutually exclusive?......surely not!

 

They are not mutually exclusive obviously, and sharpness or technical excellence can even be the character of a lens itself. But just like people, interesting character often consists for a big part of flaws. The Noctilux f1 has character in the sense that it's technical flaws or limits are so beautiful. Some of those flaws get "fixed" in the f0.95, but there are plenty left, and more sharpness wide open and smoother bokeh were nice character traits to combine with the some of the flaws that come naturally with such aperture lens.

 

I have the 50mm summilux asph because sharpness is a nice character trait which I found lacking in the pre asph, but I can understand why many find the asph kinda boring compared to the pre asph. In a sense it has a less pronounced character because of its technical excellence.

 

I would say that the speed of the noctilux and the summilux bring with it enough technical challenges to make a lens interesting, but we're reaching a point where Leica can make slower lenses that are so technically excellent that they lack interesting character flaws. The technical challenges get solved so perfectly that it gets boring. It's amazing, actually, that they can even make a perfect/boring f2.0 lens. Most companies can't even make a perfect/ boring f4.0 lens.

 

I do think that were reaching the point where we have watch out for technical excellence as perfection can make character dissappear. Don't we all know some person who seems to be such a "perfect" person so as to be utterly boring? :)

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Link to post
Share on other sites
jamriman

jamriman

Posted
Posted
I'm about to get the pre-ASPH v3 summilux now..

 

Mint condition 2700$ + warranty, sounds like a fair deal. What do you guys say?

 

The one to get is the black paint version. I wound up rebuying it. It's such a beautiful lens. Pricey but worth it if you can find one.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...