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50mm Noctilux review

mirekti

By mirekti
in Leica M Lenses

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Paul J

Paul J

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Posted

You can tell the type of person who has made this review. It's a decent but boring metrics review done by someone who probably doesn't give a shit about the rendering, which is the very reason one buys this lens and it is entirely unique from any other lens I know.

 

From personal experience I would rate the lens as 5 star, based on certain criteria, but others may well rate it 3 star for those very same criteria, making these sort of reviews, in the grand scheme of image making, mostly moot IMO.

 

If you buy it, you personally like, and probably love the look and have uses for it. Or you don't. Its really as simple as that. The short comings of this lens, for me are very few and even if they updated the lens which addressed these short coming I would not buy it because I love the way it is now. If anything I would buy the f1 as well for it's rendering and softer wide open performance and contrast that someone like this would say is a worse lens.

 

When I show people the M9 + Noctilux combo for the first time the very first comments are WOW!!!!! Then shortly after that they look through the viewfinder and say "but you can see the lens". Admitedly when I first got it I felt the same but after some use I don't even really notice it now and have my work arounds. Again, if you love the look of the lens, you put up with it and shortly after you accept it as part of the package and after a short while longer you forget it and the tool becomes part of the way you see.

 

It's a lot of money to spend and I tip toed around reading what was at the end of the day, pointless reviews like this for quite a while and decided to jump in based purely on the results I was seeing with it. All my concerns were layed to rest and I have been using this lens as my standard everyday lens for personal and demanding work situations for almost 2 years and am 100% over the moon with it.

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Freedolin

Freedolin

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Posted
You can tell the type of person who has made this review.

 

Really?

 

It's a decent but boring metrics review done by someone who probably doesn't give a shit about the rendering

 

Definitely wrong. I simply fail to see rendering quality worth 11.000 USD...

 

which is the very reason one buys this lens and it is entirely unique from any other lens I know.

 

Disagree. There's the SLR Magic Hyperprime, which comes very close to the Noctilux. And there's also the Summilux ASPH, which to my eyes offers a similar modern look, just not the speed.

However, personally I hardly ever have real use for apertures below f/1.4...

 

From personal experience I would rate the lens as 5 star, based on certain criteria, but others may well rate it 3 star for those very same criteria

 

So we're actually quite close, I went for 4.5 out of 5 (field quality rating)

 

making these sort of reviews, in the grand scheme of image making, mostly moot IMO.

 

... to you, but not necessarily to everyone.

 

If you buy it, you personally like, and probably love the look and have uses for it. Or you don't. Its really as simple as that.

 

That's more or less what I wrote in the verdict... did you read that, or did you just look at the stars?

 

-- Markus

-- photozone.de

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Paul J

Paul J

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Thanks for clarifying a few things.

 

Really?

 

Really - you just said it yourself! "...However, personally I hardly ever have real use for apertures below f/1.4…" It's a common opinion, and that person will often say that the Noctilux is pointless and to get the Summilux instead.

 

Definitely wrong. I simply fail to see rendering quality worth 11.000 USD

 

And this is why it is subjective because I do. I've owned it two years and long forgotten the price. I would buy it again if I needed to.

 

Disagree. There's the SLR Magic Hyperprime, which comes very close to the Noctilux. And there's also the Summilux ASPH, which to my eyes offers a similar modern look, just not the speed.

However, personally I hardly ever have real use for apertures below f/1.4

 

You can't buy the Hyperprime anymore and I wouldn't buy it anyway. Sure, If you prefer the Summilux then buy it. The differences between the Summilux and Noctilux are quite evident too. Similar, yes, but they are there. There are a few wide open comparisons on the net and you can see the differences yourself.

 

So we're actually quite close, I went for 4.5 out of 5 (field quality rating)

 

I could find nothing on your site that explained what field rating was. Seems obvious now that you've pointed it out. But since you gave it a very low optical rating that is very confusing.

 

to you, but not necessarily to everyone

 

And did you read what I had written? - IMO. Image making has nothing to do with technical perfection. I use this lens for it's look. I use medium format when I want high IQ and resolution. The tool I use depends on the image I want to make.

 

That's more or less what I wrote in the verdict... did you read that, or did you just look at the stars?

 

I read and looked at the stars. I found the star rating contradicting your writing and I had no idea what field rating actually quantified, since you gave a very low optical low rating I guessed that it was more to do with haptic or something.

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Guest Marc G.

Guest Marc G.

Posted
Posted (edited)

I think people freak out because:

 

a) the lens is expensive and starts polarizing just with that fact alone

B) the lens itself is a masterpiece of optical design with a relatively compact design, that extreme f stop and still a very impressive optical performance but only got 2.5 stars in the general rating (personally I think that the design problems of a 0.95 lens for 35mm format should have been taken into consideration a bit more clearly)

c) faults are very clearly exposed and the possibility to compare it to ANY lens on this site without further thoughts is there

 

 

other than that I was asking myself whether photozone had fallen asleep as there was no new review for a month. glad they found the time to publish 2 eagerly awaited ones now.

 

cheers

Edited by Marc G.
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DMJ

DMJ

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This is all very subjective, though I feel the the Photozone review messes up in it's optical star value.

 

Is it really worse optically that the Canon & Nikon full frame offerings? Is it that poor relative to the 'old' summicron tested on the same site?

 

Star ratings should compare optics regardless of price. I feel that the cost of the Noctilux has clouded the reviewers star rating of it's optics; whereas the price should only affect the 'price/performance' star rating - which is certainly a one or zero star.

 

Perhaps, given the choice, the reviewer would prefer the Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.8 G with it's vastly superior optics. Each to their own.

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Carduelis

Carduelis

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I think that in most cases there is no perfect lens that for a particular focal length produces the best centre and edge sharpnesses, smoothest bokeh, is the least distorting and has the largest light gathering capacity (lowest f stop). I feel that with the Noctilux, you have to accept that in providing an f stop of 0.95, there is a flip side of losing some edge sharpness when stopped down in comparison with the 50 mm f2 M Summicron. This also seems to be the case when comparing the f5.6 MTF profile of a 24 mm f1.4 Summilux lens with that of the f3.8 Elmar lens where the latter seems to be improved. From studying MTF profiles, the 35 mm Leica lenses seem to be different, where at f5.6, the ASPH f1.4 Summiluxes (pre FLE and FLE) seem to be slightly better at the edges than the f2.5 Summarit and indeed the f2 ASPH Summicron.

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skuromis

skuromis

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I find the test quite positive. Of course, with the boring numbers the lens is not the best. I'm not surprised as this is a highly specialised lens. And a highly specialised lens cannot be overall the best performer. That's why the field quality was rated much better than the pure numbers actually suggest (I hope nobody wants to take landscapes or architecture shots at f0.95). So everyone can choose, what exactly to look at and make his/ her own mind. And the question about money, ... well there will always be some discussion :D No reason to get upset.

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  • 1 year later...
VictoriaC

VictoriaC

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I just bought a Noctulux 50/0.95 on Thursday after a lot of deliberation (I have to admit that it was reading Thorsten Overgaard's webpage that tipped me into buying it). My knee-jerk response to it was OMG, what a beast! I've come to it having been using a Summilux-M 50/1.4 ASPH and a Summilux-M 35/1.4 ASPH FLE as my daily lenses for the past 6 months AND really being especially in love with the 50/1.4's output but having had the 0.95 on the camera all day yesterday (and having taken about a dozen shots whilst out with friends in London) I am actually blown away by the ZINGY POP and contrast the 0.95's photos have. Like wow!

 

You know, I don't need a Noctilux, quite frankly didn't even need a Summilux 50 or 35 though I love them both but the Noctilux, in spite of its size and weight IS actually amazing, I'm glad I did buy it and look forward to taking more photographs with it.

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jrp

jrp

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Well he can only keep a certain amount of capital invested in his business.

 

I assume that he keeps lenses only for the purpose of doing further comparisons.  These lenses are incomparable  :rolleyes: .  Or there are better lenses at the focal length / aperture, in his view, on which to base any future comparisons.

 

It is interesting that, having moved to the new old factory, Leica have not introduced any new M lenses.  The 28mm f1.4, in which they must have invested considerable design time, assuming that they did not just mix / match a 24mm Summilux with a 50mm, remains a limited edition.

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cirke

cirke

Posted
Posted (edited)

It would be interesting to know why he is selling several great Leica lenses. Switching to Sony ?

In my opinion Diglloyd  has the best reviews one can find  but he doesn't Leica's price-philosophy vs value  ans on many points I agree totally, for his own he seems to prefer new Zeiss lenses on Sony E or Nikon body

 

 

It was relatead to your post (9-Apr-2015) 

 

I  get a Noctilux in 10 days therefore I participe maybe too much in Noctilux threads :-)

Edited by erick
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