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Jan I'm a big fan of your Nocti and 50APO images.

IMO, they are the best in this forum generally speaking.

Keep up the good work!

John

 

Thank you!  I appreciate that very much... I will go on with my work. There is a lot of space and thing to improve... ;-)

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You really begin to see the advantage of the APO at f/2.8; probably even for marked at f/2 vs the Summilux.

 

Sorry to bring some disturbance into this lovely scene. The difference between the Summilux Asph and the Apo 50 is quite clear.

But the advantages of the Apo 50 compared to the humble Summicron 50 (latest edition) are not obvious to me.

I am still looking for photos showing (in a fair comparison) the "big difference" that the price suggests.

To provoke a bit more, I make the bold statement that from aperture 5.6 they are actually equal.

So this is the "advocatus diaboli" part.

And I hope that you will now convince us that he is wrong. (photos please).     ;)

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I did some test shots a while ago for another Leica user.

What I did was mount my M240 on a tripod. First I fitted the Summilux 1.4 and did a series of shots from wide open.

Then I mounted the APO Cron and did the same.

All shots used flash so the lighting is identical. Because it was raining I did the shots indoors.

If anyone is interested I can send them a link.

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Sorry to bring some disturbance into this lovely scene. The difference between the Summilux Asph and the Apo 50 is quite clear.

But the advantages of the Apo 50 compared to the humble Summicron 50 (latest edition) are not obvious to me.

I am still looking for photos showing (in a fair comparison) the "big difference" that the price suggests.

To provoke a bit more, I make the bold statement that from aperture 5.6 they are actually equal.

So this is the "advocatus diaboli" part.

And I hope that you will now convince us that he is wrong. (photos please).     ;)

 

Of the present day M's, the Monochroms are probably the only ones best capable of taking advantage of the resolving power. On the M9 & 240? Poring over lots of images, it seemed mostly in the realm of color purity and subject emphasis relying upon the lens' ability to create a greater contrast gradient between in and out-of-focus. The results are more subtle, particularly compared to the venerable 50 Summicron stopped down. 

 

It strikes me as a lens conceived more for future, higher MP sensors to come.

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Sorry to bring some disturbance into this lovely scene. The difference between the Summilux Asph and the Apo 50 is quite clear.

But the advantages of the Apo 50 compared to the humble Summicron 50 (latest edition) are not obvious to me.

I am still looking for photos showing (in a fair comparison) the "big difference" that the price suggests.

To provoke a bit more, I make the bold statement that from aperture 5.6 they are actually equal.

So this is the "advocatus diaboli" part.

And I hope that you will now convince us that he is wrong. (photos please).     ;)

 

Sean Reid (on his subscription site) has an in depth comparison of the two Summicron 50s.  Actually, in several areas he finds the APO lens to out perform the non-APO version at apertures of  f5.6 and smaller.

Edited by Luke_Miller
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For colors you should try a linear profile 

 

Maybe I am the only one, but this is completely incomprehensible to me. I don't want to call you nuts, so please give us some insight - how to apply it (in camera or in SW), and maybe also about the idea/theory behind it.

Thanks.    Stephan

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Never mind the unstainable cities. Here's one from the sustainable rural world.

 

Sorry that failed to load. See below.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Edited by Peter Kilmister
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Hello Luke.

 

Yes, I have also read that report. But I do not recognize it, when I read your "summary". 

This report actually made me think that the difference is extremely small and that again made me look for photos to show this difference.

 

Typical for the report is that the lenses are not exactly the same, but are very very similar in the vast majority of all points. Read any other comparison on their website, and you will not find two other lenses that have more in common.

A typical "citation" is that one delivers the higher local contrast, but that the other delivers more resolution.  (Not really what you expect after reading Lukes summary.)

 

That's why I asked for photos to show the difference.

 

Stephan

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B&W version of the sustainable harvest scene.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

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Hello Luke.

 

Yes, I have also read that report. But I do not recognize it, when I read your "summary". 

This report actually made me think that the difference is extremely small and that again made me look for photos to show this difference.

 

I think the differences (based on Sean's review and photos) are relatively small.  The Non-APO Summicron 50 (one of my favorite lenses) is a very good lens. Sean's images show differences in corner performance, CA, and focus shift. All in the favor of the APO lens.  So I'm convinced it is better, but not enough better to get me to pay the difference.

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I think the differences (based on Sean's review and photos) are relatively small.  The Non-APO Summicron 50 (one of my favorite lenses) is a very good lens. Sean's images show differences in corner performance, CA, and focus shift. All in the favor of the APO lens.  So I'm convinced it is better, but not enough better to get me to pay the difference.

 

You're probably right about the 50 APO, with the Monochrom excepted. You have the latter, why don't you rent to former and see for yourself.

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The difference is not that small when you shoot wide open. There is a lot more to it than charts and sharpness tests will show you. It is the fall-off that is more dramatic with the 50Apo. I'm not saying that the difference justifies spending the significant amount of extra money, but if you go to the Leica store and take some portraits wide open with each lens at a medium distance, you will see that the "pop" of the 50 Apo is incredible. I believe that the image and file size restrictions in this forum are too restrictive to adequately show the difference, but when you open the files on your computer, it will be very obvious.

Edited by BerndReini
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Obvious difference is f/2 indeed mainly on edges and corners. What i like with this lens is you use it at f/2 the same way as other apertures. You know that the only difference will be DoF more or less. Also there is no focus shift with this lens whilst 50/2 v4 & v5 may have a bit of it but it is not a serious issue to be honest. And the apo has very little field curvature compared to non apo but the difference is visible at full aperture mainly. Now those differences can hardly appear on little jpegs here unless one shows 100% crops as i did on the LUF some time ago if memory serves me correctly. FWIW.
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