How do you like your summicron 75mm?

[Paulus]

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How do you like your summicron 75mm?

 

I wonder why you kept it, or why you sold it. Maybe you have both summilux and summicron 75mm. Can you say which you prefer and for what reason? Especially in combination with the M 240 or the Monochom? Thanks.

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[pgk]

I've had two Summicrons. The first was way off focus and I gave up on it. The current one is spot on. Its a very 'precise' lens, very accurate, detailed images with nowhere for anything to hide - I'd say its a very unforgiving lens for say portraiture. I really like it and it compliments other aspheric lenses very well. I use m8/9s and can only comment on the Summicron on those but it is a fabulous lens.

 

I am awaiting delivery of a Summilux, but used to own the supposedly very similar 80 Summilux R which was so different in character to the 75 Summicron. I found it to be smooth, creamy, soft wide open and it suffered from 'inaccuracy' at wide apertures. stopped down it was wonderful, and this is a reason I wanted the 75 Summilux. the smooth tonality, fine but not harsh detail and overall richness of images at mid apertures is gorgeous. I have a large landscape print off my 1DS taken on the 80 which impresses me for this quality.

 

To sum up, these two will be chalk and cheese......

[Universalb50]

I've had a Summicron 75 for about a year, and had purchased it new, from a Leica dealer, as complement to my basic lens, a 35 Summicron ASPH. I really tried to like this lens...but...some problems arise. I had trouble with focus, sent the lens and rangerfinder back for calibration, and was told the lens OK, the ranger finder (M9) in need of adjustment. I still had the initial focusing problem, so purchased a ranger finder magnifier. This lens does require great attention to focus when used wide open. I find it best to use at 4.0-5.6, and at 2.0, the DOF is so shallow that if the corneal reflection is in focus, then the tip of the nose is not! The lens is very well built, the retractable hood so-so, and I purchased a screw in Chinese 49mm shade as replacement. I have wondered if this lens was designed for use with the next generation of Leica, with the electronic viewfinder capability, or some future 36MP capability? I'm afraid they sacrificed usability for theoretical resolution? It's also very expensive to buy new, but the prices seem to be coming down? Now, I'm back to using my antique Elmarit 90/2.8 LTM with w/wo Viso, and the Summicron stays at home!

[mirekti]

I have been using it for two years and like it a lot.

Bokeh is not as creamy as in lux, but very nice. Very crisp, and in portraits the eyes look fabulously, the skin needs some softening if printing large.

The hood could have been a bit longer, though. Especially when you put a filter on the lens.

[cpclee]

I had the 80 Summilux-R and now this 75. They are my all time favorite portrait lenses and I really couldn't say if I prefer one over another. The 80 is very creamy wide open (but not in the way vintage lenses are); I'd characterize the 75 as more gentle than creamy. Stopped down, both are very sharp. Both lenses produce subtle color hues extraordinarily well, with the 80's palette more immediately pleasing due to the warmer balance while the 75's colors are more neutral / transparent and ethereal. The 75 is exceptional in 3D modeling of surfaces, better than any lens I've ever used.

 

Focusing at wide apertures is equally hard with either lens. I rarely shot the 80 at wider than 2 or 2.8 for that reason. Also, at 1.4 the 80 is very, very soft.

[Simon Bee]

"How do you like your summicron 75mm?" .......

 

................ very much, well that was until about two hours ago when I noticed mine has developed 'oil on the blades'

 

Second 75mm APO I've had an issue with, the first was a few years ago when I noticed what looked like a sort of 'rainbow fringing' around the outer edge of an internal element. Sent it to Malcolm Taylor who in turn suggested I send it back to the dealer ( I had only had it three months ), this I did, who in turn sent it to Solms. Leica said it was not a production fault and that it was caused by 'thermal shock' ..... thermal shock ..... what here in the UK:eek:

 

I had never left it in a hot car etc so I knew it was not my fault. Due to Leica's response the dealer washed his hands of sorting it for me, well actually he did offer to pay the "Vodka and Tonic". The repair was about £400.00 and I was left with a very bitter taste in my mouth for a long time afterwards. Sold the lens once repaired, guess I lost confidence in it, some time afterwards realised that was a mistake and bought another mint example eight months ago only to be struck down with 'oily blades' today and two months past warranty ..... hey-ho

 

Anyway it is a great lens. I guess I just seem to have no luck with it:o

 

Kind regards, Simon

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I've owned my 75mm/2 Apo Summicron ASPH for quite a while, having bought it when the lens first came out ten years ago. I've never had any particular problem focusing it either on my M7 0.58x, or on my M9-P. In 2012 I noticed oil on the aperture blades and sent it in for cleaning, deciding also to add the 6-Bit coding to the mount while it was in for service. Leica in NJ, USA did a fine job cleaning and updating the lens and it still works as it should. I really like short telephotos, and this 75mm is great for isolating a subject against a blurred background. Lovely color rendition, though with some minor secondary longitudinal color in defocused backgrounds, but not too bad, just not as clean as the 135mm/2 Apo Sonnar from Zeiss.

[hoppyman]

My APO Summicron 75mm ASPH was by far my favourite M lens with my film and digital M cameras, I guess over 7 or 8 years.

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[Bill W]

While it is not my most used lens by far I do like the 75 Cron. I have owned the 75 Lux in the past on a couple of occasions. While it is a really nice lens, it is a really heavy one and has a really long focus throw. You would not be disappointed with either but a Lux would need to be coded if that is important to you.

[MarkP]

I very much like the 75mm field of view as a short telephoto, portrait lens (like a more intimate 50mm lens). Pairs nicely with a 28 or 35.

 

I first bought a CV 2.5/75 during the long wait for a 2.0/75 APO-Summicron.

Once I had both I felt that the CV just didn't compare to the Summicron and so sold it. Oh I should say after it initially performed worse than the CV, couldn't focus it to save my life), so it went back to Solms for adjustment)

 

Then I bought a pristine 1.4/75 Summilux over a year ago, which has since been 6-bit coded (and serviced although little needed to be done). My plan was to compare the two and keep the preferred lens.

 

Once I had both I felt that I couldn't sell either. They render so differently. The Summilux like a corrected 1.0/50 Noctilux with beautiful colouring and bokeh, and excellent sharpness/resolution stopped down. In fact it gets used now more than my 1.0/50 Noctilux for just that reason.

 

The 75 APO-Summicron has extraordinary resolution, sharpness and accurate colour transmission as expected from this APO lens. My understanding is that it and the 1.4/50 Summilux ASPH (which is also an APO but sans APO designation) are very similar designs. I also have both of these lenses and I think they render identically. Is lighter and easier to focus with the shorter focus throw (some like that and some don't). So just think of it as a longer version of the 1.4/50.

 

Both the 75 Summilux and Summicron are beautiful on the M240 and Monochrom. The resulution and subtle tonal advantages of the Monochrom lend themselves beautifully to the 75 Summilux - very filmic.

 

As a general purpose lens the 75 APO-Summicron is probably the better lens: lighter and smaller, shorter focus throw, cheaper, very 'accurate' almost transparent rendering with the Summilux being my 'art' lens if you get what I mean. I'm very lucky I have both including a very good example of the Summilux and I can afford to keep both (I think ).

 

The other interesting comparison, discussed extensively here in the Forum is that of the 75 APO_Summicron and Summarit but I have no experience with the latter.

[CheshireCat]

Great lens, clean rendering and excellent colors.

 

The APO correction could be better, although it is much better than the 90 APO (which I don't think deserves to be called an APO lens).

 

Issues:

- Very hard to nail focus wide open with a RF. If you think this lens is not sharp, try nailing focus with an EVF.

- My copy focuses beyond infinity, so I need stop down or use the EVF for critical sharpness at infinity.

[algrove]

While paring down my M inventory I sold my 75 lux and almost sold this one ,but decided to give it another try for a while. I just always use a 90 instead of 75. That's me.

 

Regarding the APO 90, mine has been stealer and really shines on the MM.

[adan]

My experience with the 75 Summicron was - one, early, lens that performed perfectly (and which I unfortunately traded or sold for some reason - likely to acquire my 2nd Digilux 2).

 

And three others that had all kinds of focus inconsistencies. Focused beyond infinity, back-focused at long distances and front-focused at close distances (in the same lens), color fringing that belied the APO designation.

 

From other posts on this forum (not just this thread), it just seems to be prone to misadjustment for RF use. I personally suspect the more complex floating-element system. Especially since with the problematic lenses, when they were in focus, there was often strong purple/green color fringing, which to me said the FLE had "jumped the track" and was out of position - no longer matching what Karbe designed. Had one worked on in Solms - no improvement.

 

When it works, it is an outstanding lens. I'd just recommend really checking every example before purchase, to make sure that example is behaving.

 

As to comparisons with other 75s:

 

The Summilux is just a whole different kind of drawing. Karbe says it is his LEAST favorite M lens, so you can figure he designed the Summicron to be as different from the Summilux as possible - and mostly succeeded. Summilux is lower-contrast (to the point of being "muddy" for color in low-contrast (e.g. post-sunset) lighting), noticeable CA color blurs wide-open, never quite as razor-sharp at any aperture - but with dreamy bokeh and a bit easier to focus, thanks to residual spherical aberration.

 

I've had 3 - all worked to specs, I liked the imaging. But I use Leicas for light-weight compactness, and ultimately it just didn't fit that model. Which is why I've gone back and forth. The speed is useful, the performance is good - but I need my Leica bag to be lighter than my Hasselblad bag.

 

The Summarit is "Summicron, Jr." - very similar resolution & contrast; a bit more color fringing wide-open; and, without the FLE, a bit softer close-up, but much more consistent (in my experience) in nailing focus. Reminds me also of the last 90 Elmarit for crispness and contrast. My current 75. Except for the smaller aperture and close-focus limit, exactly what I hoped the Summicron would be.

 

The Voigtlander is very good. Not as biting contrast as the Summicron/Summarit, but more than the Summilux at wider apertures. But at the time, I could get a nice Leica 90 TE for not much more money, and similar performance. So I went with that.

[LocalHero1953]

a more intimate 50mm lens

 

My feelings exactly about this focal length. Indeed, my Apo-Summicron 75mm competes with the Apo-Summicron 50mm when I want a single lens kit just for walking around towns/cities. I have no experience of the Summilux, but wouldn't want its extra weight and bulk, however well it performed. The Summicron also has good close-focus.

 

I got mine a year or so ago from a forum member, and I've had no problem with it - except when I threw it onto the cobbles in Bologna, and the focus locked solid:(. It required a rebuild at Wetzlar, but has been fine since:).

 

I don't have trouble focussing it for portraits, at f/2-f/4.

[norm_snyder]

Love it...hate it...love it...hate...

 

Actually it is ferrific on my M9 and MM, but my copy does flare shot against the light with a bright light source just outside the frame. It's also needed focus adjustment more than once, and DAG, in an e-mail with his last estimate for focus ring adjustment (it had developed a little slop) described it as "not your best constructed lens." He's worked on other Leica gear for me. It can be hard to focus, but spectacular when I get it right. Much lighter than the Summilux I sold some years ago to finance my m9.

 

Lately, I've been using a late 90 Tele-Elmarit more, which is light, and contrary to expectations and legend, actually flares a bit less. Rounder, less severe look in contrasts lighting. Maybe I just prefer Mandler designed lenses.

[wattsy]

but my copy does flare shot against the light with a bright light source just outside the frame.

 

I've owned two copies of this lens. The first was like your's – very susceptible to veiling flare when a bright(ish) light source is outside the frame. A bit crappy really for a lens of this price. The second example I owned took two visits to Solms to get the focus calibrated but was otherwise fine. In the end I sold that one too – I'm just not a fan of the 75mm framelines. If I get a longer lens (50 is currently my longest lens) I will probably pick up a 90.

[sarav]

Mine had three focus adjustment in Leica at the very beginning when I bought it in 2006 or 2007. Since then it works quite perfectly. Sometimes with MM or M9 I don't have perfectly sharp images where I focused (at mid-long distances), it is a very fast-focussing lens and a tenth of a millimeter of misalignment has an "out-of-focus" as result. With M-240 and M-Film cameras it focuses PERFECTLY. Flare is not a big problem to me. I suggest this lens: it's compact, It's well balanced, It's super sharp and texture of materials is amazing.

[sarav]

All I've written about the lens is at f2 aperture, otherwise there's no focussing troubles.

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[sarav]

I also have a 75 Summarit, but I utilize it for hazardous works, I don't like the way it renders the light of the pictures. Bokeh is very good.

[thighslapper]

From other posts on this forum (not just this thread), it just seems to be prone to misadjustment for RF use. I personally suspect the more complex floating-element system. Especially since with the problematic lenses, when they were in focus, there was often strong purple/green color fringing, which to me said the FLE had "jumped the track" and was out of position - no longer matching what Karbe designed. Had one worked on in Solms - no improvement.
 

...... mine took two trips to return perfect ...... like it's troublesome little brother the 50/1.4 where I had 3 duds in a row....... no issues with CA etc that I can see though.

 

This is one of 2 or 3 lenses I always travel with ........ always gives consistently good images and a very useful focal length ...