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Please correct me if I'm wrong about 75mm APO-Summilux-M ASPH f/1.4


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As you say, anyone has his own "dream lens" ... :) ... someone, here in the forum, even hoped in a resurrection of Thambar... :D... and personally I love a lot the Summarex so that... :huh:

Luckily, in the Leica world there is the golden rule "never throw away a lens you like"... and, with its corollary "have it maintained if needed...there are people who do well this job" we reach Jaap's point : use yours and keep it with care... Leica, time to time, DOES

introduce some new lens... and one must consider it having in mind what he loves and USES (GAS attacks are another matter, and I'm far from being titled to blame people for this... :lol: )

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Noctilux glass was a special product of the Leitz glass works.   It required a long slow cool, 10 years,  so as not to crack.   The stuff feels like clear lead as the Leica rep let me hold a rejected cube.

 

The glass works is gone from some time late 80`s or 90`s.  Environmental concerns do not allow grinding of leaded glass anymore.  Bottom line,  no more F 1.0 Noctilux &  75 1.4 which had it in one element.  

 

Leica design philosophy has changed and now we have the almost clinically sharp lenses which I at first disliked,  but am coming around.

 

The zone of focus is very small and fall off rapid which does not allow casual use of the lens.   Mine seems well calibrated and if I take the time to focus properly ,  the pictures are outstanding. 

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Noctilux glass was a special product of the Leitz glass works.   It required a long slow cool, 10 years,  so as not to crack. 

Really? All 200 inches of the unground mirror blank for the Mount Palomar reflector took only a year to anneal. I love Leica and all, enough to buy into and use it, but "10 years" is nonsense.

 

s-a

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Really? All 200 inches of the unground mirror blank for the Mount Palomar reflector took only a year to anneal. I love Leica and all, enough to buy into and use it, but "10 years" is nonsense.

 

s-a

After Corning Glass blew the first one. It's still on display in Corning, New York. It's got bricks and all manner of other stuff stuck to it.

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You’ll never get the Mandler look in a modern APO lens. Just stick with the original... ;)

 

I never saw a Mandler "look" which all his very different lenses have in common, excepting those with close design roots. But I would love to hear what I should be looking for :)

 

I agree the 75 Lux is best portrait lens all around, excepting some special effect lenses perhaps. Trouble is, a really good copy is not that easy to find, or so I read. Lately I walk around with a 28 cron on the M9 and 75 lux on the A7.mod:

 

17182822616_e464f06e9b_b.jpgTrailer Bed Post by unoh7, on Flickr

 

16586284414_9a2038e405_b.jpgelevators by unoh7, on Flickr

 

The 75 Lux does pretty much everything real well. Excellent for infinity landscape as well as close up. It's heavy but compared to what you often drag with the A7 it's fine. And the A7 can go to 8k when you want to shoot daylight WO

 

On the M9 I think it's my biggest magnifier, as my 90s only go to a meter.

 

16600328173_d2056b1bc6_b.jpgBack Yard by unoh7, on Flickr

 

 

Noctilux glass was a special product of the Leitz glass works.   It required a long slow cool, 10 years,  so as not to crack.   The stuff feels like clear lead as the Leica rep let me hold a rejected cube.

 

The glass works is gone from some time late 80`s or 90`s.  Environmental concerns do not allow grinding of leaded glass anymore.  Bottom line,  no more F 1.0 Noctilux &  75 1.4 which had it in one element.  

 

Leica design philosophy has changed and now we have the almost clinically sharp lenses which I at first disliked,  but am coming around.

 

The zone of focus is very small and fall off rapid which does not allow casual use of the lens.   Mine seems well calibrated and if I take the time to focus properly ,  the pictures are outstanding. 

 

I find this interesting. Would like to learn more about the leaded glass grinding and which element etc.

 

This glass actually cooled for ten years?

Edited by uhoh7
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Leica design philosophy has changed and now we have the almost clinically sharp lenses which I at first disliked,  but am coming around.

 

The zone of focus is very small and fall off rapid which does not allow casual use of the lens.   Mine seems well calibrated and if I take the time to focus properly ,  the pictures are outstanding. 

 

 

The Canon 85mm 1.2 Mark II is the current darling of the camera world as a portrait lens, but the Summilux 75mm easily produces results just as good.

 

However, Leica's current designer, Peter Karbe, is not a fan of it. It does not meet his goals for wide open sharpness and high contrast. Hence it's replacement with the 75mm APO.

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Noctilux glass was a special product of the Leitz glass works.   It required a long slow cool, 10 years,  so as not to crack.   The stuff feels like clear lead as the Leica rep let me hold a rejected cube.

 

10 years :D... Internet myth.

 

 

The glass works is gone from some time late 80`s or 90`s.  Environmental concerns do not allow grinding of leaded glass anymore.  Bottom line,  no more F 1.0 Noctilux &  75 1.4 which had it in one element.  

 

 

According to Marco Cavina, the Leitz 900/1 (aka "Noctilux glass") does not contain any Pb.
Even so, modern glass technology allows same or better performance than the amazing but nowadays dated Noctilux glass.
If we are not seeing a modern version of the Summilux 75/1.4, it is just a marketing decision.
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Actually it was 10 to 12 days, and the key factor of the Noctilux glass was that it contained Zirconium Oxide, heightening the melting point to 1600 degrees, which presented problems with the containers it was melted in.

Closing the glass lab in 1989 did not halt production of the Noctilux, so it is obvious that Leica was able to obtain the glass elsewhere.

The only lens that I am aware of that was discontinued because glass was unobtainable was the MATE, as Leica was unable to get satisfactory blanks of the front element elsewhere  when Hoya decided to close down that process.

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Was it cooled in a nuclear base or in Mandler's desk drawer? Was it sent to be cooled on the moon?

 

Actually, it was slowly cooled by Mandler himself, gently blowing on the glass 24/7 with a special technique he had invented.

When Mandler died in 2005, Leica had to resort to ultra-rare unicorn farts in order to cool the last batch, which finished cooling in 2008. There was just enough glass to produce 100 copies of the lens.

Due to the ultra-expensive unicorn-fart process, the last 100 Noctiluxes were sold as a ultra-expensive special edition in a special wooden humidor which preserves the fragrance of unicorn-farts.

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there is no secret mine nor decades of cooling process (cognac/whiskey age based kind of marketing scam)  :huh: Noctilux VSOP  :D

All glass formulas for Mandler and for current designs are original Leitz formulas (and some generic) but made by Schott or Corning. there is no magic in a block of glass, the magic is in the science and experience and dedication that happens at Leica factory during lens design.

 

I have sources confirming that 12 floors underneath Schott factory there is a UFSC (Unicorn Fart Stabilizing Chamber) which is connects to a pool of B.E.T (Baby Elf Tears) used for cooling down the glass for Noctilux 0.95 only. 

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Actually, it was slowly cooled by Mandler himself, gently blowing on the glass 24/7 with a special technique he had invented.

When Mandler died in 2005, Leica had to resort to ultra-rare unicorn farts in order to cool the last batch, which finished cooling in 2008. There was just enough glass to produce 100 copies of the lens.

Due to the ultra-expensive unicorn-fart process, the last 100 Noctiluxes were sold as a ultra-expensive special edition in a special wooden humidor which preserves the fragrance of unicorn-farts.

 

This version is one that I believe far more then the 10-year bs.

 

I hope it gets repeated on the web for years to come and that the "10-year" lie gets forgotten.

 

Canadian or Portuguese Unicorns?

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there is no secret mine nor decades of cooling process (cognac/whiskey age based kind of marketing scam)  :huh: Noctilux VSOP  :D

All glass formulas for Mandler and for current designs are original Leitz formulas (and some generic) but made by Schott or Corning. there is no magic in a block of glass, the magic is in the science and experience and dedication that happens at Leica factory during lens design.

 

I have sources confirming that 12 floors underneath Schott factory there is a UFSC (Unicorn Fart Stabilizing Chamber) which is connects to a pool of B.E.T (Baby Elf Tears) used for cooling down the glass for Noctilux 0.95 only.

 

B.E.T.

So this is why the bukkake is so good, yes? (Bukkake = bokeh in Mongolian).

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Canadian or Portuguese Unicorns?

 

Actually, it is a fact that unicorns were shipped to Canada from Alpha Centauri. Leica engineers had to design an ultra-expensive close-circuit stardust rebreather that allowed them to survive on earth. Nevertheless these unicorns had a very short life span and eventually became sick and died.

In less than three years, the continuous universe expansion caused the shipping price of unicorns to increase dramatically. This is the reason why Leica decided to stop manufacturing the Noctilux 50/1 in 2008.

 

All this is well-known Leica history.

 

What most people don't know though, is that the lucky owners of the limited 100-copies Special Edition Noctiluxes cooled with unicorn farts can heal any other lens just by putting it into the wooden humidor box together with their Noctilux. After a few days, any fungus or scratches on the lens will be gone thanks to the healing abilities of unicorn farts.

Edited by CheshireCat
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