Advice pls for new to Leica, about to buy SL

[lanetomlane]

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Initial decision I need to make is: buy the 24-90 with the SL or buy the SL and an M and they try for a while. 

 

 

I bought the SL body and am using it with various M lenses and am absolutley delighted. The decision for me was easy as I already owned a comprehensive collection of M lenses. I suspect I will eventually buy the 24-90 zoom just to have the convenience of auto-focus but am in no hurry. I have tried the 24-90 at various times and the size does raise questions for me.

 

If you intend to buy an M 50mm lens at some point I would have thought that would be a good starting point.

 

Whichever lens you decide I think you'll be happy with the SL.

 

Cheers, Tom

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[steppenw0lf]

Hi everyone,

 

2. Been looking at which 50mm M lens to add for when I want the smaller size and lower weight. Am reading lots on here between the lux, APO and Noctilux.  I can see that the lux and APO will both be smaller than the noc. Wondering if anyone else been in same situation?

 

Thanks all

John

 

 

Hello John,

 

about the 50mm choice.

 

I have several M 50mm lenses, but I prefer to use them on the MM246.

For the SL I mostly use the Summicron-R 1:2/50. This is maybe a shock, but I prefer it to the Noctilux or the Summilux - I do not have the Apo 50.

It costs nothing compared to the M lenses, so give it a try. It is close focusing which is often useful, and it feels perfect for the SL (better than any M 50 lens, which is again perfect with the M240 or M246). Strange enough its quality is excellent from 2.8 onwards - much closer to the Apo Summicron M 50 than you would think. It's so cheap, just keep it as a fallback ...

The other lens worth a look is the old R 60mm Macro. Also much better than expected regarding its old age.

 

So if close focus distance is interesting for you, these two lenses are hard to beat.

If this does not matter to you, just forget this note and go for the jewels. (But you need then more than one (actually all three, 0.95, 1.4 and Apo), because they are all slightly different and a single one cannot replace the other two.  

 

Theoretically the upcoming SL 1.4/50 is expected to be the king of the SL country. But it is also the biggest 50 mm by far. (almost a bit embarrassing)

 

Stephan

[nscali]

I own the 24-90, 50 Summilux, 50 Apo, 50 Nocti 0.95, and 35 Summilux

The 24-90 continues to surprise, great lens, the 35 Summilux performs brilliantly as well, but without question, the 50 APO is the one to get.

It is just amazing, both on the SL and 240, but seemingly better on the SL.

It makes it hard to use anything else because the look you achieve is addictive.

I hope this helps.

[Big John]

Hi guys, bit of an update.  I today joined the Leica club!

 

Bought an SL and 24-90 today from Leica Mayfair. Great service and am v please/excited. Have to wait a few days to play with it (birthday present!)

 

As this thread discussed, I am also keen to get a smaller lens to make a more portable set-up. I looked today at the 50mm M summicron, lux and APO as well as the black chrome lux.  Guy at Leica Mayfair was v helpful and showed me an R lens, held up against an SL to see how it would look.....looks good. I have to be honest and although new to Leica as an owner, I do know a bit about the M lenses, but hardly anything about R lenses.  He made me realise that I should probably shoot the 24-90 for a while before deciding on what next. But I will definitely now spend some time looking at R lenses.  Some of you who replied to my thread recommended R lenses, so thanks!

 

He said that R adapter expected Q3. 

 

Grateful for any advice on where to look to learn and poss buy on R lenses. 

 

Great to have finally taken the plunge. Time to shift all my Fuji kit.....

 

Thanks. 

[Guest]

This thread inspired me to fit my Summilux 35 v2 on the SL and give it a try. It works fine, but I'll never use it on the SL...

To me, such a small lens with such a small focus tab just feels wrong on this body. Fit the Summicron-R 35, and it feels made for the SL body. 

 

It is because of you that my interest in R lenses was started and now I am really enjoying my photography again freed from AF. I really do not mind manually focussing and with the SL it is far easier than I thought it  would be.

 

I had a studio session today was set up with the SL and Summicron-R 1:2 /50 and my T and 18-56. Took one image with the T, neither of us liked it and I did the rest of the images all with the SL+R. Very happy with the results.

 

If it continues like this I can forsee selling the T and lenses and buying one more R a 28mm. I have acquired the Macro Adaptor-R - just love the feel and operation of R lenses.

[Big John]

It is because of you that my interest in R lenses was started and now I am really enjoying my photography again freed from AF. I really do not mind manually focussing and with the SL it is far easier than I thought it  would be.

 

I had a studio session today was set up with the SL and Summicron-R 1:2 /50 and my T and 18-56. Took one image with the T, neither of us liked it and I did the rest of the images all with the SL+R. Very happy with the results.

 

If it continues like this I can forsee selling the T and lenses and buying one more R a 28mm. I have acquired the Macro Adaptor-R - just love the feel and operation of R lenses.

 

Thanks! Great really helpful comments from folk recommending R as alternative to larger SL lenses. Great to hear how you are getting on. 

[LocalHero1953]

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You don't have to wait for the R-T/L adapter if you want to use a R lens now; the R-M and M-T/L adapters stack very effectively.

 

 

For R lenses try Red Dot Cameras the other end of London, MW Classic mail order, Ffordes and there are a couple of others. I have also bought without problems from some of the continental shops e.g. Leica Shop Vienna and others.

[Suteetat]

Hi guys, bit of an update.  I today joined the Leica club!

 

Bought an SL and 24-90 today from Leica Mayfair. Great service and am v please/excited. Have to wait a few days to play with it (birthday present!)

 

As this thread discussed, I am also keen to get a smaller lens to make a more portable set-up. I looked today at the 50mm M summicron, lux and APO as well as the black chrome lux.  Guy at Leica Mayfair was v helpful and showed me an R lens, held up against an SL to see how it would look.....looks good. I have to be honest and although new to Leica as an owner, I do know a bit about the M lenses, but hardly anything about R lenses.  He made me realise that I should probably shoot the 24-90 for a while before deciding on what next. But I will definitely now spend some time looking at R lenses.  Some of you who replied to my thread recommended R lenses, so thanks!

 

He said that R adapter expected Q3. 

 

Grateful for any advice on where to look to learn and poss buy on R lenses. 

 

Great to have finally taken the plunge. Time to shift all my Fuji kit.....

 

Thanks. 

 

 

For R lenses, I definitely would consider 100/2.8 Apo macro. Sharpest macro lens I ever own and excellent portrait lens as well but not so great at landscape distance. There are other better lenses for that near that focal lenght. 90/2 R is also really good and I slightly prefer it over the current M 90/2 apo but M is much smaller. I also have 80/1.4R which I am not quite in love as much as I thought I would. I prefer Zeiss 85/1.2 a bit more but it is also a big and heavy lens. I have 50/1.4 R E55 which is nice and really good value but it cannot touch M 50/2 apo though. I am dying to try 19/2.8 R but have not been able to find decent copy locally yet.

[t.kormicki]

Hello John,

 

about the 50mm choice.

 

I have several M 50mm lenses, but I prefer to use them on the MM246.

For the SL I mostly use the Summicron-R 1:2/50. This is maybe a shock, but I prefer it to the Noctilux or the Summilux - I do not have the Apo 50.

It costs nothing compared to the M lenses, so give it a try. It is close focusing which is often useful, and it feels perfect for the SL (better than any M 50 lens, which is again perfect with the M240 or M246). Strange enough its quality is excellent from 2.8 onwards - much closer to the Apo Summicron M 50 than you would think. It's so cheap, just keep it as a fallback ...

The other lens worth a look is the old R 60mm Macro. Also much better than expected regarding its old age.

 

So if close focus distance is interesting for you, these two lenses are hard to beat.

If this does not matter to you, just forget this note and go for the jewels. (But you need then more than one (actually all three, 0.95, 1.4 and Apo), because they are all slightly different and a single one cannot replace the other two.  

 

Theoretically the upcoming SL 1.4/50 is expected to be the king of the SL country. But it is also the biggest 50 mm by far. (almost a bit embarrassing)

 

Stephan

 

 

 

Stephan,

 

Your recommendation on the Summicron-R 50mm is very interesting. I see there are two versions, one built in Germany and the other in Canada. Which of the two do you have/recommend. btw, I live in Stäfa on Lake ZH. Would be great to meet up with a fellow SL shooter.

[steppenw0lf]

Stephan,

 

Your recommendation on the Summicron-R 50mm is very interesting. I see there are two versions, one built in Germany and the other in Canada. Which of the two do you have/recommend. btw, I live in Stäfa on Lake ZH. Would be great to meet up with a fellow SL shooter.

 

 

Hi,

I have the one built in Canada - optically they are the same anyway. They were made from 1976 until 2009. The newest version has probably ROM, but this is no big difference. The lens is very often found - according to the wiki there are almost 100000 built.

Check the wiki          http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-wiki.en/index.php/50mm_f/2_Summicron-R_II

Stephan

 

I have even posted a picture when I got the SL:

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/255339-classic-leica-r-lenses-on-sl/        entry number 18

[Steve Spencer]

There were two optical versions of the R 50 summicron. One was made from 1962 until 1976 and it has 6 elements in 5 groups. This lens optically is similar to the M 50 summicron rigid (i.e. version II). The more recent version has 6 element in 4 groups and is optically very similar to the M 50 summicron Pre-AA that is still available (i.e., version IV). It is easy to tell the 2 versions of the R lenses apart. The older version has a detachable hood and the newer version has a built in hood. The newer version was first made in Canada but production was switched to Germany when the Midland, Ontario plant was closed.

[ramarren]

I have one of the oldest Summicron-R 50mm f/2 from 1964. It is a lovely lens, a superb performer. 

[t.kormicki]

Hi,

I have the one built in Canada - optically they are the same anyway. They were made from 1976 until 2009. The newest version has probably ROM, but this is no big difference. The lens is very often found - according to the wiki there are almost 100000 built.

Check the wiki          http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-wiki.en/index.php/50mm_f/2_Summicron-R_II

Stephan

 

I have even posted a picture when I got the SL:

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/255339-classic-leica-r-lenses-on-sl/        entry number 18

 

 

Thanks for your reply. Will look at this in more detail. The shots I have seen are indeed very good. The reason I asked about which version you had was because they render slightly differently, German version was apparently very sharp at the close and far end as opposed to the Canadian version which rendered more in the middle in terms of contrast detail. 

I'm in the process of getting the 24-90 for my SL, still want to keep lighter lenses as an option when my arm is about to fall off when using it all day. I have the Summilux-M 50 ASPH which I enjoy a lot. Thinking of selling it and getting the 50/2 -R and 100-R/2.8 Macro instead. Just playing with the idea for the moment.

[wlaidlaw]

I am a feeble, arthritic person just coming up to 70 years old  . I managed to carry the SL and 24-90 all day in Myanmar in temperatures of over 40º, with no great problems. However my recommendation if you decide to go ahead, is to find a more comfortable strap than the standard Leica nylon/neoprene one. There is lots of choice now (there is at least one strap thread for the SL). I use a Luigi Crescenzi (Leicatime.com) Silky strap, which is braided synthetic silk, with a suede lined shoulder pad and leather ends to go through the lugs. This suits me perfectly, for use over the shoulder or wrapped round my hand. The only other lenses I use on my SL to any extent are my 50/.95 Noctilux, especially before the flash sync was sorted with the latest FW update, which also improved low light AF with the 24-90. The other lens I use quite a bit is my 18mm Super-Elmar M, which being a retro-focal lens, works perfectly on the SL. I have a 90-280 on order. I have still kept my M240, with a 35mm ASPH Summicron on it 90%+ of the time. 

[steppenw0lf]

Thanks for your reply. Will look at this in more detail. The shots I have seen are indeed very good. The reason I asked about which version you had was because they render slightly differently, German version was apparently very sharp at the close and far end as opposed to the Canadian version which rendered more in the middle in terms of contrast detail. 

 

 

I would not worry too much about these "differences", because latest at f 5.6 all are identical, even the Apo 50. And if you use it wide open for portraits, then perfect sharpness is often not very helpful. The bokeh is then more important - and funny enough this lens has in my eyes a nicer bokeh than the Apo 50. But your Summilux 50 Asph has probably the nicest bokeh of these three.

[Steve Spencer]

Thanks for your reply. Will look at this in more detail. The shots I have seen are indeed very good. The reason I asked about which version you had was because they render slightly differently, German version was apparently very sharp at the close and far end as opposed to the Canadian version which rendered more in the middle in terms of contrast detail. 

I'm in the process of getting the 24-90 for my SL, still want to keep lighter lenses as an option when my arm is about to fall off when using it all day. I have the Summilux-M 50 ASPH which I enjoy a lot. Thinking of selling it and getting the 50/2 -R and 100-R/2.8 Macro instead. Just playing with the idea for the moment.

 

As described above the difference is not German vs. Canadian, but attached hood vs. built in hood. If you have the Summilux-M, then the built in hood version of the R lens is very similar and optically almost identical. The R lens has a six blade aperture (instead of the 8 blades in the M) and the R has a bit bigger body. You can expect very similar performance. The R 100 R/2.8 Macro APO is excellent and definitely worth getting.