28mm Summilux Help

[Csacwp]

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I just got a 28mm Summilux and am wondering if my copy is defective.  If anybody is willing, could you please message me your email so I can send you a jpeg via wetransfer for you to examine?  The bokeh on my copy is extremely nervous and unpleasant looking.

[steamboat]

......The bokeh on my copy is extremely nervous and unpleasant looking.

 

Any chance you could post a photograph on the forum? I am anxious to see what "nervous" bokeh looks like. :-) 

 

Seriously, this lens may not be the one for you if you don't care for the out of focus areas. I don't own the 28mm Summicron but it gets many good comments. I have an old 28mm Elmarit that's been great. It's been dropped a couple of times and I fixed it with vice-grip pliers. It's a workhorse. 

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[younes]

The best would probably be to post a sample here, and also to specify the camera used.

[Csacwp]

The photo is too large, even after I downsized it.

[Keith_W]

Downsize it more, then. 

[Csacwp]

You can view the photo here:

 

http://s385.photobucket.com/user/csacwp/media/L1070736_zps51hjknhy.jpg.html

 

The bokeh is really disorienting... double lines to the point that it is jittery, especially on the monument.  This was shot at f/1.4, iso 50 on the SL.
​I'm also missing focus with it, which is strange given that I'm using peaking on the SL.  Almost all close to mid range photos taken with it look in-focus in the EVF but appear out of focus once captured.

Edited November 7, 2017 by Csacwp

[Csacwp]

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It seems to me like the bokeh is significantly doubling lines in the image, far more than it should. Look at the letters on the Maxwell grave, for example. The trees and grass are also rendering this way.

[anickpick]

I suggest you provide a wetransfer link so we can study your image in its original size.

 

The 28 Lux should work like a charm on the SL. What I see in the evf is what I get in the picture. 95% hit rate wide open at least.

[Csacwp]

I’m not competent with computers... I know how to send a person a wetransfer by email, but not how to get a link to share here. Could you please explain how?

[Csacwp]

Okay, I figured it out (and feel rather stupid).  Here is the WeTransfer link.  Look at the grass, trees, and most importantly the text on the large grave marker that says Maxwell.  They all exhibit severe double imaging/lines.  

 

https://we.tl/Qrl4Rvij0y

[jdlaing]

Looks normal to me.

Look at the out of focus on the tombstone behind her. Clean.

 

If you are referring to the trees at top left it looks like motion blur.

I see by her hair the wind was blowing.

[Csacwp]

Good point about the trees.  It's the large tombstone that bothers me.  The text is doubled and really jarring to look at.

[mmradman]

Good point about the trees.  It's the large tombstone that bothers me.  The text is doubled and really jarring to look at.

I can see you spent almost 24h agonising about your lens performance based on one picture.

 

May I suggest you take some more pictures at various F stops and if you still have doubts start tearing your hair.

 

Btw,I have Summilux 28mm and my favourite Aperture with it is f8, followed by f5.6 and so on, you get the picture. I will use max aperture where and when light is poor and I still need reasonable shutter speed and reasonably good ISO to get the shot I want.

[Csacwp]

I’ve taken a few hundred photos at all apertures. Any with bokeh exhibit this double image look. It’s fine stopped down.

[anickpick]

looks good to me:

 

High micro contrast in the zone of focus, fast fall off, 3d pop.

 

The out of focus area looks good to me too. It is what I would expect with this demanding/busy kind of background.

Edited November 8, 2017 by anickpick

[mmradman]

Even with busy background OOF areas are fine. Not as smooth as super telphoto lens, as you would expect from wide angle with shallow DOF.

 

28mm at f1.4 by Mladen Radman, on Flickr

King of Garden Jungle by Mladen Radman, on Flickr

[Csacwp]

Here are two more that I took today.  The bokeh in mine appears more jarring to me than that in Mladen's photos.  These two are the best I got today... most of them looked just like the original photo I shared from the cemetery.

 

https://we.tl/Hq5mXS5kfk

[Guest jvansmit]

I don't have the 28mm Summilux but I've owned the 21mm and 24mm, and, unless I was lucky with the background, the out of focus areas were usually much the same as your photos. The exception was when the background was very simple and without distracting compositional elements. Jonathan Slack's excellent chicken photo is an example of what I mean: http://www.slack.co.uk/2015/28_Summilux.html

 

The bokeh from longer lenses >50mm is much more attractive than fast wide angle lenses, and there is less chance of having jarring out of focus elements in the frame.

 

My general experience is that fast wide angle lenses are best used wide open to capture low light, and longer lenses are best if you want attractive bokeh.

Edited November 9, 2017 by jvansmit

[anickpick]

I find the overall rendering incl. oof in both photos very pleasing.

No other Leica wide angle lens will give you this kind of 3d pop.

If you do not like it, the 28 Lux is not the right lens for you.

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[jplomley]

I remember when I compared the Lux to the Cron, each wide open, the bokeh of the Cron was significantly smoother. My money went for the Cron v2, even though I could have afforded the Lux. But the bokeh at 1.4 was nervous and nasty. No thanks. Wish I still had those images to post.