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I bought a 28 Summilux. I loved the way it performed, but then I decided it was too heavy. So I sold it to a friend and bought a 28 Summicron. The downside of the Summicron is that it doesn't feel special. In the meantime, my friend whom I sold the Lux to has decided it's too heavy and wants to sell it and get a 28 Cron. So i'm going to buy my 28 Lux back and give him my 28 Cron :) 

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Regrets? What an odd question.

 

Buying one first you pay the premium over the Summicron and Elmarit, second you have a big M lens that is bit of a pain to use with RF. Providing you are not on drugs on the day you decide to buy one it safe to assume you either made some due diligence or went into GAS induced madness before deciding on the Summilux.

 

My first M 28mm was Summicron v1 which I sold as I just couldn’t fall in love with. That was before Summilux was announced. Initial reviews were well presented (Jono Slack) and it made me thinking again as I liked the focal length and had a gap in my line up between 21 and 35mm.

 

Lens was pleasure to use from day one on M240 and later M246, most shots I take are f8 but in poor light f1.4 is damn good. With SL601 it is easy to focus and even fun when shooting with maximum aperture in good light. On M246 my two go to lenses are Summilux 28 and APO Summicron 50mm. On RF camera I usually frame with external optical viewfinder.

 

Edit, tried it on film, very nice results.

Edited by mmradman
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One stressful wedding, hopefully less stressful than deciding Summilux 28mm. Shot on film, Fuji Neopan 400CN.

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Edited by mmradman
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28 lux, tri-x, m6ttl

 

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I thought a long time about getting the 28 lux and eventually got one. It turned out the be defective, and after some hassle Leica replaced it and sent me a new one. It is superb.... stopped down it is incredibly sharp but retains a 3D feel and captures casts of light beautifully. Wide open it is a totally different lens... I like to call it the “doom lens” since it makes everything gloomy and dark looking in an atmospheric way- perfect for my type of photography. I find it pairs very well with the 75mm Summilux in terms of rendering. I’d take one any day over the 35 lux FLE.

 

It has very little distortion and wide open is just a little soft, both of which make it as good as a 28mm can get for portraiture. I’d normally use a 75mm, 90mm, or 105mm (nikkor) for portraiture, but when traveling with my wife and only carrying one lens, the 28mm is acceptable. I wouldn’t say in most circumstances that it distorts facial features much more than a 50mm would.

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I'm sorry, I'm not sure I understand your last sentence...mid-zone dip?

Resolution is highest at center (like most lenses) but instead of gradually losing resolution as you go toward the edge, or having a drop off toward the edge, the 35 FLE, loses resolution substantially about 2/3 out, the regains resolution as you head toward the edge.

 

Many Leica MTF’s show this to some degree, but the 35 FLE shows it to a degree that is clearly visible.

 

The 35 FLE is a superb lens, no question— I’ve just found the 28 Lux to be more to my liking.

Edited by mdg1371
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@ mmradman - very nice image, but what in your mind have you captured with the Lux that you could not have captured with a 28 Summicron, Elmarit or even Summaron ?

Film image happen d to shot outdoor in a good light and as you rightly point out any slow lens could do the same job. Now, as we know fast lenses were developed to deal with situations where light is poor and films used to be relatively slow compared with latest sensors.

 

Couple of examples with M240 and Summilux 28mm, all at max aperture.

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One more, M240, Summilux 28mm at max aperture. To avoid motion blur shutter speed is 1/125 and ISO is at high value for M240, I usually shot in Auto Exposure and Auto ISO mode with shutter speed limit set at 4*focal length setting.

 

Summicron would probably cope in such poor light, Elmarit and Summaron would struggle.

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Edited by mmradman
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My favourite crops are 1:1, 3:4 & panoramas in that order, cripping is not related to lens focal length.

 

Thinking about it my favourite sensor would be square utilising Leica format diagonal of 43mm or square roughly 30 by 30 mm, maybe I need to invest in Leica S ;-0

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My favourite crops are 1:1, 3:4 & panoramas in that order, cripping is not related to lens focal length.

Thinking about it my favourite sensor would be square utilising Leica format diagonal of 43mm or square roughly 30 by 30 mm, maybe I need to invest in Leica S ;-0

Well I rather mean cropping in the sense that you crop to 35mm because you had the 28mm on the cam instead of 35mm. Or if I put this other way round: Do you have a 28mm and NOT a 35 mm because you think that you could crop down to the angle of view of the 35mm if needed. This might not be quite the subject here. But I ask this as I am planning to get a 35 lux after I realized that I crop the 28mm pictures very very often in LR. Today I have the 28 cron, the 50 lux and the 75 cron.

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Well I rather mean cropping in the sense that you crop to 35mm because you had the 28mm on the cam instead of 35mm. Or if I put this other way round: Do you have a 28mm and NOT a 35 mm because you think that you could crop down to the angle of view of the 35mm if needed. This might not be quite the subject here. But I ask this as I am planning to get a 35 lux after I realized that I crop the 28mm pictures very very often in LR. Today I have the 28 cron, the 50 lux and the 75 cron.

 

I have the 28 Summilux, and no 35mm lenses.  I never crop to the 35mm field of view.

 

Aside from suggestions that technically the 28 Summilux is a better lens than the 35 Summilux (Tim Ashley identified a "wavy" plane of best focus), I'd suggest you buy one or the other for the preferred field of view.  For some reason, I prefer the slightly wider field of view of the 28 - never really gelled with the 35.

 

Like you, I have the 28-50-75 (and 21), and I don't miss the 35 for a second.

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@mmradman, I have 2 35mm Summilux (pre-asph and FLE) and a "slow" 28mm (old Summaron) - I use them with my M6/MP and 240MP. Of course I appreciate the speed and/or DOF with the Lux but I also appreciate the size and slow pace of the Summaron. I never crop my 28mm images to 35mm (or different) - I take the 28mm for the angle of view.

 

I agree with IkarusJohn - different lenses for different purposes. But I alway miss something :)

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