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75 and 90mm SL lenses will arrive in February


jrp

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That would be nice -- lenses announced mid-January arriving in February. But I will admit to being frustrated, waiting as I am for the wide-angle Vario, announced some time ago, and due in... April.

 

There is an odd inconsistency to Leica's announcement/delivery schedule.  One year ago today, come to think of it, my M10 arrived having been announced mere days before. Yet other products get announced and go into a magical cloud while pre-orders are taken, sales staff are mum, and one waits for the clouds to part...

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The SL 75/90 Summmicrons were announced (and delayed) some time ago.

The SL 35 Summmicron also previously announced, was delayed to "2nd half of 2018"

 

The SL 50 Summmicron was the only new announced lens, and it is slated for "2nd half of 2018".

Given the previous delivery performance, I assume "2nd half of 2018" to be somewhere towards the middle of 2019.

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I'd prefer they didn't announce anything until it was ready to ship to dealers, personally. I don't need to know that a lens I want tomorrow is available in 13 months. I'm simple that way ... I'd rather know that the latest super whatsis lens is available now, and enjoy it tomorrow. :D

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Te problem is the try to be accurate and then something happens and they get bad press. And they never learn (it's not just Leica). I like a road map but they should under promise. Plan for September. Announce for December and then we'll all be thrilled when it arrives in November.

 

It isn't that hard.

 

Gordon

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This goes round and round.  The M(240) was announced, then Leica couldn't deliver (same for the M9, as I recall); the M10 was announced, and Leica was ready to deliver (same with the TL2), but they kept quiet about it; the SL was announced and was available, and again they kept quiet about it (over 3 years in development).

 

There was pressure here for Leica to publish a road map, showing what was coming so people could plan.  The problem with this is that if Leica says "We're working on an L mount, APS-C camera with built in EVF" no one would buy the TL2, which is a very good camera; and they get caned if they're late.  This happens with many other manufacturers and products.  It's doubly hard for small quality producers like Leica as they create expectation, then disappoint if they're late (as they will be as they try to provide perfect products, or as near as they can manage).  

 

I recall the same discussion with a paraglider manufacturer (a nice Korean man call Gin).  We had been working closely with him on new products, and he had been developing a new sports class paraglider.  This is the biggest part of the market, we'd been promising the new glider to customers for months, the glider went through certification testing (not a small task) and was ready for serial production when Gin flew it again.  He had a better idea, scrapped the whole thing and started again.  Now, had he said nothing about it, no one would have known.  Lots of our customers went off and bought other brand gliders because they needed something.

 

While I admire Leica giving an indication of what is coming, I think it was probably a bad idea publishing the roadmap for all the reasons shown here.

Edited by IkarusJohn
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Normally Leica Products are announced for a certain date which is not fulfilled and then slightly after that date the product is announced for another date 10 months later.

10 months later Leica communicates that the lens is "available". This means that 5 samples go to reviewers , 3 to Asia and 2 are sold in Germany (or US).

After some years one understands how it works. Patience is a precondtion for a Leica customer. 

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All they had to do was put a big asterisk beside them all and a statement at the bottom indicating 'Estimated release date based on average lens development times. This may vary dependent on a number of factors'.

 

OK, it's a cop-out, but at least it doesn't tie you absolutely to a fixed schedule. 

Edited by thighslapper
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Normally Leica Products are announced for a certain date which is not fulfilled and then slightly after that date the product is announced for another date 10 months later.

10 months later Leica communicates that the lens is "available". This means that 5 samples go to reviewers , 3 to Asia and 2 are sold in Germany (or US).

After some years one understands how it works. Patience is a precondtion for a Leica customer. 

 

What works for the M will not necessarily work for the SL and the CL...

 

There is a lot more competition and as these are new systems people (myself included) expect a much more aggressive timeline from Leica.  It is what it is.

 

PS.  Lenses rarely get shipped to the US immediately, usually 1 or 2 months after Germany...

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I’ve never had a 75mm lens before. I have the M50 f.95 & M90 f2.0. So I excited to try out the SL75 this evening since I’ve been invited to try. Likely for me to pull out my credit card if this lens AF performs as good as I see the pics so far.

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I got an APO SC 75-M for use with my M8, because it reminded me of shooting NikonF and 105/2.5 when I was doing theatre work in the 1960s or using the 50 short tele on my Olympus E-1.  So if I were lucky enough to get some time with the APO-SC 75-SL, I would pop it right onto my CL.  This would also put its fantastic resolution to a test -- pixels 1/3 closer together.

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These show a very pleasing rendition of backgrounds accentuated by sharpness of the in-focus plane. 

today I had the chance to play with the new Summicron-SL for 15 minutes, a great lens! Super-fast autofocus.

 

Here are some very simple shoots without post processing, almost f2

https://adobe.ly/2GfKWZB

 

Here you can get the DNGs

http://www.vesta.uni.../l_forum/SL_75/

 

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I got an APO SC 75-M for use with my M8, because it reminded me of shooting NikonF and 105/2.5 when I was doing theatre work in the 1960s or using the 50 short tele on my Olympus E-1.  So if I were lucky enough to get some time with the APO-SC 75-SL, I would pop it right onto my CL.  This would also put its fantastic resolution to a test -- pixels 1/3 closer together.

 

 

...and an indication of what to expect from the next SL (and pixel size wise from S008 as well).

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There are far too many cracking short telephotos available for Leicas at the moment. I sold my Apo-Summicron-M 90 last year with the intention of buying the SL version when it arrived, but spent the money on the TL2 (now CL) instead. Now we see the SL75, the imminent SL90, the Thambar, and the Noctilux-M 75 - and I still have the Apo-Summicron-M 75, the SL zooms and a Hektor 7.3cm.

 

The SL zooms have great IQ, but the 90-280 is too heavy as a regular 90 portrait lens, and the 24-90 only goes to f/4 at 90. The Noctilux 75 is too expensive (we all have our limits), and I don't really need an achingly sharp Summicron 75 for both the M and SL - one will do for both, and the Summicron-M 75 is the lens I would save from my burning house.

 

Which leaves the Summicron-SL 90 and the Thambar, for what would be almost entirely a portrait (or at least a people) lens. On the one hand the modern perfect portrait lens, very fast AF (I expect), weatherproof and well-balanced on the SL. But for 'real faces', there is a limit to the possibilities of vaseline, filters and post processing tricks. On the other hand there is a manual focus lens with a limited range of applications but that produces a unique effect in skilled hands (especially, on this forum, those of Milan Swolfs) - needing careful management of lighting and background to avoid looking like just another bad lens.

 

First world problems. But I'm taking the first steps in negotiations with my finance director. No other cameras or lenses are to go out this time round, but my ancient Minolta scanner will, and the CD collection (who needs physical media any more?) - neither will make any significant money, but 'showing willing' is a critical psychological bargaining element.

Edited by LocalHero1953
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