SL Lens Reviews

[Andrew Gough]

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[Andrew Gough]

SL & 16-35mm

[Irakly Shanidze]

...and here is my blog article on 2/75 and 2/90 APO-Summicron-SL lenses:

 

http://www.artphotoacademy.com/leica-sl-primes-another-degree-of-freedom/

Edited June 27, 2018 by Irakly Shanidze

[scott kirkpatrick]

Nice review. There are so many elements in that lens that I am not surprised that focusing by moving two little elements with a big static piece of glass between them interacts with the focal length.  I checked for this with the 16-35 (which has only a single moving element pair).  I saw no change in the field of view with shifting from 5 m to infinity, but in shifting from 5 meters to 50 cm, the blurred walls of the room seemed to move away and the field of view widened.  That's opposite to what you expect when moving a simple lens well away from the camera to focus close.  But it may be an optical illusion that results from defocusing.

 

Does focusing the 75 or 90 Summicron SL change its balance enough to notice on a gimbal?

 

I'll be in Georgia (the country, საქართველო, not the US state) next week. Going mostly to the north.   Any suggestions?

Edited June 27, 2018 by scott kirkpatrick

[Chuck Albertson]

It's not a review (yet), but the folks at DPReview have been using our recent stretch of abnormally dry weather (0.75" of rain since May 1) to shoot the 90SL, and have a gallery of shots posted this morning: https://www.dpreview.com/samples/5894013810/leica-apo-summicron-sl-90mm-f2-asph-sample-gallery You can download the JPEG or RAW files.

[Jon Warwick]

It's not a review (yet), but the folks at DPReview have been using our recent stretch of abnormally dry weather (0.75" of rain since May 1) to shoot the 90SL, and have a gallery of shots posted this morning: https://www.dpreview.com/samples/5894013810/leica-apo-summicron-sl-90mm-f2-asph-sample-gallery You can download the JPEG or RAW files.

 

Thanks for flagging. Apart from being a pleasant narrative of images to admire, these ones give a very clear (and well-executed) selection of shots with which to assess the SL 90mm's image quality.

The image quality of these new SL Summicron's really is quite something .......

The native sharpness and contrast are both very high, but for my personal taste can be nicely and easily tamed via the contrast and sharpness sliders.

I can only imagine how good the image quality will be with a presumably higher megapixel SL2 and with these SL Summicrons ...

[Irakly Shanidze]

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It's not a review (yet), but the folks at DPReview have been using our recent stretch of abnormally dry weather (0.75" of rain since May 1) to shoot the 90SL, and have a gallery of shots posted this morning: https://www.dpreview.com/samples/5894013810/leica-apo-summicron-sl-90mm-f2-asph-sample-gallery You can download the JPEG or RAW files.

 

Those pictures made me shiver. They do not show capabilities of the lens, let alone the aesthetics. For some mysterious reason, DPReview does not employ professional photographers, not even using freelancers. Their staff are proficient in writing, but mediocre photographers at best.

[Irakly Shanidze]

Does focusing the 75 or 90 Summicron SL change its balance enough to notice on a gimbal?

 

I'll be in Georgia (the country, საქართველო, not the US state) next week. Going mostly to the north.   Any suggestions?

 

I did not try on a gimbal, but it should not be a problem. The change is minimal.

 

You must visit Tbilisi, it's a unique city. North is all mountains, not my cup of tea. I'd rather go to Batumi and race a sailboat

[scott kirkpatrick]

You must visit Tbilisi, it's a unique city. North is all mountains, not my cup of tea. I'd rather go to Batumi and race a sailboat

Sailboats sound great but will have to wait for the next trip.  Georgia is about 1000 miles from Tel Aviv, which makes it a near destination.

 

Indeed, Tbilisi is special.  Utterly bizarre architecture (jumble of every Eurotradition plus modern), theatres everywhere, found a fabulous bookstore and several good museums, one with a copy of every type of hominid skull known to date (at least I think they were copies), plus a detailed history of the Russian occupation.  Managed to skip the Stalin museum in Gori.  Pleasant cafes, even in the rain:

 

C1070339 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr

 

I shot almost everything, keeping it simple for hiking, with CL and 11-23.

 

I love the Georgian alphabet, but didn't get beyond recognizing some of the letters:

 

C1010030 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr

 

I've posted lots of stuff on the CL forum, and there's an album at https://www.flickr.com/gp/133969392@N05/2fUm7P .

Edited July 12, 2018 by scott kirkpatrick

[jaapv]

Thanks for flagging. Apart from being a pleasant narrative of images to admire, these ones give a very clear (and well-executed) selection of shots with which to assess the SL 90mm's image quality.

The image quality of these new SL Summicron's really is quite something .......

The native sharpness and contrast are both very high, but for my personal taste can be nicely and easily tamed via the contrast and sharpness sliders.

I can only imagine how good the image quality will be with a presumably higher megapixel SL2 and with these SL Summicrons ...

Pleasant only if you skip the comments

[lanetomlane]

Just published my SL 16-35mm Full review

 

http://www.aphotovid.com/leica-super-vario-elmar-sl-16-35-f-3-5-4-5-asph-full-review/

 

 

Thanks for posting .... I enjoyed the read. Looking forward to picking mine up tomorrow.

 

Regards, Tom

[Chuck Albertson]

For those who are subscribers to his site, Sean Reid has posted reviews of the 90SL and 75SL within the past few days.

[IkarusJohn]

For some reason I really can’t explain, I went over to DPReview yesterday. There was nothing really there apart from the announcement from Leica (I was probably looking in the wrong place) - but the comments!!!

 

Size, price and speed of the lens seemed the main complaints, quickly followed by the SL’s size, shape, weight and inadequate MP sensor (and lawyer bashing). There seemed to be no point in responding, or pointing out that other lenses of similar range from other manufacturers were all about the same size (funny that).

 

But leaving facts aside, there seems to be a fixation with fast lenses (regardless of focal length or any necessity for such speed) and MP. I really don’t get it.

 

I’m just a hobbyist. I walk about with my camera and photograph what interests me; available light; mostly handheld; 21-75 Summiluxes with an M; 11-23 zoom and 35 Summilux-T with the TL2; and either 16-35 or 24-90 zoom and a prime (50 Summilux-SL?) with the SL. I have zero need for more MP than 24 (as a goal of its own) - there’s no point, other than as a byproduct of some other improvement in performance (even then, I’m not at all convinced). As for fast wides, while I concede of my 7 M lenses, 4 are Summiluxes and one the 50 Noct, what is the fixation for fast glass? Particularly wides?

 

I get the sense, while they’re very busy bashing Leica and anyone silly enough to own one, they too have fallen into the trap of assuming that pushing technology barriers in favour of harder to make, more expensive equipment, is the only equipment worthy of ownership. It’s extremely dull.

 

I do agree with one comment made over there - many (most?) of the images that get posted here are not very inspiring. It’s almost as if people get so excited with their new toys that they can only think of firing off a few shots to post here. I know that sounds mean, but it would be good if some posters gave critical thought to whether or not anyone is interested in deeply average pictures of their cat, dog, Porsche, house, family or random static objects around their homes.

 

Mostly, they aren’t.

Edited August 14, 2018 by IkarusJohn

[sillbeers15]

My conclusion is folks in this forum are mostly only familiar with manual focusing and only shoot with ambient light.

The fast moving subjects of birds and planes stir no interest that I now stop posting here. Exploration on fill in lights for portraits also draw no interest. No one complains about auto focus except missing shots of their doggie.

[thighslapper]

I get the sense, while they’re very busy bashing Leica and anyone silly enough to own one, they too have fallen into the trap of assuming that pushing technology barriers in favour of harder to make, more expensive equipment, is the only equipment worthy of ownership. It’s extremely dull.

 

I do agree with one comment made over there - many (most?) of the images that get posted here are not very inspiring. It’s almost as if people get so excited with their new toys that they can only think of firing off a few shots to post here. I know that sounds mean, but it would be good if some posters gave critical thought to whether or not anyone is interested in deeply average pictures of their cat, dog, Porsche, house, family or random static objects around their homes.

 

Mostly, they aren’t.

 

..... yes, there is a fixation on paper specifications which I'm afraid correlates poorly with whether you are going to get on with or like using a particular camera/system

 

most of the decent Leica photos these days are posted on several popular facebook groups ...... and I've noticed that posts to the photo forum here have declined inexorably.

 

images in the gear subsections are predominantly mundane ..... as you point out.......

 

If I was Andreas I would ban anything in the gear sections except shots to show technical issues/comparisons and amalgamate all the photo forums into one photo-stream ....... and link it more closely to the 'Top Images' based on a mixture of user 'likes' and  moderators favourites ...

 

Otherwise the forum will lose more and more to facebook and others .....

[mmradman]

With reference to DPReview "vitriol"I think it is human trait to expect "value for money", just look at the size and caloric content of ready meals or fast food, not to mention consequential results but that is different discussion.  In photographic equipment context "value" is expressed in quantitative terms, i.e. more pixels faster lens, cheaper etc.  In quantitative terms Leica will almost certainly loose against any competitor. 

 

Where Leica really shine, for those who saw the light (no pun) is the quality of the optics.  How else they could possibly expect to sell lens like Noctilux M 75mm if it wasnt for superb optical performance.  Such compact lenses cost as much as fast super telephotos also made in small batches, that are superb but contain far more exotic glass and more meta plus motors etc.  

[hhn360]

My conclusion is folks in this forum are mostly only familiar with manual focusing and only shoot with ambient light.

The fast moving subjects of birds and planes stir no interest that I now stop posting here. Exploration on fill in lights for portraits also draw no interest. No one complains about auto focus except missing shots of their doggie.

 

I don't shoot moving subjects but shoot with added light (off camera strobes outdoors and in the studio as well as reflectors) almost 100% of the time.  In fact, one of the primary reasons why I under-utilize my Leica camera systems (SL and M's) is that I can't use them in high speed sync mode with my Profoto lights.  I would love to use my SL more if not for that limitation.  I would welcome more discussion on creative lighting, because good photography is about lighting and not about cameras.  

[sillbeers15]

I don't shoot moving subjects but shoot with added light (off camera strobes outdoors and in the studio as well as reflectors) almost 100% of the time.  In fact, one of the primary reasons why I under-utilize my Leica camera systems (SL and M's) is that I can't use them in high speed sync mode with my Profoto lights.  I would love to use my SL more if not for that limitation.  I would welcome more discussion on creative lighting, because good photography is about lighting and not about cameras.  

 

I'm glad you are one of the few who can see impact of applying light appropriately to enhance the artistic appeal of an image. Today almost everyone carries a smart phone with camera. There isn't that great a difference between a casual snapshot using a phone camera vs using a digital camera. Using artificial light to ehance an image's quality and artistic appeal is still kind of way off for smart phone photography.

Leica users spend much more to acquire great optics over other camera gear makes but I do see the gap closing up especially when artificial lighting is used as the micro contrast of an image improves under fill in light, yet most Leica users shy away from using artificial light.

I like the concept of Profoto A1 lights, but since I also like the optics Leica offer, I've decided to make do with other off camera lights that I can come close to Profoto A1. Using Magmod Sphere light modifier over SF60 isn't that far apart from Profoto A1 results. As in bigger and bulkier strobes, I typically shy away as I want mobility.

[hhn360]

I'm glad you are one of the few who can see impact of applying light appropriately to enhance the artistic appeal of an image. Today almost everyone carries a smart phone with camera. There isn't that great a difference between a casual snapshot using a phone camera vs using a digital camera. Using artificial light to ehance an image's quality and artistic appeal is still kind of way off for smart phone photography.

Leica users spend much more to acquire great optics over other camera gear makes but I do see the gap closing up especially when artificial lighting is used as the micro contrast of an image improves under fill in light, yet most Leica users shy away from using artificial light.

I like the concept of Profoto A1 lights, but since I also like the optics Leica offer, I've decided to make do with other off camera lights that I can come close to Profoto A1. Using Magmod Sphere light modifier over SF60 isn't that far apart from Profoto A1 results. As in bigger and bulkier strobes, I typically shy away as I want mobility.

 

Thanks for your comments.  I think that using only (or is it hiding behind?) ambient light and shooting wide open all the time is very boring and very limiting as well.  Being able to combine ambient light with added light for creative lighting purposes makes for much more interesting images, especially in photos of people and objects.  If one does not know how to use flash, one may criticize the look as "artificial" or "harsh". 

 

Sometimes one may want hard light, other times very soft light, and knowing how to modify and shape light in one's images makes all the difference in a professional looking photo versus one that can be taken with an iPhone or any decent camera and lens, which anyone can have access to nowadays.  

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica L-Mount

[jrp]

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/uk/buying-guides/best-leica-sl-lenses More of a buying guide