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Comparing some 35 Leica lenses...


adan

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I was looking in the used Leica case at the local shop this week, and realized that, including my own 35mm Summicron, I had available four different 35mm lens versions, spanning the decades. So I did a little comparison shot, just to see how they differed in imagery wide-open - f/2 (or f/2.5 - a hint as to one of the types).

 

This is the whole scene, showing the crop areas I'll add below. M10 camera, identical processing of the .dng images, no sharpening added, and the four lenses a, b, c, d are always in the same order.

 

I will reveal which lens is which in a day or so, but will leave it mysterious for the moment, for those who enjoy guessing.

 

It is interesting to see how aberrations, resolution and other characterisitics ("drawing") have been handled over the years.

 

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OK, first detail crops, from the image center. Remember, these are at f/2 or f/2.5.

 

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Next, going for the extremes. Top left corner.

 

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Left side, slightly above center

 

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Right side.

 

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Edited by adan
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I find it hard to rate the examples consistently, as I would rate differently for off-center left vs off-center right, which somehow does not seem to make sense, unless there are idiosnycracies in the lens samples (e.g. mild decentering or other deficiencies).

 

Just curious: Did you apply the respective lens profiles in your M10? Was it set to auto-detection? Was this a mix of 6-bit coded & uncoded lenses? Was lens profile explicitly set to 'off' in your DNG-converter? Which DNG-converter did you use?

 

FWIW, my overall rating would be: a, c, b, d.

 

I am looking foreward to the disclosure ;)

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a) seems to be contrastier in the center, but shows some horrible CA top left, whilst b and c hold well against this. a) looks also more reddish than the others. I‘d presume it is of different origin than the others but don‘t dare to say Voigtländer.

 

I cannot make up my mind about d). In the „Hold Sheet“ crop it looks as if there was some shaking (double lines). Similar on the right side.

 

b ) loooks like an older lens: so I dare to guess it is the 1. version of the 35mm Summicron.

 

Since there must be a Summarit involved (adan mentions f/2.5) my next guess is: 35mm Summarit is c).

Edited by UliWer
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Adan's deep understanding of lenses is intimidating to me.

 

Should I ever receive a rejection of one of my photos which states, "Not sharp enough across the frame." I will frame it.

NOT that Adan would make that criticism.

Edited by pico
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OK, there are a few things going on here that I'm not sure I understand, but I'll play too.

I'd go for a) being the Summicron ASPH and d) being the Summarit.

Then, let's say that B) is a Summicron v3 or v4 and c) a Summicron v1.

Probably completely wrong, but fun. Thanks Andy.

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