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75mm f1.4 Summilux


SMAL

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15 hours ago, Soden said:

For 75 focal length I like the longer throw, I can get more accurate focus, but you need patience.

It helps to become conditioned to moving the focus ring when anticipating a photo even if the camera is not raised to focus. The best Leica RF user I know, a forty year veteran National Geographic photographer, has entirely assimilated the technique.  He can't even explain it. I had to watch closely to see him do it.

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2 hours ago, EoinC said:

That counts me out on all prerequisites.

I'm out on the eyesight requisite, but with luck my next cataract operation will restore one eye, maybe eventually both.

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vor 11 Stunden schrieb evikne:

Yes, the 75 Lux has a much longer and tighter focus throw than the Noctilux. So for my type of photography this is the least suitable lens and the one I use the least (but I really love the rendering and bokeh). You probably know that the design of the 75 Lux is based on the 50 Lux. I like to think of the 75 Lux as the 50 Lux' "big brother". And because the 50 Lux is so much easier to focus and handle, I usually choose this one instead, and go for the Noctilux when I really want something different. 

The 75 Lux is great when you have time for focusing and when you need close details. The short near limit combined with the focal length can be really useful sometimes (not exactly a macro lens, but the closest I get with my lenses today). And of course when you need the longer focal length. So I have realized that I need them all. 

It’s interesting, cause the 75 Lux I tried focused definitely smoother, than my Noctilux. And my had CLA at Leica just 4 month ago. The focus throw didn’t felt much longer to me, but I also didn’t pay a lot of attention to that.

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vor 4 Stunden schrieb DickieT:

Have you ever considered an OUFRO adapter to get closer to your subject with your Nocti ? It would be far the cheapest solution and you would not have to sell a lens..

It’s cheap, but inconvenient, cause you can not focus anything else, than close.

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22 hours ago, IkarusJohn said:

I'm sure we can agree on the one thing that is indisputable - the 75 Summilux has a long throw on the focus ring; longer than the 75 APO Summicron, and about the same (from memory) as the Noctilux 0.95.  I could never reliably hit focus with the 75 Summicron, whereas with the longer throw of the Noct and even with the shallower depth of field of the 75 Summilux, focusing has been reliable. ... I find a longer throw on the focus ring enables finer adjustment, resting in ta higher hit rate than with the shorter throw Summicron ...

+1.

With an RF, "fast focusing" and short throws are all well and good with wide-angles. With a narrow-DoF tele, it is like tearing down a street at 60kph and trying to brake exactly to a stop on some mark in the pavement. Much easier to do if one "sneaks up" on the mark at 10 kph. ;)

One reason I've left behind the more modern 75s, even though they have nice optics. I find a correctly-adjusted Summilux to hit the mark more often.

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On 5/15/2019 at 1:56 PM, T25UFO said:

Overgaard has just written a piece about the 75mm Summilux.  Interesting read:

https://overgaard.dk/Leica-75mm-Summilux-M-f-14.html

His comment regarding how to focus the 75mm f1.4 and going "easy and sloppy" is the perfect description on how to focus the 135mm f3.4 APO Telyt too. Since reading that I have been practicing with that lens, both at home and on some hikes. The more you try and perfect that last millimeter of a turn, the worse it seems to get.

I too have had a hard time consistently focusing the 75mm f2 APO Summicron....it's a damn frustrating lens. I even sent it to DAG a while back, who checked it and said it was "within tolerances".....LOL. I should have sent that lens along with the 135mm f3.4 when I had the Telyt matched to my M262's rangefinder to see if that would help at all. I can't bring myself to sell it.

I don't know what it is about the 75mm f2.4 Summarit, but I can focus it accurately virtually 100% of the time at any distance and aperture.

Edited by Gregm61
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On ‎5‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 4:03 PM, DickieT said:

Have you ever considered an OUFRO adapter to get closer to your subject with your Nocti ? It would be far the cheapest solution and you would not have to sell a lens..

A 50 mm with an OUFRO is a combo for VERY short distances : at infinity, you focus a 12 x 18 cm image (around… a bit less I'd say),  which is a very small one… not for portraits by sure.

Edited by luigi bertolotti
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23 hours ago, adan said:

+1.

With an RF, "fast focusing" and short throws are all well and good with wide-angles. With a narrow-DoF tele, it is like tearing down a street at 60kph and trying to brake exactly to a stop on some mark in the pavement. Much easier to do if one "sneaks up" on the mark at 10 kph. ;)

One reason I've left behind the more modern 75s, even though they have nice optics. I find a correctly-adjusted Summilux to hit the mark more often.

It might interest users that longer lenses compared to nominal 'normal lenses' have greater depth-of-focus (by physics contradicting depth of field). That means that for nominal viewing distances focus accuracy is less critical at ordinary distances. Those who are likely to object are probably using a long lens beyond rational close-focus lens design intentions.

Edited by pico
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9 hours ago, Gregm61 said:

His comment regarding how to focus the 75mm f1.4 and going "easy and sloppy" is the perfect description on how to focus the 135mm f3.4 APO Telyt too. Since reading that I have been practicing with that lens, both at home and on some hikes. The more you try and perfect that last millimeter of a turn, the worse it seems to get.

Yep. I took a workshop with some Nat. Geo. photographers, including Leica-shooter David Alan Harvey, about 20 years ago (just before getting into Ms myself.)

He made more or less the same point. With a viewing screen (SLR ground-glass or mirrorless LCD), most people manually focus a lens by sawing it back and forth: "it's fuzzy - now it's sharper - ooops, too far, it's fuzzy again, let's go back a bit - too far - back the other way again - now it's sharpest!"

That's not a good habit for focusing an RF (or those older SLRs with a split-image prism in the screen). Just put the two images together in one motion, and that's as good as it will get.

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2 hours ago, Exodies said:

Is your focusing finger still moving when you press the shutter?

Mine is sometimes. I just press  the shutter exactly when the two images pass each other, without stopping the focusing movement. It’s a very fast and surprisingly accurate method.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Update: a generous seller sent me the 75/1.4 Summilux to try it before I buy it, but before that he had it sent in to Leica for a calibration, cause he said it’s out of alignment. After all the waiting i received the lens. Unfortunately it’s still back focusing pretty badly on my M10 and M10-P. I checked it several times with the live view and when the live view is spot on, the Rangefinder is misaligned. A total bummer, cause the results with live view are looking pleasing, but I don’t want to go through the same hassle like @evikne did.

I also will keep the 50/1 Nocti 100%.

Edited by SMAL
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29 minutes ago, evikne said:

This lens is apparently extremely difficult to calibrate. It's a pity, because when the focus is correct, it makes the most beautiful pictures of all my lenses. 

I can imagine that modest temperature differences accumulate as micro-errors which are compounded in the long train of components from lens body to roller to levers and rangefinder prisms. As my wise partner reminds me, "It is not how well the bear dances, but that the bear dances at all."

When considering others' various successes with our very fast Leica lenses, part of the chain to good focus is the operator. Through no personal fault of their own, RF focus is not for some of us.

Edited by pico
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vor 57 Minuten schrieb evikne:

This lens is apparently extremely difficult to calibrate. It's a pity, because when the focus is correct, it makes the most beautiful pictures of all my lenses. 

I can definitely see that, but don’t want to go through that procedure now.

 

@pico I can focus the 50/1 Noctilux perfectly. I have not a single issue with it or any of my other fast aperture lenses.So I am pretty confident it’s not a user error.

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4 hours ago, pico said:

When considering others' various successes with our very fast Leica lenses, part of the chain to good focus is the operator. Through no personal fault of their own, RF focus is not for some of us.

Agree 100%. I was sure my lens was off after seeing the first few photos I took with it. Had it verified and sure enough, it was NOT uncalibrated at all, therefore the culprit was myself.

Learning and training took me several dozen (bad) photos, but now I am able to nail the focus almost all the time. It is a difficult but wonderful lens.

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When the M8 arrived nearly 10 years ago, I sent mine (a V2) to Solms for 6-bit coding. It came back perfectly calibrated. Since they had to replace the mount, perhaps they put in a little extra effort to adjust it before sending it back. Wonderful lens - I should use it more often.

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vor 3 Stunden schrieb ckuwajima:

Agree 100%. I was sure my lens was off after seeing the first few photos I took with it. Had it verified and sure enough, it was NOT uncalibrated at all, therefore the culprit was myself.

Learning and training took me several dozen (bad) photos, but now I am able to nail the focus almost all the time. It is a difficult but wonderful lens.

I don’t know if you have read my update, but I might explain it again.

After playing around with the lens for over an hour, I‘ve put the camera on a tripod and focused through live view on a subject and then just looked through the rangefinder which was then still off. There is no better verification for a badly calibrated lens. 

Why else should I otherwise be able to focus my 50/1 Noctilux and 50/1.4 Summilux spot on, when it would be my fault? All my gear is perfectly calibrated. I had it checked in Wetzlar last November, when I came back from Portugal and have never any issues. I think that’s proof enough.

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