APO Summicron 50mm resolution power example

[budjames]

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I was in Harve de Grace this past Sunday. Using my M10-P with APO Summicron 50mm lens, I capture images of passing boats in the river.

When processing the selected image in Capture One Pro, I made a tight crop for the best composition of this image. I was amazed at the sharpness, contrast, detail and resolution that the APO Summicron 50 is capable of with this image. ISO was set to 200 and was shot handheld.

Attached is the full image and my final, cropped, version. Just image what this lens will be able to do with a higher pixel sensor.

Unfortunately, due to the image size limit on this forum, the images appear to be grainy or noisy. This is not the case with the full size JPGs output from Capture One Pro. They look great with no grain or noise and lots of details retained.

Regards,
Bud James

Please check out my fine art and travel photography at www.budjames.photography or on Instagram at www.instagram.com/budjamesphoto.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited September 4, 2019 by budjames

[lct]

Would you mind to show the same when zeroing sharpening in C1? Just curious.

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[budjames]

13 minutes ago, lct said:

Would you mind to show the same when zeroing sharpening in C1? Just curious.

Here are the images with no sharpening.

Regards,
Bud James

Please check out my fine art and travel photography at www.budjames.photography or on Instagram at www.instagram.com/budjamesphoto.

 

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[albertknappmd]

better without sharpening..

 

Albert

[simonr]

Agreed!!  Easier on the eye.

[spydrxx]

I actually prefer light sharpening

[ianman]

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Although I agree with others that the version without sharpening looks better (IMO), I think both look dreadful. I don't wish to be rude Bud, it could well be, as you mention, that at some point your jpegs are getting messed up somehow. Could you post the DNG?

[AndreasG]

In this particular case we face various limitations, first, the upload limit in the LUF of 500k resp. 1000k for premium members does not allow to upload images, which really show the details and resolution of a high quality lens, second, the above shown images in a size of 220-270k for which reason ever are - sorry to say - of a low quality with many jpg artefacts, visible at higher resolution, and finally, the central part of an image, in this case the sail boat, is not the suitable part of an image to evaluate a lens,. The quality of the APO Summicron, best at open aperture, is definitely visible in the corners, not in the center, according to my experience.

[indergaard]

Hmm. As an owner of the APO and a myriad of other lenses and systems, and other 50mm's, and having owned the Lux 50 ASPH, Noctilux 50 ASPH, Summicron 50mm (5th version),  I don't see this as a good example to show the APO's qualities. Especially when everyone knows it completely outresolves the 24mp sensor in the M10/P. Any other modern 50mm would display more or less the same resolution on a 24mp sensor these days.

The APO Summicron has many strengths, but sadly this showcase doesn't show any of them.

[lct]

24 MP is too low a pixel count to check resolution of modern lenses in my experience but the noise looks like the pic has been shot at 6400 iso or above on a not so clean camera. Would be interesting to look at the DNG file indeed.

[ianman]

On 9/4/2019 at 12:29 PM, budjames said:

Unfortunately, due to the image size limit on this forum, the images appear to be grainy or noisy. This is not the case with the full size JPGs output from Capture One Pro. They look great with no grain or noise and lots of details retained.

 

Have you tried to optimize them properly? I have posted this many times now, but don't let bad software compress your jpegs... try  https://www.jpegmini.com/ it works wonders. So when exporting your jpeg, set compression to none and then pass it through jpegmini.

[RexGig0]

Lovely image, when viewed as pinched-small, on this 12.9” iPad Pro screen. I really do like it, and prefer the unsharpened version. But, yes, as indicated by others, the image, sharpened or unsharpened, is having problems being translated from your camera to this site. (I am not qualified to provide technical help, so will not even try to guess.)

[Jon Warwick]

7 hours ago, AndreasG said:

The quality of the APO Summicron, best at open aperture, is definitely visible in the corners, not in the center, according to my experience.

Absolutely my experience too. I used to think my 50 APO had amazing fine detail capture, but then I tripod-mounted my M240 and did a proper comparison of my 50 APO vs my Summicron v5. I couldn’t tell any difference whatsoever in terms of central resolution, and I was really looking for it. Corners on the APO for distant subjects like landscapes were better than the v5, however, given the latter’s field curvature.

Now, if one really wants resolution in digital FF...... a Panasonic S1R in high resolution mode + an SL Summicron is in a quite different league to anything I achieved with the M240 + APO.

I now view the M line as balance of good image quality when considering its very small package - but there’s superior FF systems out there for pure image quality, imho.

Edited September 6, 2019 by Jon Warwick

[AndreasG]

Let me show you a very basic comparison between the APO Summicron 50 and a V4 Summicron 50 from 1986. I just did this a few day ago outside of the Frankfurt Leica Store, making some shots towards the Goethe House at the Hirschgraben, without tripod, no cable release, probably changing light conditions and therefore certainly not a result that can be called scientific. I need to thank the Leica store that they lent me the APO lens for testing.

The first, relatively dark photo - aperture 2, distance at infinity - shows the overview, the red circles indicate areas, which are shown cropped into detail further down, always the old Summicron left side, the APO right side. Though the uploaded photos lost substantial resolution due to the file size limitations, it is clearly evident that the APO lens offers definitely a better resolution and a higher contrast, especially outside the center region. All photos - no post processing.

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Edited September 9, 2019 by AndreasG

[mdemeyer]

On 9/9/2019 at 5:10 PM, AndreasG said:

Let me show you a very basic comparison between the APO Summicron 50 and a V4 Summicron 50 from 1986. I just did this a few day ago outside of the Frankfurt Leica Store, making some shots towards the Goethe House at the Hirschgraben, without tripod, no cable release, probably changing light conditions and therefore certainly not a result that can be called scientific. I need to thank the Leica store that they lent me the APO lens for testing.

The first, relatively dark photo - aperture 2, distance at infinity - shows the overview, the red circles indicate areas, which are shown cropped into detail further down, always the old Summicron left side, the APO right side. Though the uploaded photos lost substantial resolution due to the file size limitations, it is clearly evident that the APO lens offers definitely a better resolution and a higher contrast, especially outside the center region. All photos - no post processing.

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Did you say focused at infinity?   This subject seems nowhere near infinity based on the full image shot.  

[Verteidiger]

Differently calibrated lenses?

[Ecar]

Andreas,

These results look like those I'd get by comparing some of my lenses from the 50's or 60's (and not the best ones, TBH) with my APO.

The Rigid - and possibly even the collapsible Summicron - would look better than the V4 shown here...

I'd try another copy of the V4 and perhaps focus closer.

[AndreasG]

vor einer Stunde schrieb mdemeyer:

Did you say focused at infinity?   This subject seems nowhere near infinity based on the full image shot.  

This is correct, I focused on the office building in the center, approx. 150m distant. Since however I did not find any significant quality difference between both lenses in the center part of the photo, I checked other parts, which were closer than infinity. Again, it is not a scientific test arrangement.

[frame-it]

On 9/7/2019 at 1:40 AM, Jon Warwick said:

Absolutely my experience too. I used to think my 50 APO had amazing fine detail capture, but then I tripod-mounted my M240 and did a proper comparison of my 50 APO vs my Summicron v5. I couldn’t tell any difference whatsoever in terms of central resolution, and I was really looking for it. Corners on the APO for distant subjects like landscapes were better than the v5, however, given the latter’s field curvature.

Now, if one really wants resolution in digital FF...... a Panasonic S1R in high resolution mode + an SL Summicron is in a quite different league to anything I achieved with the M240 + APO.

I now view the M line as balance of good image quality when considering its very small package - but there’s superior FF systems out there for pure image quality, imho.

throw that APO summicron on a fuji GFX and then see the results in the centre at least..probably a better way to judge it is on a high MP sensor

 

 

 

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[lct]

My 50/2 v4 & v5 are rather soft at edges and corners at f/2. Same for the v3 i had in the past. Comes mainly from field curvature i suspect as results look sharper when focusing properly with an EVF.