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Interesting. This becomes more and more weird. I also have a 90 APO-Summicron and it also didn't have this coma wide open as shown by Ken Rockwell.
Here a quick test with f 2.0 at the M 240 (focused on the light chain):

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Here an Detail out of the above picture:

 

Could there be such a variation in the Leica production? or are there changes over the time during the production? Or are this faulty used ones? 

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On 12/31/2019 at 12:09 AM, adan said:

I just ran across this (old) review of the 90 APO-Summicron, and saw something that made me think of this thread.

Scroll down the page about halfway to see some examples of rather similar fan-like large/wide coma blurs from night-time streetlights....and some commentary

https://www.kenrockwell.com/leica/90mm-f2-apo-asph.htm

Interesting.  I overlooked this when I was researching this lens.  Thinking about how these two lenses might relate to one another...

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While I haven't been back out for night shooting with this Macro Elmar, I did do a little work the other day with it.  In the images below you can clearly see a difference between f/4 and f/8 in terms of sharpness.

90mm Macro-Elmar  f/4 below

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Edited by KFo
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90mm Macro-Elmar  f/8 below

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Edited by KFo
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I've had other lenses that looked a little soft under certain circumstances.  When I was testing this 90  Macro-M-Elmar right after I received it, I thought the lack of sharpness wide open might be nice at times (portraits for example).  I am a little surprised that this isn't widely mentioned as a characteristic of the lens.

All manufacturing has variability.  I am wondering now; condition of this sample or characteristic of the family.  I'm leaning towards characteristic of the family now.

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I use one Macro-Elmar-M 90mm more than ten years, never found it's soft at f/4.

To have confirmation, I look at those of my pictures from the MEM 90 searching for softness, they are as good as can be at f/4 or closing down.

To be sure, I had a look at the MTF graphs published (loaded from the Leica website here .pdf ), the graphs are as good at f/4 as f/5.6 or f/8.

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3 minutes ago, a.noctilux said:

I use one Macro-Elmar-M 90mm more than ten years, never found it's soft at f/4.

To have confirmation, I look at those of my pictures from the MEM 90 searching for softness, they are as good as can be at f/4 or closing down.

To be sure, I had a look at the MTF graphs published (loaded from the Leica website here .pdf ), the graphs are as good at f/4 as f/5.6 or f/8.

I did look those MTF graphs over as well.

So how would a single sample of a lens exhibit such dramatic softness and comma with respect to aperture when it mechanically appears to be in perfect condition?

 

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As we all know, if results are not as expected, this lens may be faulty.

Don't you know somebody who can let you try his/her MEM 90  ?

In your place, I would take it to be checked by competent persons.

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14 minutes ago, a.noctilux said:

As we all know, if results are not as expected, this lens may be faulty.

Don't you know somebody who can let you try his/her MEM 90  ?

In your place, I would take it to be checked by competent persons.

No unfortunately, I don't know any other MEM 90 owners.

I wonder, what I would say to a service person, and what they are capable of doing to remedy this?

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10 hours ago, KFo said:

I wonder, what I would say to a service person, and what they are capable of doing to remedy this?

Show them the pictures with coma, which should not be evident in this lens.  As they say, a picture's worth a thousand whatsits. 

Pete.

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Today I talked a guy at Steve's Camera Service in Culver City, the nearest Leica repairer to me.  After a brief discussion, mostly focused on focusing, he recommended that I bring the camera and lens in for a rangefinder calibration! 

I am not buying that the rangefinder calibration will fix this.  In fact, I don't want anyone to mess with my M10-P rangefinder as it appears to work fine.  I can compare the RF to the LV with the 90 and it's close enough for the people that I hangout with.

Below are a couple of images that show the coma quite nicely.  Both taken at f/4.0 using the 14652 Macro-M adapter, the only difference is that I panned the camera to move the highlighted part of the meter from the center to the edge of the image field.

In LV, I can close the aperture and watch the coma disappear.  It's gone at f/8 for practical purposes.  I also shot some boring long distance shots today.  Wide open everything off center looks soft...and clear as a bell by f/8.

Regards,

Kevin

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11 hours ago, adan said:

You have the world's first 90mm Macro-Thambar.

Yes, it is awesome and rare!  It may be the most versatile M mount lens ever.

Accepting offers.... ;)

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Latest update:

Stopped by Leica store LA today.  After showing the lens and checking it out on another body, I decided to send it in for service.  I’ll let you all know how this evolves.

 

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On 1/1/2020 at 8:58 AM, fotomas said:

Interesting. This becomes more and more weird. I also have a 90 APO-Summicron and it also didn't have this coma wide open as shown by Ken Rockwell.
Here a quick test with f 2.0 at the M 240 (focused on the light chain):

Here an Detail out of the above picture:

 

Could there be such a variation in the Leica production? or are there changes over the time during the production? Or are this faulty used ones? 

the test he shows on his site was a 32sec exposure >> "90 APO on Fuji Velvia 50, 32 seconds."

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KFo, this behaviour you've shown is strange.

My take on the subject:

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Paris, Blvd St Germain. Leica-M _ 90mm Macro-Elmar-M. Wide open. ISO 2000. 1/125th.

Slight blloming. OK, this picture was taken with a gilet jaune.🙂

Edited by Alberti
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So with which exposure-time the halo will appear? Mine was only half of his. In the original post the halos are there wide opened and go away stopped down. So it gets better with an longer exposure time. Can't see how this should be related to the exposure-time. Maybe you can post an example with one of your lenses that show the halos and tell us the right time for this.

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On 1/11/2020 at 5:59 AM, Alberti said:

KFo, this behaviour you've shown is strange.

My take on the subject:

Paris, Blvd St Germain. Leica-M _ 90mm Macro-Elmar-M. Wide open. ISO 2000. 1/125th.

Slight blloming. OK, this picture was taken with a gilet jaune.🙂

This is exactly what I expected to see from my copy!  I can't wait to see what Leica has to say about repairs on my mine.

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