An SL 50mm Dilemma

[Sohail]

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7 minutes ago, NRKstudio said:

... get the 35/1.2 Art instead of the 50 Lux, and get the 50 Cron instead of the 75 Cron.  Until more lenses are released, this is how I set up my kit.  

Unfortunately, 28 is my preferred focal length. My Q2 is for me perfect in all respects.

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[Arrow]

23 minutes ago, Sohail said:

Thanks Arrow. Can you please elaborate why. Presumably you've not had the Summicron-SL to compare it to as your liking for the Summilux-SL has developed. Or have you?

Cheers,
Sohail

In the end, it came down to f1.4 vs. f2. I have the 24-90 zoom and the cron would have given my less additional f-stop advantage in rendering terms.

I have got the 90 cron SL. So, I had an idea about the size and weight of the cron 50. Since I am very happy with the zoom and used to it´s size, I don't bother the 50 being in the same size and weight league. Weight also helps when it comes to image stabilisation

 

[Fedro]

depends upon what you need it for  -  both are lovely lenses. I ultimately sold the Lux for the Cron

I preferred the look of the Lux, but I never took it out of the house so I sold it, with plenty of sadness as it is one of my favourites lenses ever and looks stunning wide open

The Cron is an amazing lens in its own right

[Sohail]

22 minutes ago, Fedro said:

depends upon what you need it for  -  both are lovely lenses. I ultimately sold the Lux for the Cron

I preferred the look of the Lux, but I never took it out of the house so I sold it, with plenty of sadness as it is one of my favourites lenses ever and looks stunning wide open

The Cron is an amazing lens in its own right

You're right! It's pointless getting a lens you won't use -- even if it renders beautifully. By the way, if you're up for a test, I recently took a few experimental shots outside the Leica Store in Milan. Can you tell if this was shot with a 50 Summicron-SL or a 50 Summilux-SL?

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Edited January 6, 2020 by Sohail

[Arrow]

4 minutes ago, Sohail said:

You're right! It's pointless getting a lens you won't use -- even if it renders beautifully. By the way, if you're up for a test, I recently

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took a few experimental shots outside the Leica Store in Milan. Can you tell if it was shot with a 50 Summicron-SL or a 50 Summilux-SL?
 

Could be booth lenses in this particular situation. DOF might be the only giveaway. Cron?

 

[Aktenschrank]

16 minutes ago, Sohail said:

You're right! It's pointless getting a lens you won't use -- even if it renders beautifully. By the way, if you're up for a test, I recently took a few experimental shots outside the Leica Store in Milan. Can you tell if this was shot with a 50 Summicron-SL or a 50 Summilux-SL?

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I would say it's the Summilux. From pictures I have seen the Summicron has a steeper contrast falloff behind/in front of the plane of focus than what I see here (for example in the wall next to her). Could be totally wrong though😀. Ah, the joy of "lens peeping"...

Edited January 6, 2020 by Aktenschrank

[Fedro]

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Lux?

 

 

[Macberg]

vor 36 Minuten schrieb Sohail:

You're right! It's pointless getting a lens you won't use -- even if it renders beautifully. By the way, if you're up for a test, I recently took a few experimental shots outside the Leica Store in Milan. Can you tell if this was shot with a 50 Summicron-SL or a 50 Summilux-SL?

Are you asking whether it's a shot with one of the two lenses at the same aperture (2.0)?

[Sohail]

50 minutes ago, Sohail said:

You're right! It's pointless getting a lens you won't use -- even if it renders beautifully. By the way, if you're up for a test, I recently took a few experimental shots outside the Leica Store in Milan. Can you tell if this was shot with a 50 Summicron-SL or a 50 Summilux-SL?

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The 50mm Summilux-SL

[m9photo]

55 minutes ago, Sohail said:

You're right! It's pointless getting a lens you won't use -- even if it renders beautifully. By the way, if you're up for a test, I recently took a few experimental shots outside the Leica Store in Milan. Can you tell if this was shot with a 50 Summicron-SL or a 50 Summilux-SL?

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what aperture? if it's 1.8 then it's a Lux 

Edited January 6, 2020 by m9photo

[Sohail]

2 minutes ago, m9photo said:

what aperture? if it's 1.8 then it's a Lux 

1.872

Joking aside, it was shot at 1.4

[Arrow]

9 minutes ago, Sohail said:

1.872

Joking aside, it was shot at 1.4

So, how did you like handling it? 

[Sohail]

29 minutes ago, Arrow said:

So, how did you like handling it? 

I had it for about half an hour. It was a bright sunny day in the centre of Milan with lots of tourists about. I used it with the SL1. It's not a stealthy look even with the lens hood reversed. I felt it drew a lot of attention -- much more so than walking around with my Q2. Focussing was not an issue. I guess because lighting was not a challenge. But it was a real workout though. After an intense 15/20 minutes of shooting, my arms began to tire but not intolerably so. It's a beautiful lens. For portraits, the subjects really do pop in a way that I find visually appealing. Unfortunately, they didn't have the 50mm Summicron-SL in stock, so I never got around to using it -- hence my post today. 

Curiously, on a separate note, quite a few people in this forum are baffled by a 50/75 combination. For my part, they render very differently not simply from a focal-length perspective but also in how they draw -- the Summilux is very different. Here's for instance a shot I took on the same day with the 75mm Summicron-SL. It's very different kind of shot:

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Edited January 6, 2020 by Sohail

[Arrow]

17 minutes ago, Sohail said:

I had it for about half an hour. It was a bright sunny day in the centre of Milan with lots of tourists about. I used it with the SL1. It's not a stealthy look even with the lens hood reversed. I felt it drew a lot of attention -- much more so than walking around with my Q2. Focussing was not an issue. I guess because lighting was not a challenge. But it was a real workout though. After an intense 15/20 minutes of shooting, my arms began to tire but not intolerably so. It's a beautiful lens. For portraits, the subjects really do pop in a way that I find visually appealing. Unfortunately, they didn't have the 50mm Summicron-SL in stock, so I never got around to using it -- hence my post today. 

Curiously, on a separate note, quite a few people in this forum are baffled by a 50/75 combination. For my part, they render very differently not simply from a focal-length perspective but also in how they draw -- the Summilux is very different. Here's for instance a shot I took on the same day with the 75mm Summicron-SL. It's very different kind of shot:

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75 does have more tele effect than 50. It gives a scene or a portrait more compression than a 50. It 90 is too long for your shooting taste. 50/75 is fine. I also pondered on adding a 75 to fill a gap between the 50 and 90 primes. Sometimes, a 75 would have been handy. Shooting the zoom, I often shoot in the 75 range. When I shot the M8 the 50 was a 75. 50 and 90 are really different. Maybe the 75 is the missing link

Yes, the SL is not a stealthy camera in the streets  There are smaller options for that and you already have the Q. 

[Sohail]

8 minutes ago, Arrow said:

75 does have more tele effect than 50. It gives a scene or a portrait more compression than a 50. It 90 is too long for your shooting taste. 50/75 is fine. I also pondered on adding a 75 to fill a gap between the 50 and 90 primes. Sometimes, a 75 would have been handy. Shooting the zoom, I often shoot in the 75 range. When I shot the M8 the 50 was a 75. 50 and 90 are really different. Maybe the 75 is the missing link

Yes, the SL is not a stealthy camera in the streets  There are smaller options for that and you already have the Q. 

The 75mm is a versatile focal length: for streets shots, detail shots and natural looking portraits. I'm fairly pleased with how it renders headshots:

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Note however the CA (in the hair) even in this APO.
 

Edited January 6, 2020 by Sohail

[Arrow]

2 minutes ago, Sohail said:

The 75mm is a versatile focal length: for streets shots, detail shots and natural looking portraits. I'm fairly pleased with how it renders headshots:

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That's what I liked about using a 50 on the M8. Same with using M50 lenses on APS-C cameras. You can shoot a scene but also do portraits on closer quarters.

[setuporg]

When I googled for reviews of the SL 50 APO, I stumbled upon one by Om Malik, @om on Twitter, a renowned technology writer and now VC.  The M 50 APO was his favorite lens and he rated the SL APO as high:

https://om.co/2019/08/15/the-must-have-lens-for-your-leica-sl/

FWIW, He says that the SL 50 Lux is his least favorite lens.

Personally, I got the 35mm and 35mm in SL for fast AF and APO rendering as these are the most common normal FOVs.  I got the M 75 Cron and Lux and 90mm Cron if I need them, and would spend a bit of time to focus.  But for a whole day walkaround lens with kids or other people the 50mm is a must, IMHO.  I swap the 35mm for landscapes when I still have people in them.  The wider Ms, 24/28/WATE do the job if wider is needed.  So for those who have M lenses on hand my strategy would be to cover 35 and 50 as the most frequent use cases, or other focal lengths if those are your most common use cases.

Edited January 6, 2020 by setuporg

[tom0511]

I own both SL50mm lenses. If you ask for the more organic and size is not an issue, I would opt for the 50/1.4SL.

Personally I really prefer the size of the SUmmicron, but I feel the Summilux renders somewhat "smoother". The 50/1.4SL reminds me a little more to the Noctilux 0.95, and the 50/2.0 SL more to the M-APO-Summicron.

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[Sohail]

32 minutes ago, setuporg said:

FWIW, He says that the SL 50 Lux is his least favorite lens.

 

I remember reading that review too but I think he is -- by his own admission -- a very unusual photographer and mostly shoots landscapes. As Lloyd Chambers finds in his tests, the SL 50 Lux is more geared to portraiture -- not planar subjects. So, yes, it makes a lot of sense that the lens is his least favourite. I suspect there are focussing issues that must be a real frustration for landscapes.

[setuporg]

2 minutes ago, Sohail said:

I remember reading that review too but I think he is -- by his own admission -- a very unusual photographer and mostly shoots landscapes. As Lloyd Chambers finds in his tests, the SL 50 Lux is more geared to portraiture -- not planar subjects. So, yes, it makes a lot of sense that the lens is his least favourite. I suspect there are focussing issues that must be a real frustration for landscapes.

I just spent five days on Tahoe with the SL 35mm/50mm APOs /and the SVE 16-35mm, and the 50mm was my go to lens for kids sledding and skiing in nature.  I love the focus dropoff and it's awesome for portraits IMHO.