Noctilux 50/1.0 at center

[Schittra]

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7 hours ago, LeicaR10 said:

Schittra,  I owned the 50 Noctilux f/1.0 and it renders somewhat softly in a very beautiful way when shot wide open.  I recommend you read this article with photographs taken with various 50mm Noctilux lenses.  You can click on the photographs as well.  

Try    https://www.streetsilhouettes.com/home/2018/8/6/leica-50mm-noctilux-summilux-summicron-all-versions-plus-summarit-f15   Or just copy the link into your browser.

This should give you a really good idea what to expect with the various 50 Noctilux lenses.  r/ Mark

Thanks. Actually, I read this article 2-3 times before I bought the lens. Very informative.. Thanks again.

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[Schittra]

Look at the lady's scarf and her head. It's grow.. Is this chromatic aberration? I shot f/1.0 with ISO50. The light is strong of course. 

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[harryzet]

impressive pictures that show the phantastic use of the noctilux, documenting scenes which are spectacular. kudos

[adan]

25 minutes ago, Schittra said:

Look at the lady's scarf and her head. It's grow.. Is this chromatic aberration?

Spherical aberration.

The image cast by the edges of the aperture (which is not the same thing as the edges of the picture) is not focused in the same place as the image cast by the center of the lens.

Thus there is a soft, blurry image overlaid on top of a sharper rendering - the glow is the blurry version of her scarf.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_aberration

Pretty common in larger-aperture lenses pre-1990 (90 Summicron, 75 Summilux, 50 Summilux, 35 Summilux). OTOH it sometimes contributes to soft, glowy bokeh.

Bottom line optically: spherically-curved (constant-radius) surfaces are not actually the ideal shape for a lens, but they are relatively cheap and easy to grind in mass production. Ideally lenses would have parabolic (or other non-spherical) shapes, but those are very hard to grind and polish evenly - a lot of spoiled glass has to be scrapped and redone. Mandler's first Noctilux (f/1.2 - 1966) used two - it was not an economic success (nor was the original hand-ground double-aspherical 35 f/1.4).

The 50mm f/1.0 uses no ASPH surfaces, but it was economically viable for 32 years, and "pretty darn good" for the technology, thanks to a new glass formula (Leitz 900403).

[tsleica]

Like the 35mm F1.4 pre..

You have to live with the lens for awhile..and find out what it can and cant do..

[Herr Barnack]

On 5/16/2020 at 1:02 AM, Schittra said:

Thanks a lot. That’s well explanation. I tried again at 1.5 m, focus the eye and not using capture assistance. Overall look good but not producing crisp image. 

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@Schittra, the above photo looks about right for f/1.0 at a distance of 1.5 meters, compared to the results I have seen from my own #11822 Noctilux (v.4).  At maximum aperture, the Noctilux will give you more of an artistic rendering than a 50/2 Summicron (non-APO) or a 50/1.4 Summilux ASPH or even the 50/2.4 Summarit.

I will try to find his exact quote for you but a few years back, Erwin Puts wrote that the Noctilux f/1.0's sweet spot for maximum aperture was at a distance of 1.75-2.0 meters (aprox. 6-7 feet).  When shooting human subjects, I have always tried to keep that piece of information in mind.  I have also found that my Noctilux gives me more sharpness at f/1.0 when my subject is farther away, around 3.5 to 4.5 meters(11.5 to 14.75 feet).  Not everyone embraces this painterly rendering; as for me, I bought my Noctilux for its rendering more so than its low light performance.  I love the way it can make a photograph look almost like a pastel painting.  There are many Leica M lenses that will make razor sharp, contrasty images; only the Noctilux will give you this unique, painterly rendering (in my experience, at least).

The #11822 Noctilux also gives you more sharpness as you stop down; if you need sharpness in a given photo more than you need razor thin depth of field and maximum bokeh, f/2.8 and f/4 are good settings to try.  At f/5.6 to f/8, the Noctilux is approaching the sharpness of the non- APO 50 Summicron, but at the cost of shallow DOF and the Noctilux signature bokeh that you get at f/1.0.

Give different shooting distances and different apertures a try.  You may find something you like.  Also, there is no substitute for practice with the Noctilux at f/1.0 and a lot of practice. 

Hope some of this will be helpful...

 

Edited May 20, 2020 by Herr Barnack