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28 Summicron vs 28 Elmarit...


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Not a lot of highlights in your nice image Jaap.

Pictures like below might be more difficult to manage IMHO.

(R-D1, 28/2.8asph, f/8, 200 iso)

 

Thanks :) I like boats too..:)

 

So you mean full sunlight shots. Well, the weather wasn't bad that day...No photoshop at all except web resizing, C1- I didn't touch any slider... Wideangle wheels btw..:( It distorts .... So does the Summicron, I believe. The contrast is nicely handled though, check the highlights in the white balustrade against the white stonework and the chrome on my car.

 

 

tr.jpg

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When discussing contrast, it is well to make the distinction between diffuse highlights (which reflect more than 85% or so of the incident light) and specular highlights, which are actual mirror images of a light source such as the sun.

 

In the boat prow above, Jaap has lost detail in the white paint, but not in the windmill's more greyish upper wall, in the next picture. It used to be a rule of thumb that in a good B&W print diffuse highlights should hold detail. Specular highlights had to burn out however as their intensity in the subject could be many times greater than even the whitest paint. In a sense, their 'reflectance' would be seen as several hundred percent!

 

There are situations when a bright overcast sky turns into one giant light source, and it is practically impossible to get both detail in the cloud cover and in the landscape below. Then you simply have to get rid of the sky.

 

Shadow detail is more subjective and revolves around the diffuse notion of 'holding important detail'. With a good spot meter, it is nearly always possible in any subject to find an even deeper shadow. Edward Weston used to sacrifice enormous amounts of potential shadow detail in order to get intense detail in the brightest diffuse highlights. Actual original prints (not book reproductions) of his desert landscapes do show this.

 

An objective discussion of the ability of a lens and a sensor's way of rendering contrast should be based on tests with a controlled subject, such as the Kodak Gray Scale. Read the instructions carefully! How far down can you discern shades of black, if you can barely see the difference between patch A (near-100% reflectance) and patch 1?

Aye, that's the rub ...

 

The old man from the Age of the Darkroom

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In the boat prow above, Jaap has lost detail in the white paint, but not in the windmill's more greyish upper wall, in the next picture. It used to be a rule of thumb that in a good B&W print diffuse highlights should hold detail. Specular highlights had to burn out however as their intensity in the subject could be many times greater than even the whitest paint. In a sense, their 'reflectance' would be seen as several hundred percent!

The boat was not mine, but it makes no difference to the argument...

The white paint, after PS,(to show the highlight, it does not improve the pidcture at all) still shows some detail. I suspect lct's boat does too. Our screens are not capable of rendering the contrast.

 

Shadow detail is more subjective and revolves around the diffuse notion of 'holding important detail'. With a good spot meter, it is nearly always possible in any subject to find an even deeper shadow. Edward Weston used to sacrifice enormous amounts of potential shadow detail in order to get intense detail in the brightest diffuse highlights. Actual original prints (not book reproductions) of his desert landscapes do show this.

 

 

 

That is true, but on the M8, provided you get the highlights good, the shadows can be recovered to an amazing extent.

 

highlight.jpg

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Thanks :) I like boats too..:) So you mean full sunlight shots. Well, the weather wasn't bad that day...No photoshop at all except web resizing, C1- I didn't touch any slider... Wideangle wheels btw..:( It distorts .... So does the Summicron, I believe. The contrast is nicely handled though, check the highlights in the white balustrade against the white stonework and the chrome on my car...

Triumphal (TR6?) picture Jaap.

Proof that one can find some sun in Holland after all.

Just kidding of course but yes it is exactly the kind of subject matter for which i prefer lower contrast lenses personally.

Cheers.

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While we are talking contrasty lenses, this goes to show that so-called medium contrast can be a real asset. This is the pre-aspheric 21mm Elmarit wide open. There is no fill lighting except the chandelier, which cannot have helped much! The detail in the rightmost window had to go, but note that not only the woodwork but also the curtains are intact (so where is the lense's reputed sensitivity to flare?) – I doubt that the current aspherical 21mm would have fared this well. By the way, this exposure, the best of them, was on Auto, and so was the white balance!

 

The old man of a Certain Age

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Personally I have the 28cron and like it a lot.

 

Why? Coming from film i was used to a 35/1.4asph - so with the crop and 28mm being the "new 35mm" lens with f2.0 I allready lost 1 stop compared to earlier times, 2.8 I find kind of slow.

 

The size is great IMO, very easy to handle.

 

The somewhat lower contrast I also like, thats by the way a reason for me to use the 21asph (which also has slightly lower contrast) more often than the 24asph.

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I am a big fan of the 28/2 it doesn't have excessive contrast like a lot of the modern lenses. These 2 shots required pretty wide dynamic range. The cafe was at ISO 320 the street performer 1250, both -2/3 EV. I may get one of the lower contrast CV's that Sean has reviewed or an older Leica like the rigid summicron to see how it performs on the M8. To much contrast in the raw file is a real detriment and is fatal in harsh lighting.

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  • 5 months later...
If you like smooth bokeh the 28/2 is the way to go IMHO.

Otherwise the 28/2.8 asph is a great lens indeed with a bit more contrast than the Summicron.

If i had to keep one 28 only it would be certainly the Summicron but i would miss the small size of the Elmarit...

 

Dang, that was a lot of work to illustrate the differences and I really appreciate your efforts as it helped me too!

Regards,:o

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  • 1 month later...

I was asking myself this question last month. I own both the new 28 Elmarit and the 28 Cron Asph.

 

Currently my 28 Cron is for sale on ebay: item #130202617519

 

While most of the posters here are focusing on the image quality between the two lenses it was really the size that made my decision to sell the Cron. Also the 28 was my favorite lens on film--which I no longer shoot in 35mm.

 

I would like to have the 28 angle of view for my M8 but w/o having to use an external viewfinder.

 

With all the talk about possible M9 or M8 upgrades I haven't seen any discussion of a possible road that would make sense for Leica. Settling on the 1.3x chip size and starting to develop a line of digital only lenses for that format.

 

BTW the shot below is from the 28 Cron.

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