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The Leica APO-Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH - First Impressions


Steven

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It's a hard life but someone's got to do it. Lunch today at my nephew's beachside restaurant in Barbados, The Tiki Bar.  M10-R and 35 APO

Wilson

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Testshot M10-R+35APO

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Curious if anyone here can comment on their experience with the color drift the lens experiences @ f/2?  Mine seemingly is quite strong; both the m10 and sl2 they exhibit about the same amount which is exceedingly more than my 23 year old 35 Suimmilux.  This is with lens detection turned.

Thank you.

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On 10/20/2021 at 3:13 PM, Steven said:

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Really nice images and thanks for sharing! I don't know anything about film (my first camera was an iPhone 🙈). But it's kinda cool how these images were taken today but almost feel like they were taken 20-30 years ago. I love the feeling you capture in your photos 😉

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Thanks!

Took the APO out for a walk with my dog this afternoon, but not on film. 

The result is that the Paris grey weather + APO on digital is the perfect recipe for ugly and boring images. Still can't stand that lens except if its shot on film or in BW. 

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On 1/12/2022 at 9:05 AM, Steven said:

Thanks!

Took the APO out for a walk with my dog this afternoon, but not on film. 

The result is that the Paris grey weather + APO on digital is the perfect recipe for ugly and boring images. Still can't stand that lens except if its shot on film or in BW. 

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The problem is that you expect some kind of magic, an added dimension, an extra spirit, a scene changing vortex, a glow to happen, a parfum de venise, a wind of serendipity, a blizzard of jazz, a Barry White voice to sing, as soon as you open up a lens wide open.
 

Like if a lens, wide open, should sufficiently add its own Spice to any boring scene, just enough to make it interesting.

I believe this Leica mentality is erroneous. All the great Leica shooters from the past, all their images, have been shot without an afterthought with regards to the lens used.

This phenomenon of “choosing a Leica lens sur mesure to the Jazzy mood of a scene, wether with a Miles Davis Trumpet or a Chet Baker voice” is pretty new. Good for Leica because it made their prices soar like crazy, though.

If you are really after Magic a tout prix, May I suggest Large Format with an Aero Ektar in your life. That’s magic.
 

But I’m with you, I like my lenses to have character... but a scene, a composition, will prevail over the subtle ways of a lens.

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I think this lens, with it incredible contrast, is especially about the rendering of lights and shadows. It definitely has an extra "pop", without having to do too much extra work on lightroom, like the apo 50, and and probably other modern apo lenses.

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On 1/12/2022 at 1:36 PM, GLC said:

Curious if anyone here can comment on their experience with the color drift the lens experiences @ f/2?  Mine seemingly is quite strong; both the m10 and sl2 they exhibit about the same amount which is exceedingly more than my 23 year old 35 Suimmilux.  This is with lens detection turned.

Thank you.

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I don’t like the look of that.  I recall discussing similar colour drift in a photo some time back (woman by the sea?) - the photographer was in denial, if I recall.

I’ve had lenses with colour drift, and while many will say it’s easily fixed in post, I’m not going to buy an APO lens at that price with colour drift, however subtle.  Once seen, never ignored.

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On 1/11/2022 at 4:36 PM, GLC said:

Curious if anyone here can comment on their experience with the color drift the lens experiences @ f/2?  Mine seemingly is quite strong; both the m10 and sl2 they exhibit about the same amount which is exceedingly more than my 23 year old 35 Suimmilux.  This is with lens detection turned.

Thank you.

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Downloaded your image, the corners look horrible.

I do not see that with M11/APO-35. The RGB values are equal across the whole image. 

Do you have lens detection turned on or off. What software did you use to demosaic your DNG?

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On 12/11/2021 at 12:01 PM, Steven said:

I don't like it or use it on digital. It's too clean.

I bought the 50mm APO-LANTHAR based on feedback I read on this forum, and love it.  I also have my 50-60 year old 50mm Summicrons, but the Voigtlander seems to capture better "detail".

What is meant by "too clean"?  Is being too "sharp" a bad feature of this lens?  

I know lots of people prefer the effects of vintage lenses, but to me, the more detail the lens can capture, the better.  I must be missing something, or maybe I'm just putting more emphasis on "image quality"?

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On 1/30/2022 at 12:17 PM, MikeMyers said:

I bought the 50mm APO-LANTHAR based on feedback I read on this forum, and love it.  I also have my 50-60 year old 50mm Summicrons, but the Voigtlander seems to capture better "detail".

What is meant by "too clean"?  Is being too "sharp" a bad feature of this lens?  

I know lots of people prefer the effects of vintage lenses, but to me, the more detail the lens can capture, the better.  I must be missing something, or maybe I'm just putting more emphasis on "image quality"?

There is a reason that people often own multiple lenses of identical focal length. They all have different looks and often the clean look of a sharp and well corrected lens is exactly the look one wants. Other times, other lenses. Right now I’m often torn between my 50 Summilux and APO-cron. But in 35mm, right now the 35 APO-M is a clear favorite.

Edited by SoarFM
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19 minutes ago, SoarFM said:

There is a reason that people often own multiple lenses of identical focal length. They all have different looks and often the clean look of a sharp and well corrected lens is exactly the look one wants.

I took a test photo this morning using a Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens on my D750, also on my Df, then the Voigtlander 50 APO-LANTHAR on my M10, then my 60's Summicron 50.  Summicron almost looked "foggy and dull", Nikon looked good, and the Voigtlander was my favorite.   I have to make a similar choice in 35mm, as I'm still using my 35mm Summilux from the 60's.  I can't afford $8k for the Leica lens, but I can fairly easily afford the Voigtlander.  What do I want from my lens?   This - so beautiful..... not sure if it was straight from the camera, but I want to be able do images similar to this:

 

On 1/4/2022 at 5:51 PM, algrove said:

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Edited by MikeMyers
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 1/30/2022 at 11:17 AM, MikeMyers said:

I bought the 50mm APO-LANTHAR based on feedback I read on this forum, and love it.  I also have my 50-60 year old 50mm Summicrons, but the Voigtlander seems to capture better "detail".

What is meant by "too clean"?  Is being too "sharp" a bad feature of this lens?  

I know lots of people prefer the effects of vintage lenses, but to me, the more detail the lens can capture, the better.  I must be missing something, or maybe I'm just putting more emphasis on "image quality"?

 

On 2/3/2022 at 8:20 PM, SoarFM said:

There is a reason that people often own multiple lenses of identical focal length. They all have different looks and often the clean look of a sharp and well corrected lens is exactly the look one wants. Other times, other lenses. Right now I’m often torn between my 50 Summilux and APO-cron. But in 35mm, right now the 35 APO-M is a clear favorite.

I am one, who will own more than one lens, per focal length, in order to have different renderings, depending upon my mood, and the subject(s). It was the unique, lovely rendering, of images that I had seen posted on-line, that drew me to the Leica Summilux-M 50mm ASPH. I learned that an APO Summicron-M 50mm ASPH would render “sharper” and “cleaner” images, but, I could already shoot sharp, clean images with specific Canon, Nikon, and Zeiss lenses, on Canon and Nikon DSLRs. I decided to buy a Summilux-M 50mm ASPH, before I decided, with certainty, that a Leica digital M camera would be the body upon which I would use it.

My primary “genre,” until I retired in January 2018, had been evidentiary/forensic/crime scene images, as part of my duties as a public servant. I “specialized” in photographing living, breathing family/domestic violence victims, starting at “portrait” distances, then moving in to near-macro, and sometime full 1:1 distance, with the best 100mm macro and close-up lens, and Macro Ring Light flash, in the world. Clean. Clinical. Sharp. Perfect. I am a very empathetic person, but had to be “professional.” I had to “eat” plenty of trauma/stress. After retirement, I needed something different. Summilux-M 50mm ASPH was different. Elmarit-M 28mm, Version 3, a Walter Mandler design, was different. Thambar-M 90mm was different.

I have other Leica fifties, Summicron with 1979 optics, and an Elmar-M f/2.8, which have their own visual signatures.

I also have some quite sharp, clean, micro-contrasty M lenses, but thus far, they are mostly Zeiss ZM, and not 50mm. I like shooting landscapes at 35mm and 85mm, so went with Zeiss options. I have certainly shot some dreamy landscapes, some with quite cinematic flare, with the Mandler-designed Elmarit-M 28mm, but, more often, I want “sharp” landscapes. (Notice that I had a prior relationship, with Zeiss DSLR lenses, before I started with M Leicas.

My newest addition is a Leica APO Summilux-M 75mm ASPH, which is one of Leica’s “sharp” lenses, though the newer 50mm and 35mm APO ASPH lenses will, presumably, be “sharper.”

 

Edited by RexGig0
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On 1/24/2022 at 11:42 AM, SrMi said:

Downloaded your image, the corners look horrible.

I do not see that with M11/APO-35. The RGB values are equal across the whole image. 

Do you have lens detection turned on or off. What software did you use to demosaic your DNG?

This is with lens detection on, it shows in both Lightroom and Capture One.  Ive seen it in many examples but people seem to want to not see it.  Now my concern is supported if you look at Reid Reviews new post.  

The image shown was created by using a LCC plate on the lens.  

I too now have a M11 and notice it too.  A little less but very apparent. .. sadly.

Edited by GLC
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Doesn't that just mean, rather than being a fault in the lens, that Leica need to write a better in camera correction look-up table for the lens, which should be available as a firmware update for more recent cameras (M10 varieties and M11). 

Wilson

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2 hours ago, GLC said:

This is with lens detection on, it shows in both Lightroom and Capture One.  Ive seen it in many examples but people seem to want to not see it.  Now my concern is supported if you look at Reid Reviews new post.  

The image shown was created by using a LCC plate on the lens.  

I too now have a M11 and notice it too.  A little less but very apparent. .. sadly.

Sean Reid says there is a bit of color drift with in-camera color correction. To my eyes, your image showed a lot of color drift. Was the lens properly recognized by the camera, was the lens detection turned on?

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