The 50mm f/1,2 Noctilux Image Thread

[Aryel]

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2 hours ago, shirubadanieru said:

Noctilux 50mm f1.2 & Tri-X. All shot wide open. @Aryel definitely this is the best combo, I much prefer it to digital. Next I need to try it with color film. 

The CA is just too much though, on digital I can’t fully remove it so I’m wary that color film might not be the best match. On B&W though, wow…just beautiful, love the Noctilux pop, and dreamy bokeh. 

 

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Looks very nice! Such an interesting lens. Thanks a lot for sharing. 

[T25UFO]

Two examples of this interesting lens.  The first used as a normal 50mm at f4.0 and the second wide open at f1.2.  Both taken at Anglesey Abbey.

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[shirubadanieru]

I wonder if people here who own the lens turn the lens correction off on Lightroom and let it be as is with distortion or always correct for that? 

This is my first Leica lens that has visible distortion, so I never had to think about this before.

[T25UFO]

2 hours ago, shirubadanieru said:

I wonder if people here who own the lens turn the lens correction off on Lightroom and let it be as is with distortion or always correct for that? 

This is my first Leica lens that has visible distortion, so I never had to think about this before.

Sorry if this is a silly question, but how do you turn lens correction off (and on again) in Lightroom?  I just transfer files from the SD card to my hard drive and then click the import button.  Does this mean lens correction is automatically on?

[shirubadanieru]

1 minute ago, T25UFO said:

Sorry if this is a silly question, but how do you turn lens correction off (and on again) in Lightroom?  I just transfer files from the SD card to my hard drive and then click the import button.  Does this mean lens correction is automatically on?

In general, Lightroom set those corrections automatically when you transfer files. You have to disable it by default in your import settings or turn it off one by one after importing. You can find an area that has lens corrections or lens profile, and there you’ll find corrections for CA (which I tend to leave on by default) and distortion (which so far it didn’t matter if it was on or off since my other lens have 0 distortion, but with the nocti the difference is quite significant so I’m wondering what users of this lens do).

[6bit]

I thought Profile Corrections were built into the RAW when the Leica Camera knows the lens (either by the user telling the camera what lens or the camera detecting the lens). This leads to checking the Enabling Profile Corrections box does nothing. I think you have to use a program outside of LR to see the image with the corrections "baked-in."

Would love to be proven wrong.

 

@shirubadanieru @T25UFO

[leicaoptik]

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Am 9.3.2021 um 19:05 schrieb Wonzo:

A grey day in Berlin, eventually turned colorful ...

f/1,2  M10-P

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Wow! Absolut phantastische Atmosphäre, geradezu surreal anmutender Hintergrund, der wie eine im Studio aufgehängte bemalte Leinwand ausschaut...

Toll, wie das Nocti mit seinem unregelmäßigen Unschärfeverlauf diesen Effekt provoziert, Chapeau

[Wonzo]

vor 1 Stunde schrieb leicaoptik:

Wow! Absolut phantastische Atmosphäre, geradezu surreal anmutender Hintergrund, der wie eine im Studio aufgehängte bemalte Leinwand ausschaut...

Toll, wie das Nocti mit seinem unregelmäßigen Unschärfeverlauf diesen Effekt provoziert, Chapeau

Es freut mich, daß dir dieses Bild so gut gefällt, danke ! Ich finde auch, daß die Objektfreistellung mit diesem Objektiv recht gut gelingt, obwohl es bei Offenblende nicht so scharf zeichnet. Gerade bei der doch relativ großen Distanz zu den beiden Frauen hat mich der Hintergrundverlauf ebenso überrascht.

[adan]

Hah - ich war noch nie in Berlin. Aber ich weiß immer noch genau, wo diese Szene ist. Die Spree in ihrer Biegung zwischen dem Reichstag (hinter dem Fotografen) und dem Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus (und Steg). Ich musste dieses markante Gebäude für meine Flugsimulator-Szenerie modellieren.

(Entschuldigung für die Google-Übersetzung.)

Edited February 5, 2022 by adan

[Wonzo]

vor 6 Minuten schrieb adan:

Hah - ich war noch nie in Berlin. Aber ich weiß immer noch genau, wo diese Szene ist. Die Spree in ihrer Biegung zwischen dem Reichstag (hinter dem Fotografen) und dem Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus (und Steg). Ich musste dieses markante Gebäude für meine Flugsimulator-Szenerie modellieren.

(Entschuldigung für die Google-Übersetzung.)

Damit kennst du dich in Berlin bereits besser aus, als mancher Original-Berliner 😃 (übrigens eine sehr gute Übersetzung).

[shirubadanieru]

7 hours ago, 6bit said:

I thought Profile Corrections were built into the RAW when the Leica Camera knows the lens (either by the user telling the camera what lens or the camera detecting the lens). This leads to checking the Enabling Profile Corrections box does nothing. I think you have to use a program outside of LR to see the image with the corrections "baked-in."

Would love to be proven wrong.

 

@shirubadanieru @T25UFO

The 6-bit (if enabled) does not correct the raw file for distortion (it might for vigtnetting but even that I’m not sure either). What it does is that it tells LR which lens a photo was taken with, and then based on that information LR auto-applies a distortion correction. If you toggle it on and off on the Noctilux 50mm you can see a huge difference when it comes to distortion. 

[6bit]

When I said baked into the RAW, I was wrong. I meant, it’s baked into the settings of the photo and LR does not seem to adjust for distortion. At least not on the few photos I messed with this morning. I believe the Q2 has some strong distortion corrections. 

[stefanusj]

On 2/2/2022 at 12:22 PM, shirubadanieru said:

First test shots at f1.2 and initial impressions:

• bokeh as expected is great
• feels lighter than expected (I’m used to 200g lens)
• CA is awful (the worst in all my lens and the shots below even after LR correction I was not able to remove purple fringing completely)
• Distortion was auto corrected when imported, but when I turned it off…WOW there’s a lot of distortion lol good thing is that it seems to affect the corners, not so much the center of the image, which for portraits is actually good and should provide that unique Noctilux look. For general photography obviously you might want to keep that auto correction on. All shots below are with distortion auto correction off. 
• Overall conclusion from first test drive: will probably reserve this lens for portraits only (& also looking forward to shooting actual portraits with it, looking at the examples here they look great)

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i think my copy of Noct 50/1.2 is a lot better (way way better) than Noct 0.95. Of course there are Chromatic Abberation especially when i backlight the pictures, but it is well controlled and not disturbing (easy to fix) when i try to post processed it in Lightroom.

[stefanusj]

13 hours ago, shirubadanieru said:

I wonder if people here who own the lens turn the lens correction off on Lightroom and let it be as is with distortion or always correct for that? 

This is my first Leica lens that has visible distortion, so I never had to think about this before.

most of the time, i just turn it off. there are some barrel distortions (it's normal considering the year it was design and made) and vigenetting.

I bought this lens because i like the look of it, it makes imperfections looks ok and sometimes more beautiful than reality.

[shirubadanieru]

8 minutes ago, stefanusj said:

i think my copy of Noct 50/1.2 is a lot better (way way better) than Noct 0.95. Of course there are Chromatic Abberation especially when i backlight the pictures, but it is well controlled and not disturbing (easy to fix) when i try to post processed it in Lightroom.

i never tried the other Nocti so i'm comparing it to all other leica lenses (summilux/summicron etc). It's definitely much higher than a summilux of any age despite being just 0.5 stops brighter & low contrast. That was surprising, and on lightroom for mobile I can't fully remove it.

[shirubadanieru]

5 minutes ago, stefanusj said:

most of the time, i just turn it off. there are some barrel distortions (it's normal considering the year it was design and made) and vigenetting.

I bought this lens because i like the look of it, it makes imperfections looks ok and sometimes more beautiful than reality.

thank you I think I'll do that too. I use vintage leica glass & most of them are distortion free (better than current asph designs), I think the only vintage glass that has distortion is the nocti & summilux 50. But that's what makes this lens give an even more unique look like you said & it's also easily corrected in post if one wishes to do so.

[stefanusj]

Just now, shirubadanieru said:

i never tried the other Nocti so i'm comparing it to all other leica lenses (summilux/summicron etc). It's definitely much higher than a summilux of any age despite being just 0.5 stops brighter & low contrast. That was surprising, and on lightroom for mobile I can't fully remove it.

i try to make a backlight shots in a few days, i will post it here... 

i use summilux50 asph for wedding job and street photos, and from my experience the CA is pretty similar with Noct50/1.2. 

The design of the lens is similar to the original, but the process of the lens (aspherical process)and the coating is new. so we can expect the quality is better than the original lens, just like Summaron 28.

[shirubadanieru]

26 minutes ago, stefanusj said:

i try to make a backlight shots in a few days, i will post it here... 

i use summilux50 asph for wedding job and street photos, and from my experience the CA is pretty similar with Noct50/1.2. 

The design of the lens is similar to the original, but the process of the lens (aspherical process)and the coating is new. so we can expect the quality is better than the original lens, just like Summaron 28.

yeah I actually find the asph designs are worse with CA than vintage glass. but I thought it was because they are very high contrast, so given this lens is very low contrast I was surprised. That being said, it's not a big deal for most situations & if it bothers me I can shoot it in B&W. I just thought this was not really mentioned in most of the few lens reviews out there so I wanted to point it out to potential buyers to avoid any surprises.surprises.

[adan]

47 minutes ago, stefanusj said:

The design of the lens is similar to the original, but the process of the lens (aspherical process)and the coating is new. so we can expect the quality is better than the original lens, just like Summaron 28.

Actually, what Leica (Well, the Reddot Forum of Leica Store Miami) says is:

Quote

To maintain the unmistakable, dreamlike rendering of the original lens and its hallmark bokeh, Leica strictly adhered to the historical optical calculation and construction, making only minimal changes when carefully adapting to the glass types and production methods available today. The re-issue still contains six elements in four groups with two aspherical lenses, all housed in a relatively compact package with a standard 49mm front filter thread. And according to Leica, performance is almost identical to the 1960s version.

The new 50mm f/1.2 replica is a trip down memory lane to 1960s imaging. Exactly what one could have bought in 1969, with no intention of improving on that.

The original had 2 aspherical surfaces - the replica does also. Only difference is the originals were hand-ground (high spoilage rate) and the current ones are molded glass (not better, just less likely to produce duds that have to be thrown away).

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[stefanusj]

1 hour ago, adan said:

Actually, what Leica (Well, the Reddot Forum of Leica Store Miami) says is:

The new 50mm f/1.2 replica is a trip down memory lane to 1960s imaging. Exactly what one could have bought in 1969, with no intention of improving on that.

The original had 2 aspherical surfaces - the replica does also. Only difference is the originals were hand-ground (high spoilage rate) and the current ones are molded glass (not better, just less likely to produce duds that have to be thrown away).

https://tahusa.co/lens-review/noctilux-50mm-f12-asph-original-vs-reissue/

i never try the original one, but i read this thread instead. leica try to remake it, but using the recent/modern tools and coating. it will impact the contrast, but i believe it is minimal.