Extreme Purple fringing Summilux 35 FLE

[hossegor]

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i bought a Summilux 35 FLE last year that suffers from pretty bad purple fringing.  in the past i had some copies f this lens before and i never had such bad cases of fringing going on. 

Leica Customer care tries to tell me that this is normal. While i know that there is some amount of fringing with the FLE going on i have never seen it this extrem as on this copy. 

Could it be that a lens Element is misaligned ?  i use a Leica M9p as my main camera. 

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[Cobram]

I advise you to check this thread (see below). And than contact again your Leica dealer/service shop. It is the only way to solve the problem. Forum replies won't solve your problem. Final option is to sell the lens. Don't waste your precious time.

 

[evikne]

12 minutes ago, hossegor said:

Leica Customer care tries to tell me that this is normal.

This is definitely not normal, it's the worst case I've ever seen. The lens must be returned for service.

[Guest]

Is the second photo the original un-cropped version?

[hossegor]

yes it is.  same photo, cropped and uncropped. 

[JimmyCheng]

I've never noticed this much purple fringing on my copy, but again I've not shot the exact same scene. But it looks abnormal to me nonetheless. If the Leica guy tells you it is normal then I think there is really no point in getting Leica lenses anymore, Voigtlander lenses perform much better in the case.

[evikne]

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Has Leica Customer Care seen this picture and then told you this is normal?

[Cobram]

5 minutes ago, evikne said:

Has Leica Customer Care seen this picture and then told you this is normal?

I'm also curious.

[hossegor]

vor 25 Minuten schrieb evikne:

Has Leica Customer Care seen this picture and then told you this is normal?

Yes they sure have.  and Leica CS told me the fringing may be because the ISO is too high. to me this is BS,  because this sample image was shot at ISO 160. 

this is what i got as a reply from them : 

"I have described your case to the Technician and the QA special inspection.
We all know that this is normal due to the lens design. Yours seems to be a little more pronounced.
We suspect that it has to do with the higher ISO setting.
Try a lower ISO and give some feedback."

[pgk]

To me it looks as though you have a relatively high exposure of the handlebars (I'd guess they are being clipped) which are against a much darker ground in an otherwise reasonably lower contrast image. As a consequence the edge contrast of the handlebars is pretty extreme given the reflectivity of the chrome, and any purple 'spillover' from the edges into the darker areas is being exacerbated by this. It would be helpful to see the original RAW file or out of camera JPEG file. If it is unprocessed then you might be able to correct somewhat in the RAW converter. High quality lenses capable of producing detail fine (edges) at high contrast do seem prone to this phenomenon although yours is a particularly good example of it. Is this a one off problem or does it show in other, less extreme circumstances? You might want to consider this to be 'subject failure' and try a lens which doesn't resolve quite so harshly on such subject matter (the 35 pre-aspheric springs to mind). That said I have the pre-FLE and it hasn't shown such fringing on my M9, but that said I can't think of a photo taken of a subject with similar characteristics taken in such conditions.

[hossegor]

thanks for your feedback i would not say it is clipping the highlights according to the Histogram at least (attached)  the lens also behaves like this in darker shots. 

Customer Service agreed to do a "Sonderprüfung" with my lens and check if everything is aligned properly.  in most cases i can remove in Lightroom, but thats not my point. actually in the shot with the blue car it is very hard to remove it totally 

 

 

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Edited June 11, 2021 by hossegor

[hossegor]

Sample of a darker shot with some highlights. 

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Edited June 11, 2021 by hossegor

[frame-it]

are these at f1.4?

[hossegor]

yes they are. 

[frame-it]

16 minutes ago, hossegor said:

yes they are. 

bright flaring highlights on Chrome...and f1.4, no wonder.

[hossegor]

 I have shot various copies of this lens for years in very similar situations,  and never had this kind of pronounced fringing on. should not be that heavy to me honest. 

[frame-it]

11 minutes ago, hossegor said:

 I have shot various copies of this lens for years in very similar situations,  and never had this kind of pronounced fringing on. should not be that heavy to me honest. 

very true, it seems quite extreme, is this fringing only on the M9?

[pgk]

1 hour ago, hossegor said:

thanks for your feedback i would not say it is clipping the highlights according to the Histogram at least (attached)  the lens also behaves like this in darker shots. 

Some highlight data is certainly clipped - the histogram runs off to the right ok (I use Photoshop which shows slightly differently to this) and I'd expect highly reflective chrome to clip in such a shot (and potentially the sky through the trees). I'd also expect some possible fringing but, unless I'm missing something, this does look worse than I'd anticipate. Is the histogram for the unadjusted image (ie set on 'default' and no adjustment at all applied)?

[Marac]

To be totally honest with you, this is the worse case I have ever seen, not normal in any way shape or form, I would return the lens at once.

My CV 35 f1.2 controls fringing way better even at f1.2, the lens has a serious issue.

 

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[hossegor]

at the moment i only have the M9 as a Digital M to test unfortunately. i could try it on my GFX.  When i shoot with my 50 Lux i really dont get any fringing, but that lens is APO so that might be the reason.