On the fence about buying the 50 SL Summilux…..

[trickness]

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1 hour ago, T25UFO said:

I’ve followed your Q2M street series in the image thread - some really excellent photos showcasing what this camera is good at.  I agree you wouldn’t get anything like the same results with a 50mm Summilux mounted on the SL2!  Horses for courses.

 

Thank you! Yeah with the Q2M/28 I basically have to almost bump into people to fill the frame. It’s very interesting when you start using these systems as tools, practical considerations rise to the top pretty quickly. Although I definitely am not above fetishizing the gear 😁

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[FlashGordonPhotography]

2 hours ago, trickness said:

Thank you! Yeah with the Q2M/28 I basically have to almost bump into people to fill the frame. It’s very interesting when you start using these systems as tools, practical considerations rise to the top pretty quickly. Although I definitely am not above fetishizing the gear 😁

Another reason we need a native Q2 50mm.

Gordon

[trickness]

58 minutes ago, FlashGordonPhotography said:

Another reason we need a native Q2 50mm.

Gordon

I would prefer a Q35 for shooting street in Manhattan, a 50 is way too tight - there’s no way I would be able to get the kind of pictures I want to take in this environment with a 50.

That said I absolutely love the 50 mm focal length - Different tools for different jobs!

[lanetomlane]

I have the 50 SL Summilux and came to this thread because I’ve recently been thinking of changing it for the 50 SL Summicron. (The Summicron hadn’t been released when I bought the Summilux). However, after reading most of your comments I get the impression that most people prefer the ‘lux. Bulk and weight was a consideration when thinking about making the change but if the ‘lux performance is so much better then I can live with it.

Thanks for some interesting reading.

[John Smith]

3 hours ago, lanetomlane said:

I have the 50 SL Summilux and came to this thread because I’ve recently been thinking of changing it for the 50 SL Summicron. (The Summicron hadn’t been released when I bought the Summilux). However, after reading most of your comments I get the impression that most people prefer the ‘lux. Bulk and weight was a consideration when thinking about making the change but if the ‘lux performance is so much better then I can live with it.

Thanks for some interesting reading.

I have both, but prefer the Lux. Peter Karbe talks about both lenses in his SL Lens presentation, and says that while the Cron is technically sharper, the Lux has the better bokeh. He said, off the cuff, to use the Lux if you want to photographing using 1.4 (for the bokeh rendering), but the Cron for 2.0 and higher.

Josh Lehrer, on the Red Dot Forum videos, says that the Lux provides the closest M-like rendering in the SL lenses. I think he's right.

Edited December 6, 2021 by John Smith

[MrFriendly]

I'm in a similar boat, and I'm considering getting a 50mm SL.  Could someone please describe how much slower the Summilux-SL is compared to the Summicron-SL?  Is the difference more than, say, 50%?  Or are the two practically the same speed?  Is the Summilux-SL it too slow for street photography?

Edited December 12, 2021 by MrFriendly

[Slender]

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It changed with time/updates/bodies.... I would go and try in store if I were you, possibly.

IMHO AF shouldn't be the deciding factor between the two lenses. You have to respect it'f harder for the AF system to pin-point at 1.4 than at f2.

Rendering/Look/Weight....

Edited December 13, 2021 by Slender

[FlashGordonPhotography]

23 hours ago, MrFriendly said:

I'm in a similar boat, and I'm considering getting a 50mm SL.  Could someone please describe how much slower the Summilux-SL is compared to the Summicron-SL?  Is the difference more than, say, 50%?  Or are the two practically the same speed?  Is the Summilux-SL it too slow for street photography?

For street the 'cron is the better option. Yes, it's noticably faster AF. The 'lux moves a big element and that takes time. The 'lux is like the mark 2 of the Canon EF 85 1.2 L.

Also the 'lux is enormous. There's no being *stealth* with a kilo 50mm on an SL. With a body it's 1.9 kilos.

For subjects who know they're being photographed the 'lux is great. Although the 50mm is an unusual choice (not bad, just unusual) for street. Most would go with either the 35 or 28mm both of which are also spectacular.

Both are astonishing lenses and choosing between them is one of the hardest decisions in the SL line up. That's why more than a few of us own both. First world problems and al that.....

Gordon

[Steven Lane]

I faced the same choice a few weeks ago. I own the 35 and 75 L Summicrons and initially I was going to go for the 50 cron simply because they all share the same form. I had dismissed the 50 lux a while ago as being too large. However when I revisited the lux vs. cron argument more recently, I was swayed by the lux’s additional speed. Sure it is bigger and heavier but it compliments my two crons perfectly. AF is very slightly slower but nothing significant. No regrets at all.

[MrFriendly]

I finally got to own and experience the Summilux-SL 50mm.  It's big and heavy, and I already knew that, but it's only after experiencing it that you realize how big and heavy it really is.  Even though the Summilux-SL is only about 40% heavier than the Summicron-SL lenses, it feels twice as heavy in the hand (I'm skinny and not strong enough, i know).  In the manual it's stated that during use you should be holding the lens more so than the camera, in order to prevent possible damage to the bayonet.

Second, the Summilux-SL 50mm has a lot distortion, which is visible when I disable the lens profile.  In comparison, the Summilux-M 50mm has practically no visible distortion.  The APO-Summicron-SL 35mm has some distortion, but nowhere near the level of Summilux-SL 50mm.  Interesting enough, the SL technical data sheets do not contain Distortion and Vignetting info!

And to answer my own earlier question, I would say the AF speed of the Summilux-SL is about 70-80% of the Summicron-SL.  Meaning, yes, it's slower, but not by much and it's not a deal breaker if you're happy with Summicron-SL AF performance.

The more I use the SL system, the more my appreciation for the M system goes up.  The Summilux-SL 50mm weighs three times more than the Summilux-M 50mm, it's several times larger, and based on my rough calculations, its peak performance is about 20-30% more than the Summilux-M 50mm.

[trickness]

I recently picked up a 75 Nocti - I also have the 75 SL. I never really gave any thought to picking up the Nocti not only because of the price (got it used) but because the 75 SL so good. But I got a chance to shoot with it, and although there are many similarities, it’s just different. Different focusing, different drawing/rendering….. The pictures I take with it are different. And I suspect the same is true with the Lux SL & the Lux M 50. These are all different tools and yes the differences may be fractional, but for specific usages those fractional differences will produce different images. And yes we may pay penalties in price and weight etc. for those fractional differences, but that is the landscape we are in. No complaints here at all about that reality, in fact I think that’s what makes it fun.

[IkarusJohn]

One reason I sold my 50 Summilux-SL is because the 50 Noctilux 0.95 is so good on the SL, and I couldn’t really justify keeping both for the marginal improvement with the Summilux.  Just part of my evolving rationalisation.  The Noct balances very nicely on the SL, and there is almost none of the colour fringing you get on the M cameras.

[trickness]

5 hours ago, IkarusJohn said:

One reason I sold my 50 Summilux-SL is because the 50 Noctilux 0.95 is so good on the SL, and I couldn’t really justify keeping both for the marginal improvement with the Summilux.  Just part of my evolving rationalisation.  The Noct balances very nicely on the SL, and there is almost none of the colour fringing you get on the M cameras.

Yeah I’m definitely hoping I get to add a 50 Nocti to the toolbox. I really do wish you could focus closer with it. The SL glass allows you to get SO close…….

[MrFriendly]

Well, I thought I would end up selling my Summilux-SL 50mm, but the more I use it, the more I like it, and that makes life more complicated, haha.  I decided to get the APO-Summicron-SL 50mm, so maybe I could decide better.  I took some quick test shots comparing my Summilux-M 50mm ASPH to my SL lenses.  All were shot on the SL2-S, at about 0.7m (the Summilux-M maybe 2cm farther away).

My conclusion so far:  If the Summilux-SL wasn't so big and heavy, it would be the keeper, hands down, because it has better bokeh and its optical performance and the rendering is well above what I need.  The APO-Summicron-SL is smaller and quicker, and just like all the other APO SL lens I've tried, it has certain kind of sparkle that's unique, and that makes nailing focus even more critical.  The Summilux-M has about 75-85% of the performance of the SL lenses, and considering how much lighter and more compact it is, it might be the real winner.

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[MrFriendly]

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[Stuart Richardson]

If I was focused most on rendering, and ok with manual focus, I would skip the SL summilux and find a 50mm 1.4 E60, Summilux R. Unfortunately they are impractically expensive now, but there is a reason. I used to have one and should never have sold it (I sold it when I went to Leica S). I think it has the best rendering I have seen for a 50mm lens, if the focus is portraits and atmosphere. It is still quite sharp, but wide open it is very painterly. I don't have a ton of images from it readily available, but these are just some casual candids of my family. They are not particularly great pictures, but they show the smoothness and delicacy of the rendering. In addition, the Summilux R is a fraction of the size of the SL summilux and the ergonomics were fantastic (it has a really nicely sized and weighted focusing ring).

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[tom0511]

The rendering looks great. Just remembered when I had a DMR with some nice Leica primes.

However, I personally find a good AF with face/eye detection just such a big advantage for shooting lenses at wide f-stops, that I wouldnt want to miss it (face detection)  any more.

I like the APO Summicron SL quite a bit, but I prefer the smooth OOF rendering of the Summilux SL even better.

I also wanted to sell the Summilux when I got the Summicron, but I dont want to let it go and if I could keep only one of them I would keep the 50 Summilux SL.