35mm - This is the way!

[Dennis]

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27 minutes ago, a.noctilux said:

I don't want to convince anyone, I keep mine and will never sell this black 35 Lux asph.

This will be my last post in this thread

Don't leave, I value your content and input to the conversations 

29 minutes ago, a.noctilux said:

I realize now that the lens choice is individual.

Of course it is. And it's perfect like this.

I thought a lot about the Lux. Most people love it, and it's the second last, with unique characteristics. So, why not? Well, budget first. Then focus shift. I'm sorry but for now, it's not for me.

But I always encourage all users to share comments about their favorites lenses, it's very useful information and for the sake of the community, I guess. Me? I love to know more about lenses, especially all 35mm 🙂 And it's good to know you love the Lux.

 

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[a.noctilux]

Thanks Dennis to let me stay in this thread,

maybe I have too many "loves" and I want others to know them, appreciate them as I'm.

 

The weird thing is I use (not love any, these are only tools, I can like tools) all my lenses ...not only 35mm.

I don't count how many I use 35mm lenses, but I'm sure they are the most numerous (or maybe 50mm ?), no competition as number varies in time.

[Dennis]

8 minutes ago, a.noctilux said:

I don't count how many I use 35mm lenses, but I'm sure they are the most numerous (or maybe 50mm ?), no competition as number varies in time.

As the thread title, 35mm this is the way.

Except for collectors that don't shoot, I guess it's a must having a lenses and use it, right? Happy for you that you have and use many. I'm sure you enjoy them.

 

 

[Dennis]

Habemus LLL

I bought it a few days after the 90, and it arrived first. And it has a beautiful serial number that makes sense for me. It had to be the fate...

In hands is wow, very very brass! 👌 And smaller than the expected, which is very welcome.

I didn't take any photos yet, just mounted on M. It's a terrific fit.

Let's see tomorrow, with photos.

Staying in touch 

[IkarusJohn]

3 hours ago, Dennis said:

Habemus LLL

I bought it a few days after the 90, and it arrived first. And it has a beautiful serial number that makes sense for me. It had to be the fate...

In hands is wow, very very brass! 👌 And smaller than the expected, which is very welcome.

I didn't take any photos yet, just mounted on M. It's a terrific fit.

Let's see tomorrow, with photos.

Staying in touch 

Share your thoughts, Dennis - looking forward to a detailed, considered review of your real life use.  We’ll call you Deno … 😀

Edited February 16, 2022 by IkarusJohn

[crony]

10 hours ago, Dennis said:

... Maybe, if I would not own the CV 35/1.2III, I would probably have bought the distagon. Because both are in a BIG category, according to my preferences criteria.

Hi, I see your point. - Any purchase should deliver a tangible benefit. - I am quite happy with my 35s :

 

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[Dennis]

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9 hours ago, IkarusJohn said:

Share your thoughts, Dennis - looking forward to a detailed, considered review of your real life use.  We’ll call you Deno … 😀

Hi John, I will! 

Deno? Why not, I've got many nicknames.. I will try to live up with expectations 🙂

6 hours ago, Al Brown said:

I am considering one of the last chrome LLL 35s available in Europe brand new... would have to trade the Voigt 35 1.4 as I do not want to pile up lenses that I do not use regularly but not sure if I want to give up this "beater" 1.4 Voigtlander lens (I do have a 35 lux tho)... ah, the ole' f/2 vs. f/1.4 debate again.

 

If you have already the Lux, maybe you won't miss the nokton. Sell it, it's a current version and easy to buy in the future if you change your mind. But the LLL build is very good. 

[Jeff S]

For those who might not have seen this LLL discussion…

Jeff

[Dennis]

A few ugly snapshots with Nokia phone... Real-world low-res noised samples photos 🙂 I hope this helps

I'll share later a few words about my first impression, before using. Can't go out today to shoot!

Meanwhile ...  

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I didn't paint/cover yet any LLL parts, it's too soon. I have to test it first. Then decide what yes and what no.

Edited February 16, 2022 by Dennis
deleted an unnecessary sentence :-)

[pippy]

20 hours ago, Dennis said:

Habemus LLL...And it has a beautiful serial number that makes sense for me. It had to be the fate...

f2 / f8 / f4...28th April?...Feb. '84? I've never really paid any attention to serial numbers before but with these xxx/998 lenses things might be slightly more interesting!

Congrats on the lens, Dennis! I look forward to seeing how you make it work for your own vision.

Philip.

[Dennis]

1 hour ago, pippy said:

f2 / f8 / f4...28th April?...Feb. '84? I've never really paid any attention to serial numbers before but with these xxx/998 lenses things might be slightly more interesting!

Congrats on the lens, Dennis! I look forward to seeing how you make it work for your own vision.

Philip.

You got it! The f/stops.... The only ones I use for some lenses.... It makes sense for me..

Thank you, I will let you know soon! Posting more in this thread!

 

Edited February 17, 2022 by Dennis

[matted]

Excited to hear your thoughts about the LLL!

[rscheffler]

On 2/15/2022 at 3:48 PM, Dennis said:

 

Knowing in advance that a lens is prone to (or "rich" [sarcasm] of ) focus shit, it's a NO to buy. 
When I'm shooting, my attention goes to many things. I don't want to add a technique to compensate for the shift. Just get another lens. I know it's easy to understand your lens, test it and find quick solutions. But anyway, it's more work to do. 
When I bought the 35mm Cron Asph v1, I knew the issue of a possible slight focus shift. Especially in one of my sweet spots: f4... I bought it. And fortunately, It doesn't suffer from it.

 

I see you received your LLL replica. I strongly suggest you test it for focus shift. That is precisely what I found to be the case with my copy and it was most noticeable between f/4-f/5.6. I ended up sending it back to be serviced, via RFF's 'middle man' Kevin, and about 5 months later got it back with better performance, but still with some focus shift. I decided to live with it and adjust focus on the fly. However, I'm not sure if my copy is entirely indicative of typical LLL performance.

I started a thread about the lens over at Fred Miranda. This post is the one in which I outlined the original problems I had with its combined strongly wavy field curvature and focus shift.

My initial disappointment with it was in part based on test images done by others, including direct comparison against the original Leica 35 Cron v1, that didn't show focus shift. I've tried to get a better understanding whether or not the original was prone to focus shift, but can't say I received information that is entirely consistent one way or the other.

FWIW, my prior go-to 35 was the VM35/1.7. It's a technically superior lens. But I regularly carry the LLL instead because it's so much smaller, has more character wide open, though isn't crazy, and is sharp enough for most uses stopped down if I intentionally front focus a little to move best averaged sharpness a little forward into the DoF range.

[Dennis]

46 minutes ago, rscheffler said:

I see you received your LLL replica. I strongly suggest you test it for focus shift. That is precisely what I found to be the case with my copy and it was most noticeable between f/4-f/5.6. I ended up sending it back to be serviced, via RFF's 'middle man' Kevin, and about 5 months later got it back with better performance, but still with some focus shift. I decided to live with it and adjust focus on the fly. However, I'm not sure if my copy is entirely indicative of typical LLL performance.

I started a thread about the lens over at Fred Miranda. This post is the one in which I outlined the original problems I had with its combined strongly wavy field curvature and focus shift.

My initial disappointment with it was in part based on test images done by others, including direct comparison against the original Leica 35 Cron v1, that didn't show focus shift. I've tried to get a better understanding whether or not the original was prone to focus shift, but can't say I received information that is entirely consistent one way or the other.

FWIW, my prior go-to 35 was the VM35/1.7. It's a technically superior lens. But I regularly carry the LLL instead because it's so much smaller, has more character wide open, though isn't crazy, and is sharp enough for most uses stopped down if I intentionally front focus a little to move best averaged sharpness a little forward into the DoF range.

Glad that you let me know, thank you. I never heard before about focus shift for this LLL, and maybe I didn't read at all reviews online. But I'll definitely read the post in FM and in a few days when I will shoot some photos I will let you. Especially at f4 which is one of my sweet spots, I hope than not,

There is always one solution: shoot wide open and f8 🙂 

[giannis]

1 hour ago, rscheffler said:

but still with some focus shift. I decided to live with it and adjust focus on the fly. However, I'm not sure if my copy is entirely indicative of typical LLL performance.

While manufacturing tolerances can play a secondary role, focus shift is first and foremost an optical formula "feature", or side effect. Once the design is calculated, focus shift is set in stone and there's nothing to be done about it, no adjustment or servicing will "fix" it. The only fix is a new optical formula really. One minor thing that can be done is changing the aperture blades/opening to a ninja-star shape, which helps a little bit. But not servicing is gonna do that.

I'm only mentioning this so people don't go down the rabbit hole of chasing "good copies" and "avoiding lemons" etc. . When a lens formula has focus shift, there isn't anything to be done about it other than working around it.

[shirubadanieru]

Use the LLL & original 8e before and never had issues with focus shift at all

[pippy]

6 hours ago, rscheffler said:

...I strongly suggest you test it for focus shift. That is precisely what I found to be the case with my copy and it was most noticeable between f/4-f/5.6. I ended up sending it back to be serviced, via RFF's 'middle man' Kevin, and about 5 months later got it back with better performance, but still with some focus shift...

Having just read this post - and never had pause to question the performance of my copy - I carried out a very brief test with mine this morning and I found no discernable focus shift with my example when set at f2 / f2.8 / f4 / f5.6 & f8, with a test-card placed at 1m and again at 3m, using my M Monochrom. FWIW I've also taken quite a few hundred frames in 'real world' shooting and, IQ-wise, nothing whatsoever has been untoward in any of these images.

If I get a bit of time - hopefully mid. next week - I will try to carry out more controlled tests in the studio.

From the tests you carried out it's clear that there certainly was / is(?) a problem with your lens but yours does seem to have been / be the exception here. I notice that you received your copy in Dec. 2020. There have been suggestions made in several places that LLL didn't perfect their production / design parameters until the release of the V6 batch towards the end of 2021. I have no evidence that such was the case but it's probably worth a mention.

As far as the problem regarding the availability of flint-glass is concerned it does seem to be the case that LLL have managed to source a limited quantity of this material but stocks are finite. If more flint glass cannot be found then it seems likely that the optical design will have to be changed once their supplies are exhausted - always assuming production of the '8-E' continues...

Philip.

Edited February 17, 2022 by pippy

[Dennis]

LLL VF blockage w/ and w/ the hood, at 70cm and infinity

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The hood is bigger than the expected. Beautiful BP aesthetics, but big for a tiny lens.

I didn't shoot any photos yet. Busy days

Edited February 17, 2022 by Dennis

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[pippy]

25 minutes ago, Dennis said:

...The hood is bigger than the expected. Beautiful BP aesthetics, but big for a tiny lens...

...c/f post #111; last paragraph...

If, however, the 'correct' hood is fitted - us wearing our 'Sunday Best' - then, if I haven't been paying enough attention, I can always simply confirm 'corner inclusion' by having a 'blink-of-an-eye' sweep to the right and back but using the 12585 negates this requirement pretty-much completely.

Philip.

[Dennis]

6 minutes ago, pippy said:

...c/f post #111; last paragraph...

If, however, the 'correct' hood is fitted - us wearing our 'Sunday Best' - then, if I haven't been paying enough attention, I can always simply confirm 'corner inclusion' by having a 'blink-of-an-eye' sweep to the right and back but using the 12585 negates this requirement pretty-much completely.

Philip.

Correct, you told me before 🙂 But I was not expecting it was like this. It's not huge, like the hood of the 28/5.6 Summaron. But it's bigger than my Cron Asph I hood (below)

 

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Also, maybe there is something I'm missing about it. The hood I bought it doesn't lock/click, it's spinning. It doesn't fall until I press the side buttons. It's a circular one, it doesn't cover part of the images anyway. But it's no good. And the Leica hood I have it doesn't work either.

I sent an email to the seller, and he told me: " The original hood is screw on style. LLL only offered them to the internal V1 group. The hood is not on the market yet. I tried irooa but it will fall off. I'm more confused now than before haha. 

I bought this one: http://www.shcameras.com/product/light-lens-lab-irooa-style-hood-black-paint/

Which I guess is the copy of this one, right? 

 

 

So I can use the LLL hood w/ the lenses written above, but it's doesn't work well with my LLL? The investment was not excessive, so I decide to buy the lens/hood combo anyway. But If I want an alternative (circular) hood, which options I have?

12505 Leica hood is not screw on, right?

 fall off.

 

I'm open to any brand and price, as long as it's small. Like the Voigtlander, or smaller, like the CV 21/4 ... Or three filters on the top of each other w/o glasses... 🤫

I just want to protect the first element, and a little help for flare. That's it.

Any suggestions?

 

Or something like the Voigtlander LH-6, but E39

 

I have no knowledge on compatibility and best practice. Any advice is very welcome 🙏