Leica 75 Noctilux f/1.25 with M11

[Attasit]

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I put the Leica 75 Noctilux on my new M11 for the last two weeks or so and I find something interesting. I'm not sure if this is just acombinations of scenarios and light but I begin to see a bit of CA (i.e., purple fringing) on some photos. And not in an obvious one like very high contrasting edges like I would expect but rather in not so obvious scenarios. In contrast to my 50 Noctilux both the 0.95 and 1.2 which are notorious with CA.

 

The odd things is that I rarely ever see CA with 75 Noctilux on my m10. But on the m11, I saw several situations already abiet the purple fringe is very fine probably 1 pixel wide. Nothing major but just find it interesting. Especially when I read most of reviewer said that the 75 Noctilux has no purple fringing (which I'm not even sure that it is possible for a very fast lens like the 75 Noctilux.)

 

Is this because the m11 has much higher MP and thus I can see a fine evidence of CA? Or simply that the 75 Noctilux always has CA/purple fringe but I just didn't see it before when I used it with the m10?

 

I attached examples below. Please note that these are not good pictures and these are at more than 100% crop to clearly show the CA. I selected the one that show the most obvious CA. It is clear that the 1st picture taken with 75 Noctilux (with m11) has very little CA compared to the 2nd picture taken with 50 Noctilux 1.2 (with m10). The odd thing is that when I went back to see 75 Noctilux with m10, I could not find any with CA.

 

Regards,

 

Attasit

 

 

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75 Noctilux with m11

 

 

50 Noctilux 1.2 with m10

Edited February 14, 2022 by Attasit

[a.noctilux]

No lens is perfect,

I tend to learn their flaws, if acceptable  then I go on.

 

I'd just notice then use these fantastic lenses for real life, for what they were created,

this is not a lesson, just my opinion.

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[Attasit]

9 hours ago, a.noctilux said:

No lens is perfect,

I tend to learn their flaws, if acceptable  then I go on.

 

I'd just notice then use these fantastic lenses for real life, for what they were created,

this is not a lesson, just my opinion.

Agree and understand that. The thing is that I don't particularly worry about lens defects or characteristics as long as I understand them well so I can manage/avoid certain lights and conditions when I take photos.

 

The interesting thing for me is that I have not seen the CA onmy m10 with 75 Noctilux. So it seems that a lens that we thought was excellent (which it is excellent) can display more CA when used with a much higher MP sensor. Seem like the m11 sensor enlarge the CA where previously the lower MP (thus larger pixel size) blend the CA more. Just want to know other opinions.

 

Or may be the lighting conditions when I used m11 with 75 Noctilux in the last 2 weeks simply a coincidence that they make more CA obvious.

 

Thanks.

[Overgaard]

Hard to tell when they are overexposed, but I also see where your are coming from. 

You could send some normal exposure photos of faces, not-white t-shirts and such overexpose extreme edges, by maybe rooftops that meet the bright sky (high contrast edges), and send them to cs@leica-camera.com and ask what could be the reason. It should interest their technical department, and they might have something to say about it. There is also a difference between in focus and out of focus edges, I am sure. 

[Attasit]

4 hours ago, Overgaard said:

Hard to tell when they are overexposed, but I also see where your are coming from. 

You could send some normal exposure photos of faces, not-white t-shirts and such overexpose extreme edges, by maybe rooftops that meet the bright sky (high contrast edges), and send them to cs@leica-camera.com and ask what could be the reason. It should interest their technical department, and they might have something to say about it. There is also a difference between in focus and out of focus edges, I am sure. 

Thanks Thorsten. I will see if I can find a couple of pictures with more normal exposures and send to Leica for their opinion. I intentionally selected the above two overexposed pictures because they shows the most CA. 

 

Actually, come to think of it, I also noticed that the CA is most prevalent inoverexposed areas with white high contrast area on the 50 Noctilux. In more normal exposure area, even with high contrast, CA is significantly less obvious onthr 50 Noctilux (and almost nonexistent on the 75 Noctilux.)

 

Thanks.

[darylgo]

The Noctilux 50mm f1 is notorious for CA.  With an M10-R and photographing into light sources the CA is unmanageable whereas the the M10-P it is acceptable and removable in post.  

The conclusion I drew was the sensor resolution contributed wholly to this effect and I continue to use the M10-P with the Noctilux and other vintage lenses.  Perhaps there is another explanation and it would be interesting to hear what Leica says.  

[Fedro]

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I am actually finding them quite CA resistant. I have tried both the 75 Lux and 50 1.2 reissue and found that the 1.2 had almost none, while the 75 lux had some very slight green cast on the edges of my daughter's blouse and face..

1.2

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75 Lux

 

[Attasit]

On 2/15/2022 at 11:02 AM, Overgaard said:

Hard to tell when they are overexposed, but I also see where your are coming from. 

You could send some normal exposure photos of faces, not-white t-shirts and such overexpose extreme edges, by maybe rooftops that meet the bright sky (high contrast edges), and send them to cs@leica-camera.com and ask what could be the reason. It should interest their technical department, and they might have something to say about it. There is also a difference between in focus and out of focus edges, I am sure. 

An update. I sent an email to Leica in Germany and received a reply. Below is a cut and paste of the reply.

 

Quote-----

Many thanks for your feedback.

The chromatic aberrations are currently a normal behavior of the M11.

Future firmware updates will bring i.provements here, please be patient.

Unquote------

 

So I think the much higher resolution of m11 make the CA more obvious that when most will use the 75 Noctilux with the m10. To be honest, the CA of 75mm Noctilux is not bad at all consider its extreme aperture. But it still nice if Leica can have a firmward to remove CA from DNG or JPG our of the camera. I'm not even sure if Leica m11 can do in-camera lens corrections.

 

Thanks.

 

Attasit

[shirubadanieru]

Ah that is actually great to know because I did notice so much CA with lenses that had never shown any CA such as the rigid summicron, etc. Interesting to know firmware updates can solve this and also…why the hell did they release the camera knowing this was an issue..