Best 28mm for M11

[tom0511]

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I own the Vers. 1 and and Summilux. 1) it seeems to me corner (in the outer corners) performance with wideanges is a little better on the M10r than on the M11.

2) I find the Summilux a little big for my taste, and it shows some purple fringing wide open and quite some vignetting. Sharpness overall looks quite good to me. I do however consider to replace it with the Summicron Vii for the smaller size. Would be great to see direct comparison between the Summicron Vers.II and the Summilux.

[LarsHP]

7 hours ago, tashley said:

(...) Post the repair, I can live with the ‘Cron but I’d still be interested in some Zeiss or CV alternatives though in mu experience the QC at CV is what you’d expect at the price!

I strongly suggest trying out the Voigtländer 28mm Ultron II. It's a tiny, great performing lens. According to Fred Miranda, one of the best 28mm lenses ever made - even without considering price.

I bought the Summicron Asph II (#11672) and felt it was a bit disappointing, particularly in the center at f/2.8 (and compared to the promises from the MTF chart). Over-all sharpness at f/2 was "acceptable considering it's wide open", but not at the level I would have hoped for. In the very center at f/2.8, the 7Artisans 28mm f/1.4 Asph was clearly sharper, so I thought the Summicron needed adjustment. After getting it back from Wetzlar, it wasn't much sharper in the center, but now the lens had a new issue: Severe field curvature at around f/4 (which wasn't visible stopped further down, though). I sent it back for adjustment a second time to Wetzlar. While there, I decided to buy the Voigtländer 28mm Ultron II, and keep the one I liked best after getting the Summicron back.

The bottom line is and was that, while the Ultron II has markedly more vignetting wide open than the Leica, it beats or equals the Summicron in all other aspects. Needless to say, I do not own the Summicron any longer, while still using the Voigtländer with great satisfaction. My impression is that, while Leica once was ahead of its competitors, this is no longer true, unfortunately, considering the substantial extra you pay for their products.

 

Here's a link to my test shots with the Ultron II and some side-by-sides with the Summicron Asph II.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ngYCuU1OzRZVbnbjGtwge1Mx78vuUp8q

Edited May 2, 2022 by LarsHP

[hdmesa]

10 hours ago, tashley said:

...Post repair, it is symmetrical but not good at the edges (I’m not usually much of a corner guy) until F5.6 and is actively soft at F2. It’s a little bit better (because the edges get cropped a bit) when one forces lens corrections in Lightroom by spoofing the software into thinking it’s a different camera, required because LR lens corrections still don’t work for the M11 ...

For what it's worth, the 28 Lux is also not designed to have perfect corners even stopped down without the lens distortion correction being applied. I assume this is part of the design process for M wide angles – to ignore the far corners that get cropped out after distortion correction is applied.

Edited May 2, 2022 by hdmesa

[adan]

My guess is that Leica will eventually (and probably pretty soon) introduce a 28mm ASMA (APO-Summi(something)-M ASPH). The "APO" designation is definitely the next generation.

Probably on Peter Karbe's "to-do" list right now - if it's not already roughed out in his design software. As well as already on Leica's "to-price" list.

The "regular" 28 Summicron-M ASPH is excellent for its era (especially considering that the design specs said it had to be the same size as the existing f/2.8 Elmarit v.4 in 2000). But it is still a "last-millenium" design, although tweaked a few years ago for corner performance with sensor filter-stacks.

[jplomley]

8 hours ago, Al Brown said:

I hope Peter also has an APO ASPH Summicron 24 in the oven.

Well, the 21 and 24 APO SC's were promised a long time ago for the L product line and they have yet to materialize three years later. I would not hold my breath for anything in the M product line.