New Lens thoughts: 35 mm M Apo or 28 mm Summilux

[stohmax]

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Hi, I got my M11 this week and I am very happy. I thought about buying one new lens. The 35 mm APO or the 28 mm Summilux. I love my 50 mm Lux at the moment I am using it with a 28 mm Summicron. 

First I thought about the APO because of its focusing distance...but I own a 35 mm Voigtländer Nokton 1.2 III VM and I am quite happy with it.

So I thought why not buy a faster 28 mm for a different look. 

I Love 35 mm but also love 50. I love taking pictures of my kids playing with their toys for that 28 mm are quite nice cause of the wider view... 

Any suggestions?

 

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[adli]

 

The 28 cron and the 50 lux makes a good pair of lenses.  I don't understand the rationale for adding the 35 APO or 28 Lux? What do you want to achieve?

[tom0511]

I have the 28 Summilux and it does show quite some prurple fringing, even stopped down sometimes. And it seems a little more on the M11 than on the M10(r). You can get rid of it in post. Sharpness and detail is very good.

[Jeff S]

GAS requires no logic.  Grown kids will not look at pics and wish dad had used his 28 Summilux instead of Summicron.  Buy whatever makes you happy.  New lenses from Leica will be along soon.

Jeff

[RF’sDelight]

Hi! Coming from every lens mentioned and some more I would say this: there is no other lens that gives you the same joy of shooting always wide open than the Apo 35. It’s surpasses the Apo 50 in its sharpness at f2.0 and as an almost crazy extra you get the close focus range of 30 cm! Ok, the prize is crazy too but it's an hell of a lens. Since I got it in August 2021 I nearly don't use any other lens.

From my personal point of view the 28 Lux has a beautiful rendering wide open but this is bought with additional weight. And whilst 35mm are a bit more to the versatile side, I would say that you want a 28mm lens when you know you want a 28mm lens not only because is two steps apart from 50mm.  I use the 28 Cron sigifcantly more often than the Lux because for me 28mm + f1.4 need special circumstances to shine.

Edited May 6, 2022 by RF’sDelight

[fil-m]

I don't believe there is much use to shot family pictures at 1.4 with an 28mm. The Summicron gives you the wide angle view starting f2 and that's enough. For family shots, your Lux 50 will give you some great portraits shots at 1.4 albeit requiring some patience and multiple attempts with kids. So I guess both lens you already have, "complete the spectrum", the 28/1.4 won't enable new opportunities IMHO

The APO35 is in a different league. It is clearly a perfect jack of all trades. Close-up it enables some artistic shots even portraits. On the street it captures images that are both beautiful (in my view) and pixel perfect with a lot of latitude in terms of cropping, adjusting exposure etc things which are essential as street shots capturing the moment are often done in "tough" conditions. Its field of view is wide, but not much (I am never comfortable with 28), it is narrow but not too much like the 50 and at the same time, you can crop without losing quality (it is really amazing with the M11 in that respect, even if I crop from 60MP to 24MP, pictures remain exceptionally beautiful and clean). That's important as a street lens, because if you see something while you are still (relatively) far from the scene, you can still take the picture and then crop as you initially intended (as you initially saw and framed the scene). In other words, a forgiving lens with a special look for the image. It is not 1.4 so bokeh remains limited unless you are close, so not as strong as a Lux in that respect. 

So I guess that if you have the M10-R or M11, the APO brings improvements. But again based on your already interesting setup, it is not a huge leap compared to the cost. It might also make your decision to use it vs the Summicron 28 difficult, unless you really want the wider view and **know** when it is needed. Personally I always prefer to stick to 2 focal length, the 35 and 50. Adding a third choice will make my life difficult. Up to you to decide.

Best. 

 

 

[ivohula]

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It all depends on your style and vision, in my humble opinion.

I have used the 28 Lux for many family portraits where only light was birthday candles or Xmas tree lights. Very dim but very creative; yes you could shoot at ISO 10,000 but why? The Lux also enables great subject separation from all the surrounding crap at such events. So there is a good argument here for the Lux. Also, I believe the 28 mm focal length is the widest I would use for any portrait, unless you place the subject dead centre, otherwise distortion becomes an issue.

The 35 APO is a world class lens that we would all like to own. Can you buy one is the first question. One was up for sale on Ebay for $14k. This lens will show every blade of grass in your landscape shot, every stain on your subject in architecture and every pore in your subjects' face in portraiture. Is this what you are after? The APO may be too clinical for portraiture, some may think.

Lenses are like paint brushes or paints to a painter. It all depends on your style and vision to unable your creativity.

[stohmax]

Thx for advises, the main reason I looked at the Lux is because it has more Separation than the cron. 
The Apo is also an option but I have the voigtlaender were I can go close, more than sharp enough for me….

Sure new lenses will also come with price increase.

For me picture perfection like the apo is not that necessary I am more the Bokeh and rendering guy.

 

[Herr Barnack]

On 5/7/2022 at 3:26 AM, stohmax said:

...For me picture perfection like the apo is not that necessary I am more the Bokeh and rendering guy.

The fact that the 35mm APO cannot be had anywhere at any price seems to simplify things, along with your own observation (above).

It is easy to get caught up in wanting "the best" M lenses ever made. 

The reality is that anyone who cannot make good images with a 28 or 35 Summilux ASPH or even the (supposedly) lowly 28 or 35 non-APO Summicron lenses will never see their photography transformed by the megadollar 35 APO, even if it were available for purchase.

 

[pedaes]

On 5/6/2022 at 12:51 PM, stohmax said:

Any suggestions?

Give it a few weeks and hundreds of images and revisit what you think you need and why you need it.