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New edition of the Leica Summilux-M 1.4/35mm ASPH.


Ken Abrahams

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3 hours ago, Jeremy Bunting said:

I haven't had a chance to take the lens out but I did snap a couple quick test shots in my apartment to try out the close focus. Image quality is lovely. It feels like the colors have a little more saturation and contrast than the FLE v1, but I could be imagining it.

Be careful of making such claims on this forum. You will likely be ripped to shreds (by v1 owners)

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23 hours ago, Photoworks said:

yes very funny, that is why Peter is no longer the optic developer at Leica.

it goes down hill so quickly...

Karbe is the head of lens design and will be speaking at the upcoming Annual Meeting and Conference in Dublin, Ireland. Wish I was going. Beautiful city.

 

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17 hours ago, Pixeleater said:

Dublin, Ireland. Wish I was going. Beautiful city.

Dublin is such a lovely city. So much inspiration everywhere, locals always so happy to see you.

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Edited by Al Brown
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26 minutes ago, Ktsa5239 said:

Does anyone have a size comparison photo with the v1 and v2 side by side please? 

Size and shape comparison with older (2010) and new (2022) close focusing Summilux 35 f/1.4 FLE. Should give you the idea.
The FLE II is to the left, the FLE I is to the right. According to Red Dot table, their length without hood attached (FLE I) or extended (FLE II) is identical, but the latter is a bit thicker. Leica cares about that girth.

 

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Edited by Al Brown
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On 9/16/2022 at 12:16 AM, OThomas said:

There’s enough 35mms in current line up. How about a new 24mm for a change?  

To digress…

I love my 3.8/24 which is a stellar lens which I think would be hard to improve upon.  It has that modern transparent rendering of the  M APO lenses. 

Or are you after a faster 24? The 24 Summilux never tempted me (but I do have the 21).

 

Regarding the 1.4/35 FLE, mine was a love-hate relationship so replaced it with the 35 APO-Summicron. No regrets and no interest in the new 35 FLE. Although at some stage I may want  a pre-FLE 35 Summilux.

if anything needs updating it might be the 2.0/90 APO-Summicron which I do not own.

Edited by MarkP
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2 hours ago, MarkP said:

To digress…

I love my 3.8/24 which is a stellar lens which I think would be hard to improve upon.  It has that modern transparent rendering of the  M APO lenses. 

Or are you after a faster 24? The 24 Summilux never tempted me (but I do have the 21).

 

Regarding the 1.4/35 FLE, mine was a love-hate relationship so replaced it with the 35 APO-Summicron. No regrets and no interest in the new 35 FLE. Although at some stage I may want  a pre-FLE 35 Summilux.

if anything needs updating it might be the 2.0/90 APO-Summicron which I do not own.

I agree the Leica 24mm/3.8 ASPH is fantastic, as is the 21mm/3.4 ASPH. But I can see why people might like f/2.8 versions with high performance and closer minimum focus distance. With the M11 and its EVF being so good, there is an opening for new close focusing M lenses. There have been a few Zeiss and Voigtländer lenses that focus to 0.5M, but I thought when the Leica M typ 240 family was released, more lenses would have been released that focus 0.7 M. That did not happen, but now I think we really will see more. Perhaps some real macro lenses like a 90mm/2 or 60mm/2 with 1:1 focusing (or at least f/2.8 ones) ? That would be cool. New Macro lenses could even leave out the rangefinder cams and be for EVF focusing only to cut costs.

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Of course right now you could use Leica R or Nikon F macro lenses with an adapter on the M11. I should try my Zeiss 100mm Makro Planar ZF.2 on my M11 for kicks. Of course it already is pretty amazing on my D850 with native function and auto diaphragm. Might be able to just eke out a bit more detail with a 60MP sensor though, which could be good fro digitizing some of my old medium format negatives.

Edited by sdk
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3 hours ago, Al Brown said:

Size and shape comparison with older (2010) and new (2022)

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how do you feel about the F-stop ring been right on top of the focus ring ?

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Took this recently with the Voigtlander Nokton 35 mm 1.2  Exif says taken at 1.4.  This is why I love the wider apertures on 35 mm.  Waiting for the lux to arrive to see how it renders in comparison.  I expect it to be sharper and strongert in contrast but what I am curious about is the softness and elegance of the bokeh.

 

I also have the cron 35 mm but I am just not getting this same eveness on the out of focus areas. Not quite as elegant.  Although I suspect it is just me as I recently saw an image BY BIGBABYEARL ON THE SUMMICRON 35MM IMAGES THREAD that completely challenges that statement. 

 

 

The Nokton has 12 blades I believe.

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Edited by S Maclean
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On 9/20/2022 at 10:25 PM, Jeremy Bunting said:

Summilux 35mm FLE v2 arrived just about 30 minutes ago. First impression: I love the built-in lens hood. However, unlike my APO 50, which came with a beautiful metal lens cap that fits over the lens hood, the Summilux 35mm FLE II comes with a crappy plastic cap (the one with the side tabs) that will only fit on the lens when the hood is retracted. This will likely result in me either leaving the cap off most of the time, or leaving the lens hood retracted most of the time. Plus these little plastic caps just feel cheap. For the price I would've appreciated a metal cap like the one that came with my APO 50.

Second impression--the click past 0.7m is very subtle. You hear it more than you feel it. Not a big deal, as I imagine I'll know when I want to focus closer than 0.7m since I'll need to switch to live view, and I like that the whole focus dial still feels smooth.

I haven't had a chance to take the lens out but I did snap a couple quick test shots in my apartment to try out the close focus. Image quality is lovely. It feels like the colors have a little more saturation and contrast than the FLE v1, but I could be imagining it. Close focus with the LCD screen on my M11 is pretty simple. I don't feel the need to run out and buy an EVF.

It's nice how much you can fit in the frame of a 35mm lens at 0.4m.

At f1.4, unedited except to straighten a touch. These were both shot about as close as I could get to the little devil. I used the focus peaking assistant.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremybunting/52371490062/in/dateposted-public/

And this one at f2.8:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremybunting/52372435871/in/dateposted-public/

 

Nice, how is the finder blockage?

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I heard that the new FLE is actually more different than people think. Leica apparently used different glass types with higher transmission factors meaning the resolution should be improved a bit. Not sure how true this is - would require a side-by-side shot of a controlled scene by someone who just got the FLE2 and is about the sell the FLE1 ...

Would be super appreciated if someone could shoot a textured scene and focus on infinity with both lenses ... ie fixed camera on tripod and then swapping the lens.

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For comparison:

On the right,  35mm Summilux FLE V2 on Leica M11
On the left, APO 50mm Summicron on Leica MP film

Both lenses have UVa filters on, which I never remove.

(serial numbers removed in photoshop)

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3 hours ago, phototrope said:

For comparison:

On the right,  35mm Summilux FLE V2 on Leica M11
On the left, APO 50mm Summicron on Leica MP film

Both lenses have UVa filters on, which I never remove.

(serial numbers removed in photoshop)

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Which one do you prefer?

 

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Got this lens. Love it. Now it makes more sense to use it on SLx as a fast 35mm lens with 0.4M MFD. At 70cm, the new lens show less CA than v1 on SL2S with my copies and it is also a little sharper. Not sure it is copy difference or formula tweak for sensor stack. I also used them both on m11 but haven’t exam them carefully side by side yet.  V1 I prefer use it at f2 but new one at f1.4 has more definition to my eye. 

if old lens I give 80/100, now I give 90/100 in term of usefulness for my personal usage. 

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