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Light Lens Lab 50mm f/2 "Speed Panchro II" for Leica M


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10 hours ago, Huss said:

@catacore that close up pic of the guitar strings was very good at f2 - I think this will be an excellent f2 portrait lens.  The colours looked much better when used on your Leica than on your Sony.

The Sony A7C pictures were taken just to avoid focus and recompose technique with M240, while curious of the rendering/softening towards the image's edges.

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I have added one more series of pictures trying to illustrate the whatever "3D pop" effect we might see (I do think it is there).

And one "full size portrait" of a statue shot at f/2 from about 4-5m distance (and illustrating the "composing with a rangefinder" issue - I needed 3 shots, albeit in portrait orientation, to get what I wanted. Shooting in landscape I would have needed at least 6-7 shots).

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On 4/5/2023 at 12:25 AM, NigelG said:

Hmmm. Still waiting on my order #1180...which is still in the "yet to be fulfilled" category  - despite the lenses supposedly being dispatched "in the order received" 🤔

 

I had the order #1172 and I got the lens number 179/998.

Hope you'll get your soon 😉

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Order 1121 received yesterday here in Switzerland. I am surprized by the quality  this lens exhales. Did not test it yet. But looks like any other high end lens I own. I am amazed.

Too bad for the lac of from lens cap but I just ordered a regular 43mm sensei lens cap from B&H https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1486137-REG/sensei_lc_43_43mm_center_pinch_snap_on.html hopefully they will send it to me whenever they decide to get back to work...

 

 

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I just received mine directly from China. When I ordered, I wasn't aware that Popflash was a distributor. Mine came in a FedEX Envelope.🙁 The hood was slightly bent (pushed in on one of the hood supports) and I was able to gently pry it straight with a screwdriver. The lens box had been wrapped in bubble wrap and was in Ok shape showing a little wear from the trip. Lens was in perfect shape within box and lens case. Seems reasonable to have expected a front lens cap...which was not included.

Initial shots, all at f2, on an M11 and M10M indicate its focus is calibrated well including infinity stop.

Image quality is very nice, in focus areas exhibiting good resolution and out of focus areas showing a gentle, not overpowering "glow". Will need to explore more. Examples to come.

 

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Just few more observation regarding my copy of this LLL SPII lens:

- it seems quite sharp even at f2 and out of centre, below a 100% crop from the blossom @ "focus and recompose" - so quite off-centre

 

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by the (this is also supported by the padlock image at f2 where the entire fence appears "uniformly soft", but the sharpness is there, just it appears as "softness" due to low contrast/blooming ?)

- focusing the lens at f2 on my Sony A7C was difficult because the TTL picture is quite soft, so it was difficult to judge if the writting on the sign was in focus (and being red on white didn't help with peaking)

- I have few nights shots with an "illy" sign (white letters on red background) where, at f2 and f2.8 the "illy" writting can't be actually read since is just a white spot (the sign cleans up by f4-f5.6). But as soon as I have reduced the "whites" and "highlights" in Camera Raw the sign "illy" writting became clean and clear, just as on the shots at f4-f5.6.

 

 

Edited by catacore
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20 hours ago, SoarFM said:

Image quality is very nice, in focus areas exhibiting good resolution and out of focus areas showing a gentle, not overpowering "glow". Will need to explore more. Examples to come.

M10M  

LLL 50mm/f2 SPII @ f2.0

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20 hours ago, SoarFM said:

Image quality is very nice, in focus areas exhibiting good resolution and out of focus areas showing a gentle, not overpowering "glow". Will need to explore more. Examples to come.

M11 

LLL 50mm/f2 SPII @ f2.0

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20 hours ago, SoarFM said:

Image quality is very nice, in focus areas exhibiting good resolution and out of focus areas showing a gentle, not overpowering "glow". Will need to explore more. Examples to come.

M10M  

LLL 50mm/f2 SPII @ f2.8

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21 hours ago, SoarFM said:

Image quality is very nice, in focus areas exhibiting good resolution and out of focus areas showing a gentle, not overpowering "glow". Will need to explore more. Examples to come.

 

M11 

LLL 50mm/f2 SPII @ f2.8

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23 hours ago, SoarFM said:

I just received mine directly from China. When I ordered, I wasn't aware that Popflash was a distributor. Mine came in a FedEX Envelope.🙁 The hood was slightly bent (pushed in on one of the hood supports) and I was able to gently pry it straight with a screwdriver. The lens box had been wrapped in bubble wrap and was in Ok shape showing a little wear from the trip. Lens was in perfect shape within box and lens case. Seems reasonable to have expected a front lens cap...which was not included.

Initial shots, all at f2, on an M11 and M10M indicate its focus is calibrated well including infinity stop.

Image quality is very nice, in focus areas exhibiting good resolution and out of focus areas showing a gentle, not overpowering "glow". Will need to explore more. Examples to come.

 

A side question.. it seems buying it from LLL website is faster than Popflash. I’m curious if you had to pay brokerage fee. 

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11 hours ago, han_zac said:

A side question.. it seems buying it from LLL website is faster than Popflash. I’m curious if you had to pay brokerage fee. 

No brokerage fee. Not sure how US Customs doesn’t blink an eye with $10USD declared value. But I’m not sure a higher declared value would have triggered any import duties. I have purchased from other Asian countries and camera gear and lenses seem to be exempted. But you must exercise your own due diligence. 

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A couple of real life images from today, all shot wide open on a rather cloudy day. Exported from Lightroom without any adjustments. Stray observation: I have my preview set to black&white and really like how the images in those preview! Might experiment with that!

I also did a bunch of test-y shots to stake a closer look at how the image changes between f/2 and f/2.8. I can put them in a dropbox if anyone's interested. The short answer: By f/2.8, the glow is mostly gone and the image get's really sharp, but retains the warm colour tint. Once more, I think that f/2.4 will become my favourite.

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Edited by Almizilero
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Few more observations on my copy of the LLL SPII lens:

- the lens is quite sharp starting at f/2, it is just the fact that it shows a sort of veil/haze/"character" layer of top of it, so the image appears as soft.

Below a test at infinity, shot at f/2, with crops from centre and corners:

 

full image

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centre

 

top left

 

bottom right

Edited by catacore
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Now changing the orientation (f/2, full image and corners)

 

full image in changed orientation

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top right

 

bottom left

 

 

I think my lens shows a bit of a lesser performance on the right side, so probably slightly decentered.

Edited by catacore
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I've done also a field curvature test, as described by Ted Forbes. Below a compilation of 4 images taken at f/2, at distances between +/- 2m and +/- 3 m.

I had the impression that my lens is back focusing a bit, but doing this test showed me the lens behaves ok.

 

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Edited by catacore
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