50 APO summicron - fallen out of love with it?

[RexGig0]

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On 9/23/2023 at 5:32 PM, JTLeica said:

So an interesting discovery... I looked at my images I took in Cornwall with the 50 APO, some were sharp, others not that sharp, none 'blurry' but certainly wasn't overly happy. I put it down to focussing past infinity. So it turns out, that yes it does focus a hair past, which is ok, I tested it at length this morning... But as a comparison I bought a 50 APO Lanthar earlier in the week and also Brought it along, as I know its supposed to be as good, or close to... It is miles better than My 50 APO as every aperture. The Voigtlander is sharp corner to corner even at F2, whilst the 50 Cron is not. It's actually not perfectly sharp corner to corner at any aperture.

I know that this isn't normal as the comparisons I have seen show the APO Cron to be at least equal in the corners if not slightly better. So I will have to send my 'bargain' APO Cron back this week. Shame. I am now unsure if I should try to find another or just stick with the Lanthar? 

You have my empathy. My very few “problem” lenses, bought pre-owned, have been cheap lenses, for systems other than M-mount, and happened some time in the past. As I second-guess myself, for not having ordered one of the seemingly many relatively modestly-priced APO Summicron-M 50mm ASPH lenses being offered in the summer of 2023, your experience with the “bargain” APO ‘Cron offers a reminder that buying pre-owned lenses can mean that we are buying another’s problem. 

$3800K US of my discretionary funds was used to buy the Steel Rim “Re-Edition” 35mm Summilux, at the end of June or early July, a move which may have forever doomed any reasonable hope of buying an APO 50 ‘Cron, which I remedied by acquiring a new CV 50mm APO Lanthar, during a price promotion by Cameraquest. Fortunately, my APO Lanthar is testing very well, thus far. Unless my larger retirement fund performs VERY well, in the next several years, I had better be content with my existing M lenses.

Edited September 25, 2023 by RexGig0

[charlie9089]

I have both the 50mm M APO and the Lux.

I prefer the Lux because it has the best bokeh of any lens I've owned. The % of keepers with the Lux is higher as I like to shoot wide open or close to wide open. However, the APO has outstanding resolution and the colors seem to be more accurate and saturated than the Lux. Although significant, for me, these advantages don't compensate for the APO's bokeh being OK/good rather than excellent.

Although I prefer my Lux, I'm hanging onto the APO as I've found with higher megapixel cameras such as the M10-R and M11 I've been getting chromatic aberration on some older Leica lenses and I've had zero CA using the 50mm APO. So the APO is "future-proofed" as the megapixel count inevitably goes higher. It's also a very compact lens so pairs well with my M6 0.85 although the extreme resolution is overkill for film. 

The Lux is also an APO by the way, but an old design so not as well-corrected. They're both excellent lenses, among the best ever by any manufacturer. No focusing issues with either.

[trickness]

I have a friend who is a very talented photographer and uses the 50 APO. I know this is a controversial opinion and many will disagree, but I think the extreme resolution of this lens  (he uses it with an SL2-S) makes his pictures look like he's been heavy handed with his post processing (and I know he barely touches things up in Lightroom). Just as bokeh can be overdone if everything is shot wide open (guilty 😂) I think that crazy sharpness can really undermine the emotional impact of a photograph. I'm a 50 Lux user, so maybe it's just the way my taste runs, but when everything is so etched and the resolution is so high things start to look digital and plastic to my eye. 

Perhaps it's just a matter of really learning the strengths of the lens, like anything else. I just haven't seen many pictures taken with the 50 APO where I liked the rendering. It'a always the sharpness that seems to leap out.

[hdmesa]

1 hour ago, trickness said:

...I think the extreme resolution of this lens  (he uses it with an SL2-S) makes his pictures look like he's been heavy handed with his post processing (and I know he barely touches things up in Lightroom)...

A problem with many modern lenses on the SL2-S due to the lower resolution of the sensor combined with no AA filter. Fine lines can become so sharp they look fragile.