75mm lens.

[NaAn]

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Please, give me your advice.

Do I need 75mm lens if I’m not planning to do portrait photography? For you, who owns it, what is your main genre in photography? 

I like 50mm because I know how to see the world with my lens 🙂 but maybe I missing something, I don’t know.

Thank you.

[UliWer]

When you use a 50mm the frames for 75mm are always visible (since the M4-P). So you might estimate what your object would look like with a 75mm lens.

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[Stuart Richardson]

15 minutes ago, NaAn said:

Please, give me your advice.

Do I need 75mm lens if I’m not planning to do portrait photography? For you, who owns it, what is your main genre in photography? 

I like 50mm because I know how to see the world with my lens 🙂 but maybe I missing something, I don’t know.

Thank you.

It can be a nice landscape lens in certain situations because they tend to be sharp with low distortion and can bring the scenery a bit closer, while still giving a wide enough field of view to seem like a large area of terrain, rather than a close crop. This will depend a lot on the topography, however. I find they are useful in a wide open country like here in Iceland, or up in the mountains, but in dense terrain they are not as useful. With modern high resolution bodies and lenses, a 50mm can do the same job in almost all cases, but if you find yourself cropping in from 50mm on a regular basis, it may well be a useful lens for you. Another reason they can be popular is that they make a good two lens combination with a 35mm lens. 35mm serves as a wide/normal point of view, and 75mm stands in for a normal/tele. Both tend to be reasonably size and on the faster side as well. But if you tend to really like 50mm, then there is no inherent reason to switch.

[LocalHero1953]

I have the Summilux-M 75 and Apo-Summicron-SL 75 and I use them both for portraits. When I was doing far fewer portraits, I still wanted a 75, but then I used the Apo-Summicron-M 75 asph - it was a great all round lens that I preferred for street and travel, focusing the attention on a particular subject, rather than a general scene like a 50. It was also compact for a 75, and focussed closer than most similar lenses.

[darylgo]

For big broad landscape 75mm is my normal, distant objects stay large and impressive while limiting the angle of view and excess.   75mm can be used for stitching, turned vertically and stitched it gives a look different from a wide angle.  

Edited January 24 by darylgo

[SiggiGun]

Thinks are changing with the modern high resolution sensors. In the past my typical travel kit was a 35mm and 75mm lens, repsectivly (80% and 20% of the images). For portraits my choice was 75 or 90mm.

Now, I am more and moure out with 28 and 50mm oder even only a 35mm. In other words, even if the 75mm lenses are great I use it less.  If I take an 75mm lens now, It's more for fun, less for conveniance.

[Topsy]

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When out and about either landscape, travel or general walkaround I typically use 3 M9 bodies, one with a 21mm, one with a 35mm and one with a 75mm. I can pretty much get anything I want with these 3 but I also take a 50 and 25mm along however those 2 very rarely get used and I don't always take them.

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[spydrxx]

If you're currently using a 50 and can't get the reach you want, you may consider a 75. Otherwise  it seems a waste of money. I suggest you look thru your photos and if you are currently cropping them, go to a dealer and try a 75. I personally keep one on hand, but rarely use it, preferring a 90 when I want the extra reach.

[TomB_tx]

Good question, as I use a 75 most for portraits as I think the longer working distance gives more pleasing facial perspective. For decades my M kit has been 35, 50, & 90 lenses - the traditional trio for Leica M before ultra-wide became so popular. These days i tend to just put a 35 Summarit on my M10 and crop when needed.

[stephan54]

I like shooting with my summicron 75 more than I had expected. My 50mm is the lens I used most, but now I have the 75 it gets a lot of camere time. It may be close to the 50 but in my opinion the results are markly different: more intimate, just a bit more focus on details. My copy is perfectly callibrated and is easy to focus via RF on my M10. 

On city trips there are drawbacks as one can see from the framelines that the 50 would have captured that taller building, but the 75 is just a bit too long.

[NaAn]

What a great answers! Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and examples.

I do have 35 as well and the same time my SL has 24-70. Before I started using Leica it was other camera brand and 85mm lens. But recently all my photos are from 50mm, monochrome, quite rare I crop the image. 

It’s a clever comment about classical trio including 90mm lens! Looks like I have to explore more and learn more about fantastic world of Leica 🙂

 

[pgk]

On an M a 75mm lens is well withing the camera's ability to be focussed accurately. I use a 75mm lens and whilst its not my most used it is certainly used and is effective, I rarely shoot portraits but a short tele has many other uses and I certainly wouldn't see it as being of little use in other genres.

[Danner]

This topic interests me as well.  I am keen to get a 75mm, for use in two-lens kits, such as 28/75 or 35/75.  It will not get a lot of use, so looking for a 'popularly priced' option.  Maybe an Summarit or CV 75 of some sort.

Edited January 24 by Danner

[pippy]

35 minutes ago, NaAn said:

...Before I started using Leica it was other camera brand and 85mm lens...

I'm of the same view as Paul (pgk) in post #12 and would second everything he mentions.

With the M I don't often use lenses longer than 50 but my 75mm(*) gets more use than any of my 90mm lenses.

As far as the 85mm you mention goes; I have an 85 prime which I use with my Canon DSLR stuff for work and have a love/hate relationship with it. On the 'Plus' side it is my most used lens but on the 'Minus' I find the gap between my 50mm prime and the 85 just a bit too large and I do wish that Canon made a 75mm prime as, for my needs, that would be the 'Goldilocks' f/l.

Philip

* I have the (excellent) f2.5 Summarit. Highly recommended.

[dpitt]

OTOH if you want to really extend your reach, I would look into a 90mm. Agreed, for portraits 75mm can be a good compromise, but 90 mm offers a lot more differentiation for other uses IMO.

I love my Macro Elmar 90. As a collapsible lens, it is one of the most compact tele M lenses. And it is super sharp, not only for Macro but also for landscapes. The F4 is good enough for nice bokeh with portraits with a practical DOF.

With a high resolution sensor, I think that it could extend your reach enormously. On SLRs, I always like the typical 80-200 zoom range, and with a 2x crop on a 60MP you could now get to that kind of tele range. 😎

I already like using the 90 and 135 mm on my cropped sensors like the M8 and the TL2, but with a M11 it could go one step further.

Also, the 90mm would be great on your SL.
Have a look at its use for Macro compared to all macro options in Leica lenses for a SL body:
Red Dot Macro Episode

[pgk]

52 minutes ago, Danner said:

Maybe an Summarit or CV 75 of some sort.

I've owned the 75 Summilux and Summicron. I now own the Summarit. The Summilux is beautiful and whilst soft wide open, it has the smooth detail characteristic of an exceptional non-aspheric element lens. Fabulous but heavy and I found thet I simply didn't use it much at all. The Summicron is extraordinarliy precise but I had two copies of which only one was good. I think this is because the optics are complex interms of their mechanics and this needs precise adjustment. Great lens but again I didn't use it as much as I expected. It did deliver though. Now I own a (2.5) Summarit which gets more use than the other two and is an excellent performer if not as fast as the others, nor as biting as the Summicron. Summarits can currently be bought surprisingly cheaply. This won't last IMO.

[OR120]

NaAn - they are all good. I hope you have the opportunity to try/borrow several different 75's and see which might be best for you. I prefer the 75 Lux:

 

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And here is the 80 Lux (very similar) with a portrait. Hope you find your portrait lens.

Edited January 24 by OR120

[OR120]

NaAn - And here is the 80 Lux (very similar to the 75 Lux) with a portrait sample Hope you find your portrait lens.

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Edited January 24 by OR120

[hepcat]

3 hours ago, NaAn said:

It’s a clever comment about classical trio including 90mm lens! Looks like I have to explore more and learn more about fantastic world of Leica 🙂

 

I am from the times when the "classical trio" was the do-all setup.  I still subscribe to that;  however, being relatively brand-agnostic and having a great love of Canon Barnacks (and more especially the Canon lenses from that era,)  MY "classical trio" consists of the 1952 Canon 35mm f/2.8, a 1956 Canon 50mm f/1.5 Sonnar*, and the amazing 1954 Canon 85mm f/1.9.   I use them all on my M10-P as my regular "carry" kit.  They have never disappointed me, and the 85mm is just an excellent, all-round performer for portraits or when you need that little bit of extra "reach."

I've had a couple of 75mm lenses over the years, and just couldn't get them to work for me.  They're too wide for trying to frame a 50mm and not quite enough when the 85mm-90mm is the right tool.   BTW, like you, the 50mm is my go-to lens.  I carry the 35mm and 85mm for those few times when their use is appropriate. 

* I have temporarily swapped out the 50mm f/1.5 for my 1957 DR Summicron as the 50mm f/1.5 is in the shop for a lube and tune-up.  😉

Edited January 24 by hepcat

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[newtoleica]

24 Summilux, 35 Summilux ASPH Pre-FLE and 75 APO-Summicron here. 

I've used a 24/35/85 extensively on a variety of systems but I find the 90 too tough to get sharp on the M. 75 is fine. I wouldn't bother if I used a 50, I'd just crop slightly. I like the rendering of many 50mm lenses and I've tried to like a number of them but I find the images I take with them boring. 24 is my favourite. 75 is my least used but its useful sometimes.

Edited January 24 by newtoleica