2 years as a "leicaboy"

[Leicaboy Norway]

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Hey guys!

I think it's now gone 2 years since I bought my Leica Q. And almost a year ago since I got my Leica M240. For my M240 I have Voigtländer 35mm 1.7 Ultron, Summicron 50mm v5 and sum micron 90mm f2 pre asph (v2 I think (80s)).

What is my impression of Leica?

I like Leica first and foremost because of the camerahouses. Leica Q is fun to use, great to manual focus with, good AF. Small. Great controls, and the lens is great. To have. a 1.7 lens with ff sensor in such a small package is why I use it a lot.

The M240 is for me even more fun to use. People online talk about red dots and covering this up and about Leica being so fancy etc. I have never thought of Leica this way, to me it's like Nikon and other brands. Yes it's perhaps pricier and a little more towards manual craftsmanship and long history and a little less towards tech. Which I like.

 

But....

 

The lenses mostly hasn't blown me away. Yes the Summilux 1.7 in the Q is sharp wide open. It can macro focus. And I have taken some of my favorite portraits with that lens. Landscape too. But for me there isn't a special Leica look or signature from the photos. It is clinical. sharp at 1.7 even sharper at 2.8.

When I got the Summicron 50 m I felt that I would get more the famous Leica look. But tbh, yes to me it has more character than the summilux 28, but not a whole lot. 

 

Then I got the odd piece of the puzzle in a Summicron 90mm f 2 pre asph from the 80s for 700 eur. Many warned me the 90 was unruly for the M240.

And it kind of is, though a good technique will make it work, and besides its not huge compared to a dslr or sir 90mm

 

But my point is, this is the only Leica lens I have used that have given me those vibes from the images. They glow and they have character and emotions!!!

I have also used Leica r 50 sum micron (v2) for my slr system. It too does not have a whole lot of character IMO (is it the same lens as summicron-m 50 v5???)

 

Can you guys recommend me other lenses that also makes a good photo turn into magic like my SUmmicron 90mm ??

[Jeff S]

The magic is in you.

Jeff

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[Leicaboy Norway]

2 minutes ago, Jeff S said:

The magic is in you.

Jeff

I don't need any cameras then!

[Al Brown]

Next step: The Leicaman.

[evikne]

You can try a 35 or 50 mm Summilux pre-ASPH.

[jaeger]

The "leica look" is more applicable to film cameras.  If you shoot digital and do post editing, you can replicate that so called "leica look" using any camera.  It's quite easy, just add some distortions to get that "characters".  I am not going through the details, you can play around.

50mm is the longest lens in M body, maybe 75mm... my 2 cents.

 

 

[Leicaboy Norway]

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I don't know what the correct expression is, I just found a lens in the M lineup that for me gave me better photos than I took. That communicated feelings. And in general I don't believe editing will make you able to do everything, that's what all the Sony people told me. turns out it was wrong  thanks for the tips on the summiluxes!

[Marc B-C]

Perhaps too try a Blackmist filter on the Q. I have a 1/8th one permanently attached. It takes some of the clinical sharpness away. As to the Leica look with digital? I put that down to good use of light and a tad of under exposure.

[spydrxx]

To me the "Leica Look" has mostly been with film bodies and older lenses. Those same lenses on digital bodies don't give the old style "Leica look", but a rather a more modern look. Maybe my eyes have changed over the years too.

[dpitt]

1 hour ago, Leicaboy Norway said:

But my point is, this is the only Leica lens I have used that have given me those vibes from the images. They glow and they have character and emotions!!!

I have also used Leica r 50 sum micron (v2) for my slr system. It too does not have a whole lot of character IMO (is it the same lens as summicron-m 50 v5???)

 

Can you guys recommend me other lenses that also makes a good photo turn into magic like my SUmmicron 90mm ??

A Leica 90mm F2.0 is more related to a 50mm F1.4 than to a Summicron F2.0.
The longer you go, the faster it gets for the same aperture.

I am also into the pre-APSH and pre 80's design for lenses. They are less 'perfect' but they can be very convincing.

I think you will see the same magic in the Summiux F1.4 pre-ASPH and maybe even in the Summicron 50 F2.0 v1 collapsible.

You will also find it in the Summicron 90 R and in the Elmarit 135 F2.8 (M and R)  and even more in the  180mm Elmarit F2.8 R.
One of the best lenses (if you can lift them) is the APO 280mm F2.8

It may pay off to read about the Leica lens designer Walter Mandler, your Summicron 90 M is designed by him, and most of the lenses mentioned above are also from his hand. He was a master at finding the best compromise between pure IQ and character when exploring the technical limits of lens design. Our Wiki may be a good place to start your research, or just search the forum for Mandler.

[grahamc]

Another vote for the 35 and 50 pre-asph lux.   Try this set and see how you like them : 

35 Summilux v2 "Pre-APSH" OR 35 Summicron v1 ("8 elements")

50mm Summilux v3 "Pre-ASPH"

90mm Summicron v3 "Pre-ASPH" as you have 

All Mandler lenses as Dpitt recommends, and work very nicely together if you love the magic of the 90 mentioned.

Edited February 22 by grahamc

[evikne]

Some threads for inspiration:

https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/288041-35mm-14-summilux-pre-asph/

https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/318444-the-50mm-summilux-pre-asph-image-thread/

https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/266277-show-us-some-mandler-magic/

 

[Budfox]

For a Leica 'glow':

- 35 summilux steel rim used at f1.4 to 2 (re-issue is fine)

- 50 summilux pre-asp used at 1.4 (the older the better)

You will never look back.

 

[tom0511]

voigtländer 35mm s.c. 

or the pre-ash lenses.

If you don't want perfection, super sharpness and contrast look at some older Leica lenses or some Voigtländer lenses.

The great thing about Leica M is also how many different lenses are available.

I own 35 and 50 APOs and do like them but I also have started to experiment with some less "perfect"  lenses and its fun.

 

[RexGig0]

The Q camera is quite modern, by Leica standards. Your Summicron’s optical formula dates to 1979, and is a Walter Mandler design, but is not often describes as a “character” lens. Walter Mandler’s earlier designs will have more “character.,” such that some shooters, today, may choose to use only Walter Mandler-era lenses. My Elmarit-M 28mm lens is Version III, a Mandler design.

Any Summilux lens will tend to have more character than Summicron lenses of the same era, if the Summilux is shot with the aperture wide-open.

For some real “character,” look here: 

The most expensive Leica M lens that I am likely to buy, ever, is likely to be my Thambar-M 90mm f/2.2, from a limited run, in the “Heritage” series. I paid less than $6K US, for a pre-owned Thambar-M. Now that production has ceased, and demand has risen, sellers are asking higher prices. I bought mine at a fortuitous moment in time, in 2019.

[kivis]

The OP has a point. Time to reexplore some of the vintage lens to get that "look" on Digital M bodies.

[Stevejack]

I have the same 90mm you're talking about, and yes it gives a different look from the more modern lenses.

I'm not really a 'leica look' subscriber, and I think Leica does a good job with their lenses but they aren't a match of most modern lenses from Sony / Canon / Nikon etc. The thing about Leica lenses is their size. They are compact and for their small size, they're incredibly well designed and give beautiful results. Packing the image quality that they do into such a small package is no easy task. It's a lot easier to build a nice lens with a larger design, so you get the major manufacturers making brilliant lenses at a fraction of the cost but they are also many times larger.   

It sounds like what you like the look of is the older lenses. The lenses with flaws that don't exist in the current designs. If that's the Leica Look that you want, stick with lenses that are 30+ years old. I have some nice uncoated pre-war collapsible lenses which I love, they look very nice on modern digital sensors. 

[RexGig0]

The “Leica Look” or “character” is derived from optical correction choices made by the designers, so, is not one specific “look,” or “character,” but a combination of factors, that has varied, over time. I see plenty of character in images captured at wide-open apertures by the Summilux-M 50mm ASPH. Indeed, this was the lens that drove my desire to add the Leica M system, in early 2018, after several years of looking at images posted on-line, and then several visits to a nearby Leica dealer, where I was patiently coached in rangefinder shooting, while trying a pre-owned Summilux, that eventually became my Summilux. I had been photographing living, breathing, traumatized crime victims, for more than seven years, for evidentiary/forensic purposes, using a top-tier, class-leading 100mm macro lens. After retiring from that, I wanted to use a lens with some character, to re-learn how to even want to photograph people. (I was not a “professional photographer,” but a public servant, who was trained, and then strived to do my best, in performing this added duty.)

Notably, however, many Leica photographers will consider the Summilux-M 50mm ASPH to be too “modern.” They are not wrong. We each have our own ideas about creativity.

In the short telephoto category, I made three choices that are far different from each other. The first was a Zeiss Tele Tessar 85mm f/4 ZM, mostly intended for landscapes, so, very much a “modern” lens. Next was the Thambar-M 90mm, with optical elements designed decades ago. The official Leica page showed images that appeared to be much like Impressionist paintings. Elsewhere, I saw images that appeared to be early Hollywood glamour shots. This old optical formula, with substantially uncorrected optical elements, successfully lured me into buying a pre-owned Thambar-M. Then, finally, largely based upon how I felt about my first M lens, the Summilux-M 50mm ASPH, I added a pre-owned Summicron-M 75mm ASPH, a lens designed as a personal project, by Peter Karbe, to be much like that specific Summilux.

Could I have used a computer, to create effects resembling what all or some of my lenses can do? Well, perhaps, but, I dislike using computers any more than necessary.