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Centre sharpness of the Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH


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I've observed that my Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH (previous 2019 version) is not as sharp as expected in the central region of images. This issue becomes particularly apparent when shooting at apertures such as f/5.6. I've noticed this both on my M11 and M10M cameras.

Interestingly, the rest of the image, including both near and distant objects, appear very sharp, indicating that the problem isn't related to focus shift or camera shake.

Is this a problem anyone else has encountered?

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If you mean the Summilux 35/1.4 FLE v1 (0.7m MFD), my copy does not suffer from this issue. Here on M11 @ f/5.6, FF & crop.

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Posted (edited)

I would ask Leica what to do. Even if the lens is not under warranty any more, it may happen that Leica fix it for free. There is no harm to ask...

Edited by lct
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4 hours ago, wkoniowalski said:

Thank you for this advice. How would I go about asking Leica to check it? Obviously I don’t mind paying for the service if it’s needed 

Many good people here would advise you to contact Wetzlar directly. I never do that as i'm an ugly lawyer knowing a little bit what can happen afterwards. There is no contract between you and Wetzlar so my best advice is to ask the dealer, if any, to whom you purchased the lens. But you live in Russia if i understand well and i know nothing about Russian law sorry. Also i don't know if you bought the lens second hand and to whom so i cannot advise you any further, sorry again.

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Thank you for your input everyone. As it turns out I believe my BW red filter may have been the culprit here. I managed to take a few landscape test shots today filter-free and the resulting images are free of this issue.

Also I am extremely flattered but unfortunately I am a British Columbian, regrettably not Russian!

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Posted (edited)
On 3/12/2024 at 9:45 PM, wkoniowalski said:

Thank you for your input everyone. As it turns out I believe my BW red filter may have been the culprit here. I managed to take a few landscape test shots today filter-free and the resulting images are free of this issue.

Also I am extremely flattered but unfortunately I am a British Columbian, regrettably not Russian!

Yes, a red filter can affect focus. Not all wavelengths of light are exactly the same. Red is not as much of a shift as infrared, but there is a shift. This is not unique to users of Leica lenses, but is a property of light. Shooting with a red filter is best done stopped-down, or, taking several shots at ever-so-slightly different positions of the focusing ring, a.k.a. “focus bracketing.”

Live View might work, to get critical focus, if it is possible to see well enough through the red filter. (I have not tried this, that I can recall.)

I am not any kind of expert, and have not done much shooting with red filters, but have used infrared filters, during forensic photography training. The same principles apply. (It is NOT possible to use Live View, through an IR filter, so, I had to focus bracket.) 

Edited by RexGig0
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If the lens has the Infrared focus mark you can reset the focus to that. Probably does not apply to modern lenses as they do not expect people to be using infrared film these days.

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Posted (edited)
12 hours ago, Pyrogallol said:

If the lens has the Infrared focus mark you can reset the focus to that. Probably does not apply to modern lenses as they do not expect people to be using infrared film these days.

True! I do not have a Summilux-M 35mm ASPH FLE I, so, had to look for images on-line, and, did not see the little mark that indicates the offset for IR.

Edited by RexGig0
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I'll add that an orange filter can also cause these issues. I've done tripod tests and found that even my more modern lenses can be slightly affected, although generally only wide-open and subtly. Yellow filters cause no visible shift that I can see, test or in real life.

I'd suggest that anyone using stronger filters check to avoid surprises.

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