Jump to content

Leica 75mm Trio Comparision Lux,Cron,Summarit


Guest guy_mancuso

Recommended Posts

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Gene sorry about that yes they are with the M8 and no i don't have a film camera to test with. I have a feeling they would do okay though because The lux in the corners is really soft in the wide apertures from my early tests and the Summarit was good right to the corners even wide open. There pretty even like the cron is. So i have a good feeling they would handle the FF of film bodies.

 

Thanks Guy. Asking since I have both a M8 and a M6TTL that I would like to use the lens on. So far what I have read on the new Summarits is pretty impressive lenses for the price point compared to the higher priced lenses.

 

gene

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest guy_mancuso
Well it confirms what I suspected, as far as I can tell on the Web, The Summicron the best, with the Summarit running close and the Summilux a totally different lens. I'll stick with the Summilux, I tend to use it wide open as much as possible. For the supersharp stuff there is always the 90 AA in the bag.:)

 

Might be a good way to put . I think The Summarit though is pretty darn close to the Cron. The price difference is a bigger stretch. I'm still on the debate about the Lux, i love it and since i have the 90 Summarit i should keep it for when i need very fast but than i keep thinking of my 50 lux . The edge to the Cron is it is a razor blade wide open and the Lux at F2 is behind it. Let's see how the sharpness test comes in before we make a call .

 

But look at this Cron shot just playing around at F2

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Gene sorry about that yes they are with the M8 and no i don't have a film camera to test with.

 

Guy:

 

I'm heading to Paris the second week of January for an engagement session. Feel free to send me all the lenses you want to test on film (specially the 75 lux) and I will put them on my M7 :D :D :D

 

Cheers,

 

Riccis

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest guy_mancuso
Guy:

 

I'm heading to Paris the second week of January for an engagement session. Feel free to send me all the lenses you want to test on film (specially the 75 lux) and I will put them on my M7 :D :D :D

 

Cheers,

 

Riccis

 

 

Not a bad idea at all:D

Link to post
Share on other sites

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Guy, thank you for the excellent work as always. We are truly blessed to have you on this forum. Maybe it's my monitor, maybe it's my eyes, but I can't discern much difference between all these lenses. Where there were differences I think the Cron stood out. But man those Summarits are going to be a bargain (if Leica will make enough!).

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest guy_mancuso

I sent them a note today and said they better get busy making them. LOL

 

They are good i have to give them that. I was a little surprised by them when I did the 35,50 and 90 at first , now the 75 comes in looking the same . One thing for sure is between all the Summarits the look is identical across the board. Color, Contrast, Saturation and they don't miss either, there sharp wide open all the way through the range and short focus throws on the 75 and 90 and that helps a great deal for some folks with speed in focusing. For the price i do recommend them, there a good value. I have seen a few lenses in my day and these do perform.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Interesting comparisons. Thanks Guy.

 

On my monitor (calibrated) it looks as though both the Summicron and the Summarit have a bit more contrast that the Summilux overall. The Summarit has the most "pop," which makes it a very attractive choice for some things (especially considering the price). But the bokeh gradation of the Summilux is still special ... so I guess I'll keep mine. :)

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guy,

 

Thank you for that comparison. On the assumption that my 50 Summicron and 50 Elmar, currently on commission sale, sell as quickly as has been indicated to me and for close to suggested price, you have made my mind up for me. I was torn between ordering a new 75 Summarit or waiting for a nice secondhand 75 Summicron. I am going to go for the 75 Summicron as I prefer what looks to be the slightly higher contrast and you never know when you might need that extra 2/3 of a stop. I am hoping that the availablility of new Summarits will depress the pricing of s/h Summicrons a bit.

 

Wilson

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest guy_mancuso

Good observation Kent and exactly right. The Cron and summarit will have more pop to it. The bokeh I agree will keep most folks hanging on to there Lux, me too. But i am tired of the weight on it, maybe I am just getting lazy. LOL

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest guy_mancuso
Guy,

 

Thank you for that comparison. On the assumption that my 50 Summicron and 50 Elmar, currently on commission sale, sell as quickly as has been indicated to me and for close to suggested price, you have made my mind up for me. I was torn between ordering a new 75 Summarit or waiting for a nice secondhand 75 Summicron. I am going to go for the 75 Summicron as I prefer what looks to be the slightly higher contrast and you never know when you might need that extra 2/3 of a stop. I am hoping that the availablility of new Summarits will depress the pricing of s/h Summicrons a bit.

 

Wilson

 

You bring up a good point Wilson for you in England with more clouds and weather and lower contrast lighting in general the pop and contrast from the Cron and the Summarit may fit you better . I think folks should think about this also . For me it is so bright here I have to be careful. I get all the pop I want but trying to lower it sometimes is really hard.

 

Also Seans review coming of these lenses will paint another perspective also so these test add to the puzzle on what to get. i will shoot the sharpness test in the morning and ad it on to this thread . If i was leica i would be pretty happy on the results here, certainly there is not a bad lemon of a lens brand here.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I cannot see substantial differences in resolution among these lenses. I have seen additional samples in Mancuso's site, but again, no differences:

 

Leica 75mm Summarit Vs Leica 75m, Summilux - Page 2 - The GetDPI Workshop Forums

 

You can get a bit more contrast from the Summicron at f/2 or from the two "Summies" at f/2.5-2.8, but the differences are very subtle in my opinion. I hardly can "see" them. Even more, the resolution/contrast of the Summilux at f/1.4 is very good (the only problem here is the "glow", this is, residual aberrations, but many people like this look). These are academic differences, not practical ones. I find the Summilux very sharp and contrasty at f/2, maybe even too contrasty and sharp for portraits (all the details in the skin are revealed!). Stopping down to f/2.8 the detail resolved is just stunning, considering a resolution chart or the face of a person. Just enough... or too much! And I cannot see "more" in the APO-Summicron and Summarit, looking at Guy's pictures (if this "more" is good or not at this point is another story).

 

Now comes the question about the future line of M lenses. How the Summarits will affect the Summicron and Summilux class of lenses? This general question is interesting when applied to the 75mm focal. This wasn't a very popular focal length in the film era. However, the M8 has popularized it a bit. The Summilux has been discontinued, but superfast lenses are difficult to focus on the M8, are expensive and maybe unnecessary for low light photographs, due to a wide range of usable ISOs (this is the key instrument for available light today, and superfast lenses were 30 years ago). The APO-Summicron is much more expensive than the new Summarit and the difference is just a half stop and hardly any in terms of performance. The APO-Summicron could become a state of the art showcase lens, and the Summarit a much more practical and cheaper one. The point is whether Leica will design/manufacture new models of lenses like the APO-Summicron or the old Summilux in the future, and, particularly, a new Summilux 75mm design. Are those superexpensive state-of-the-art designs profitable in a short timeframe ?

 

Leica needs to make wider the user base of the M system before going to projects profitable only in very long periods of time (and they need to solve the R-line problem too).

Link to post
Share on other sites

Sheesh. Maybe I need a better monitor. I just can't tell the differences among the shots. Guy, let me ask you a question: what practical level of enlargement do you have to apply to these images before you can easily discern a difference among them? I am having the same problem with the magazine Photo Techniques these days. They print side by side images purporting to show some difference that is the result of a technical choice and I can't see any difference between them. I guess it could be my eyes. . . .

 

Ben Marks

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest guy_mancuso

Ben really best at 100 percent but to be really honest here the differences between the lenses is really subtle. Go look back up at the full scarecrow at 2.8 or even 2.5 now look at the bottom left at the green bush watch it as you scroll down you will see it get's more detail as you go down from the Lux to the Summarit the Lux being the softest and the summarit being more coarse looking. Now as far as sharpness you have to see the face of the scarecrow at 100 percent to see the detail and maybe I should do that before the sharpness test just to show you the Summarit and Cron are the sharper lenses at 2, 2.8. than they start to equal at F4.

 

Now contrast you really have to watch to see the subtle difference it's there but very slight , look just above the scarecrows right ear let's call it the curtains in the window both left and right actually you can see them block up more from the Lux to the Cron again very subtle stuff here. Really what you are seeing is three great lenses overall but like I said if you were not comparing them you would have no idea of the very slight difference. Now really the Lux at 1.y is actually a lens problem but it is a pretty one and that counts for that Leica glow. reason i said technically in lens design it is the worst of the three but forget that it is the look that really counts for most of us. Same is true for the Nocti that look is by design but a 50 Lux will kick it's butt in sharpness and resolution. trade off's

 

Let me work up a couple tight shots of the scare crow for sharpness

Link to post
Share on other sites

I will be very interested to see how Sean says the Summarit compares with the CV 75. I already had the CV and was going to wait for Sean's review, but saw a Summarit on B&H and couldn't stop myself from ordering it. Unfortunately, I had justified the purchase to my wife as a Christmas present for her to give me, so she grabbed it from the UPS man and I haven't been able to try it out yet.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest guy_mancuso

Let's try a little something here this is not part of the sharpness test because i really have to do the test and be absolute certain that i am completely on target. And i could be off here but these are really tight crops and lets just see how they faired but let me get the real test done tomorrow just to be sure because the Cron maybe off. The summarit here looks really good and i know the Cron is better

 

lets put the Lux 1.4 up. Again this is not absolute until i am really comfortable with a real test on sharpness

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest guy_mancuso

F2 Lux than Cron

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...