What is the best Leica lens?

[Rick]

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Determining the "best" Leica lens depends significantly on your specific needs, preferences, and the type of photography you're interested in. Here's a breakdown of some highly regarded Leica lenses based on various criteria:

 

• For Low Light and Portraits: The Leica Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH is often celebrated for its exceptional low-light performance and unique bokeh, making it a top choice for portrait and low-light photography. Its speed and rendering qualities are unmatched, but it comes with a high price tag and requires skill to use due to its shallow depth of field.

   
• For Versatility: The Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH is praised for its versatility across different genres like street, travel, and portrait photography. It provides excellent sharpness, contrast, and color rendition with a fast aperture, making it ideal for various lighting conditions.

   
• For Sharpness and Color Correction: The Leica APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH is renowned for its apochromatic correction, resulting in images with minimal chromatic aberration and high sharpness across the frame. It's a great choice if you value precision in color and detail.

   
• For Landscape and Architecture: The Leica Tri-Elmar-M 16-18-21mm f/4 ASPH is unique as it's the only zoom lens in the Leica M lineup, offering three focal lengths in one compact package. Ideal for wide-angle shots where you might want some flexibility without changing lenses.

   
• For Compactness and Budget: If you're looking for something more budget-friendly while still enjoying Leica quality, the Leica Super-Elmar-M 21mm f/3.4 ASPH is compact and offers great image quality for its size and price, suitable for street and landscape photography.

   
• For Classic Leica Look: The Leica Summicron-M 50mm f/2 has a legendary status for its balance of size, speed, and image quality. It's often recommended for those wanting the classic Leica look with a lens that's both sharp and fast enough for various conditions.

   

 

Each of these lenses has its strengths, and what's "best" really hinges on what you prioritize in your photography. Consider factors like focal length, aperture, size, weight, and cost when making your decision. If you can, it's also wise to try these lenses out or look at extensive reviews to see which one matches your shooting style and aesthetic preferences.

 

Source: Grok /x

[jaeger]

24mm Summilux.

[NZDavid]

The best Leica lens is the one you have mounted on your Leica when you use it.

[3D-Kraft.com]

This AI generated filler demonstrates, that it does not really follow the question given in the title (which simply asks for the best lens), although of course the reference to the specific requirements and thus the differentiated listing are useful for someone without any experience.

It also demonstrates, that the Grok model obviously did not see enough training material about the Noctilux 75/1.25, which - in the M-mount segment - for me is currently the lens design that pushes the boundaries the furthest.

And it's wrong with the WATE being the only "zoom" lens in the M lineup.

Edited December 17, 2024 by 3D-Kraft.com

[Derbyshire Man]

Another defeat for Artificial Stupidity?

[Jeff S]

What’s the best camera bag?

Jeff

[Ko.Fe.]

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3 hours ago, Al Brown said:

Pasting some paragraphs from AI tools is not true community spirit of this forum. Write your own article, do some research, watch some videos. It should look pristine.

OP can't be this serious.  It was copied here to mock pathetic LCAG texts.

[adan]

5 hours ago, Jeff S said:

What’s the best camera bag?

Jeff

ADAN.AI version

• For Low Light and Portraits: choose the Leica Shopping Bag tote. Its pale Baby-Blue color can serve as a fill-reflector to brighten the subject, as well as correct for the yellowish tint of indoor lighting. https://leicacamerausa.com/leica-shopping-tote-baby-blue.html

• For Versatility: For ruggedness in the country, style in the city, for large Leica systems or small, a versatile traveler in any company and on any continent, and made with German precision to match its contents, there is truly only one most-versatile camera-transport solution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_G-Class#/media/File:Mercedes-Benz_G_300_CDI_Professional_(W_461)_–_Frontansicht,_7._August_2012,_Stuttgart.jpg

• For Sharpness and Color correction: While the Leica Shopping Tote is also in the running here, the much wider range of colors, and sharp details, make the Raja Camera Backpack more versatile, and a better target-subject for those oh-so-necessary lens-resolution tests. https://ethnotek.com/products/camera-backpack-for-travel-raja-photo-pack-30-liter?variant=29442172977240 If one's Leica lens comes on a Huawei smartphone, the Pindah Phone Pouch has the same advantages as the Raja in a much more compact arrangement: https://ethnotek.com/products/pindah-pouch?variant=40097606008920

• For Landscape and Architecture: The Leica ZEGNA Insta-Pack's re-imagining of the Eiffel Tower's architecture makes it an obvious choice. While its compact size will be a dream on long hikes to landscapes,and its loden color will blend into the most luxurious and exclusive of forests. https://leicacamerausa.com/leica-zegna-insta-pack-loden.html

• For Compactness and Budget: A paper bag works, or a travel bathroom accesories pouch. Diaper bags are also cheap, and save insurance costs by discouraging thefts. ("Eeeew!"). Toddler not included. https://freshlypicked.com/collections/the-classic-diaper-bag?srsltid=AfmBOorntus_s8eJpc_FHntN9CfPRNH30-yUgzVEi_qiIcrLJyIckMqx

• For Classic Leica Look: A vintage military medics' satchel, as used through the 1960s by starving up-and-coming photographers and college students. https://militaryuniformsupply.com/products/vintage-medic-canvas-bag-with-cross?variant=30871425318948&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=(ROI) PMax%3A Smart Shopping - Equipment%2FNovelty&utm_id=17499476537&utm_content=&utm_term=&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD5ZnV3arxG5oghQhD_m0C-ARgnz2&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrJLf_cqwigMVkjEIBR3iORRSEAQYASABEgIMBfD_BwE

 

[T25UFO]

What's the best lens cap?  One that does't fall off!

[mokona]

51 minutes ago, T25UFO said:

What's the best lens cap?  One that does't fall off!

or one that doesn't get lost !

[Danner]

No mention of 'The King of Bokeh"?

 

Hmmm...?

[evikne]

17 hours ago, Rick said:

• For Classic Leica Look: The Leica Summicron-M 50mm f/2 has a legendary status for its balance of size, speed, and image quality. It's often recommended for those wanting the classic Leica look with a lens that's both sharp and fast enough for various conditions.

I agree that this is one of the most classic and versatile Leica lenses. The others I have no particular opinion about.

[pedaes]

8 hours ago, adan said:

 For Classic Leica Look:

Wot - no hand stitched elephant hide?

[LocalHero1953]

I take the OP's post in the spirit in which I suspect it was made (a curiosity about what AI would make of a typical forum question)..........

It shows the limits of AI, which treats the question literally and directly, and does not question the assumptions or consider alternative ways of addressing the matter, or how similar questions are asked and answered in other fields. A similar question asked seriously by a real person (usually a new member) would prompt comments about whether there can ever be such a lens as a 'best' one, in any category, and would digress into bitter arguments about camera club photographic competitions and whether such competitions can sensibly ever have a single winner. Eventually the moderators would lock the thread.

[MKHB]

Probably the leica lenses on your mobile phone, you have it with you more often than yourM

[charlesphoto99]

The best? The ones I already own, mostly bought used decades ago, because there's no way I can ever afford a brand new Leica lens going forward. 

[Rick]

9 hours ago, charlesphoto99 said:

The best? The ones I already own, mostly bought used decades ago, because there's no way I can ever afford a brand new Leica lens going forward. 

Your pictures would most likely have been artistically and creatively worse if you had used modern lenses and digital film, my opinion.

(Thanks for having lunch with me and signing your photo in the book(Taking Aim) in Madison Park.  Graham Nash did a great job curating that book.  

Met Graham at Ste. Michelle Winery and he signed the book.  I showed him your picture that you signed and he said, cool really like his stuff).

Graham Nash is lovely man.

[Guest]

On 12/17/2024 at 10:27 PM, jaeger said:

24mm Summilux.

Mine too 😊

[paulleica]

You have forgotten all the excellent lenses from Voigtlänger in your list, which are on a par with Leica lenses.

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[otto.f]

On 12/17/2024 at 9:30 PM, Rick said:

Determining the "best" Leica lens

Don’t let me laugh. A complete nonsense question with dito answers. But resolution-wise it’s the APO-Telyt 280/4.0 R with 500 linepairs per millimeter (E. Puts, Leica Compendium).