Well, my Summilux-R 50/1.4 (E55) just arrived today so it'll be interesting to see how it compares to my Summicron-R 50/2 (E55).
I doubt I can justify keeping both.
Well, maybe...
I had the first version and I sold it which I'm still kicking myself for it was not quite as sharp in the corners and edges as the CZ 1.7 but it was equal when stoppd down. It also had better bokeh and better colour. I really can't understand why I sold it. Later versions are reputedly better but still cost a fair bit - I'll be buying another ASAP but will probably have to pay much more than I sold the old one for.
"The current Summicron-R is almost identical in optical construction with its counterpart in the M-system. It is one of the two or three best standard lenses in the world. The predecessor from 1964 was balanced for high contrast at wide openings. The disadvantage of the design was a slight shift of focus when stopping down, that resulted in the best sharpness zone shifting from center to a zone outside of the center. The current version is a bit less contrasty at full aperture, but performs better when stopping down, and its image quality is more evenly distributed over the whole image area. Stopped down to f/4 the lens already delivers its best performance." Source: Erwin Puts
jaetie wrote:
what's the difference between the german-made and canada-made ones?
I assure you absolute none some Canadian made ones even topped the Wetzlar ones. Just for the record the Apo Telyt f3.4 and the Noctilux 50mm f1 come to mind. The Canadian factory is still producing for NASA.
This thread made me pull out the 50mm Summicron this morning and try a shot in my backyard to see how it is performing. I will be shooting some fall colours next week and will make sure I bring this lens.
Here is the image, cropped a bit. I was at F8 and lens at the infinity stop.
That's a typical early leica rendering of the blue with it's shift to cyan. If the early ones were high contrast when wide open I'd be struggling to focus the later ones. One of my gripes was the low contrast wide open compared to all my other 50's esp the CZ 1.7. I never noticed any focus shift either. If I get a 5DII I will have to treat it to a late 50 Summicron and 28mm ROM + my existing 135mm 2.8.
I am looking at the image now with a PC and IE 7 and it does look way too cyan compared to my Macbook Pro and firefox. I think this may be browser related or a Mca/PC thing. Try dragging the image into Phototshop.
When I open this page with FireFox 3.03 and with the firefox colour management enabled, the image doesn't look as cyan. In Firefox, you need to enable the colour management.
Here is a web page to check if your web browser is ICC enabled.
it was not quite as sharp in the corners and edges as the CZ 1.7 but it was equal when stoppd down. It also had better bokeh and better colour. I really can't understand why I sold it. Later versions are reputedly better but still cost a fair bit - I'll be buying another ASAP but will probably have to pay much more than I sold the old one for.
