Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

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Archive 2010 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

wayne seltzer
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p.4 #1 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

Kent,
The M645 80 Macro looks very sharp and no CA on the edges of the snow and ice.
Congrats on the new macro lens.

Feb 07, 2010 at 06:10 AM

jpeter
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p.4 #2 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

I posted a shot of this tree on the ze21 thread a few days ago.

Had to return to this tree today, cause I didn't have the 100 with me when I first found it. Here's a 100% crop piece of it.

100APO f2.8 @f8

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Feb 07, 2010 at 06:31 AM

Bifurcator
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p.4 #3 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

I love the right hand (~ 1/4) side of that shot! Really interesting!

Feb 07, 2010 at 07:11 AM

Jon Bader
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p.4 #4 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

Great tree, looks wiser than most of us. Emperor looks fully clothed to me.

Two flower shots with ZF100 Makro, D3S, RAW processed via Capture One (tiny bit of added saturation only), no sharpening in PS, saved for web in PS.

http://polemics-poems-pictures.blogspot.com/

2012 © Jon Bader

Feb 07, 2010 at 10:43 AM

RustyBug
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p.4 #5 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

Wayne ...

Thanks. This is probably the 'cleanest', most 'natural' lens I own so far.

It doesn't have as much "WOW !! It looks so real !!" like the Leica 100 APO Macro does (which I drool & pine for), so I'll have to do my best to develop a 'recipe' in post to try & coax as much out of it as I can ... but I think that it is a lens that I'll be able to have great confidence in what it gives me to work with in post and handle tough situations, i.e. a 'go to' lens. (I may even trust it for camera jpgs.)

It certainly doesn't beat the king, but I think it may be a an overlooked frog ... turned into a prince ... definitely not a court jester.

Feb 07, 2010 at 03:22 PM

Grenache
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p.4 #6 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

Hardly a frog. As corrected as macro lenses are, there are no frogs. That and the Hassie 110 are the jewels of MF macro.
Jim

Feb 07, 2010 at 03:39 PM

Paul Yi
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p.4 #7 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

Indeed.... it is bleedingly sharp.....

Feb 07, 2010 at 03:52 PM

burningheart
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p.4 #8 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

100 APO on Panasonic G1 wide open no PP except resizing.

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Edited on Feb 08, 2010 at 03:32 AM · View previous versions

Feb 07, 2010 at 05:29 PM

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p.4 #9 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

Forgive me for posting non-APO images here in this fine collection of photographs but here's the minolta A2 with no significant PP. The PS resizing in this case was "Bicubic (best for reduction)" which sharpens as it scales though. With high contrast images it almost sharpens too much!

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Wide open at 170mm

Here's another but I did a noise removal pass and a tiny bit of sharpening on this one:

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Wide open at 170mm

Here's a side-by-side with Jon if he doesn't mind.

Jon Bader wrote:

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f/3.2 135mm. Taken under heavy shade.
I don't honestly remember how this was processed tho.

I have thousands more.

EDIT: I originally had thought that the white flower G1 image above was not an APO image so I felt free to post these as well. But from his message edit I see that it was.

Edited on Feb 08, 2010 at 08:49 AM · View previous versions

Feb 08, 2010 at 03:29 AM

cuonghuutran
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p.4 #10 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

Bifurcator, thanks for sharing your PS photos. I was interested because this technology presents an alternative to the bulkier and much more expensive DSLR. They would be great for travel -- compact and high quality. But after a while, they bore me. No doubt they are sharp. But they are boring with in the face candy-like color. They are also flat, have no characters and no soul to draw me in. It is very much like recordings undergone too much equalization where the sound engineer cranks up the treble and kaboom bass which will capture attention but kill my ears soon afterwards. Of course, your preference and mileage varies. Sorry if I sound harsh and I already feel guilty about distracting or hijacking this thread. That said, I will eager wait for this technology to improve. If the technology is the best as your photos indicate, I take my money somewhere else. Cheers.

Feb 08, 2010 at 04:37 AM

Jon Bader
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p.4 #11 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

Hi Bi, compare away, no problems at all from my side. But I do not have thousands more, so I might be a bit compareless from here. Nice flower pictures; mind you, both could be mistaken for exotic insect-like creatures but I don't think that has anything to do with the camera. Jon

http://polemics-poems-pictures.blogspot.com/

Feb 08, 2010 at 04:41 AM

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p.4 #12 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

Thanks Jon. I'm done though.

Feb 08, 2010 at 08:21 AM

Jon Bader
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p.4 #13 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

Bifurcator wrote:
Thanks Jon. I'm done though.

I had originally thought burningheart was showing a kit-lens photo and wanted to pitch in and help out. In error now I guess I'll leave them up but it's not useful otherwise i think. Sorry about that guys.

Bi, understood. I fear that we will never find the WMD, Worthiest Macro Device, but we can have fun debating where/what/which it is. Jon

Feb 08, 2010 at 08:51 AM

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p.4 #14 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

Indeed! I like talking and typing about this stuff almost as much as doing it. Way fun dude!

Worthiness holds many avenues of consideration. I can say with personal confidence though that for macro shots of subjects from the size of a penny up to something a little bigger than a CD, the A2 offers me complete satisfaction. I wouldn't change unless whatever it was had a lower price-tag than what I have now.

IMO, the A2 comes very close to matching or beats everything I've seen from any other manufacturer for that kind of photography. It's only when I take the lens out of macro or try to go smaller than a penny that it leaves much to be desired. Outside that it's a pretty typical "super-zoom" P&S I think - maybe even a little long in the tooth within that format. I could go for a lens with f/32 tho! Mine is limited to f/11 - but that's the only bummer.

From where I'm sitting considering mainly macro photography, lighting and processing are by far the most critical components - especially lighting!

Feb 08, 2010 at 09:16 AM

Grenache
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p.4 #15 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

Bifurcator,

Second shot has excellent moodiness to it. Choice of focal plane and the shooting angles really work well with the OOF second flower as a foil to the first.

Jim

Feb 08, 2010 at 01:57 PM

Grenache
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p.4 #16 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

Bi, understood. I fear that we will never find the WMD, Worthiest Macro Device, but we can have fun debating where/what/which it is. Jon

It is not about the WMD. It is about the photos and not the words.

Feb 08, 2010 at 01:59 PM

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p.4 #17 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

Thank you sir. I don't really feel worthy of the praise just now tho. Maybe I'm getting the purpose of these threads all wrong or something but it just seems awfully dishonest to me. If it's all about actually showing the actual quality of the lens in the title I mean. If it's more about just an owner's club mutual appreciation for each other kinda thing then I'm out of place. Or maybe I'm just depressed.

Oh my, a thin spot in my thick-skin suit.

Feb 08, 2010 at 02:17 PM

Grenache
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p.4 #18 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

If the title sent this whole thread into a tailspin, then I apologize.

I might have called it... Leica 100mm APO macro - totally makes me happy or
- best I have used or
- works for me

The idea was for the thread to be about the photos. If they were from that lens, great...many threads like that about different lenses with different shooters to give a feel for the output. Even if it were loaded up with shots from other lenses or cameras, still great. The extra 25mm on the Voit or the extra 50 on the Sigma (or 80 on the Canon L) can really throw the bkgrnd in to a lovely butter cream.

What it and several other threads over the last few months turned into was a verbal flagellation pontificating and comparing non-comparables and taking away from the idea that what we actually DO with these lenses and cameras is take pictures. The tone and approach of such posts rarely ask questions or seek information and instead appear rooted in planting flags and ranting about whether or not non-comparables are valid.

Groan.

If I sent some misplaced frustration your direction relating to this trend, again I apologize. Perhaps now my intent with the thread is more clear. It was certainly not meant to be a whose is bigger or bow to the WMD spin. That is not my style. However, rejoicing in the creativity of photography IS my style.

Let's see some pictures. Let's learn. Let's be creative.

Jim

Feb 08, 2010 at 05:42 PM

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p.4 #19 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

OK, I get you. And I'm sorry if I wasn't clear about my head-scratching or seemed to be planting flags. Unlike some others in earlier pages It wasn't my intent to disrupt or cause anyone frustration either. I certainly apologize if that was the result! You say that one of the purposes of the this thread and threads like it is "to give a feel for the output" and that's what I was scratching my head over. For the flowers shots and any of the close focus shots I can't tell the difference between this high-dollar high-grade APO and a reasonably good P&S. And not to purposely sound contentious, combative, or rude but anyone who says they can I simply can not believe. So in that singular regard this thread and the umpteen others like it, fail. In the regard of just enjoying the photos from this lens and similar lenses however, it's a great success and I have enjoyed it very much. Thank you (and the other participants) for that! Anyway, that's all I was on about with my interjections about P&S cameras. In spite of the time I have spent as a lecturing professor in several different languages concerning the production and manipulation of images and animation, I remain an ineloquent and rather poor communicator I'm afraid. Apologies all around and I agree with your concluding sentiments:

"Let's see some pictures. Let's learn. Let's be creative."

And I humbly add, Let's see some 100% crop samples too.

Feb 09, 2010 at 05:58 AM

sirimiri
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p.4 #20 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

If anyone is searching for an R-mount, ROM-version 100mm APO Macro, look no further:

http://www.adorama.com/US%20%20%20%20370841.html

Includes the case :-) for $2,100

Feb 09, 2010 at 06:49 AM

kosmoskatten
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p.4 #21 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

Bifurcator; I don't mean to rain on your parade but the samples you posted are a bit on the dull side, technically. I would normally not expect to see "much of" a difference on web samples but your flower shots look a bit artefactsy and coarse as compared to most of the other shots in this thread which are smooth and sharp at the same time and with a more appealing and natural richness in color/luminosity.

It is like back in the analog days when people were shown A4 prints from medium format and small format/24x36. Some would see it and some would not - arguing that the small format was in all aspects equal in quality and that they were equally "sharp".

To me, all other things being equal, the medium format shot would look better. A friend who is not into photography could actually pick out which shots were done with my Hasselblad out of a series of wall hung photos, all same size and square crop 14"x14". He said you could immerse yourself in the seemingly infinite details even with the nose pressed up against the photo with the Hasselblad shots where as with the smaller format (full frame digital, Canon 5D) they were great, but not as great up close.

Your shots are a good example of why I - after several attempts - have given up on small sensor cameras. (Except I have a GF-1 for funzies...)

Feb 09, 2010 at 07:09 AM

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p.4 #22 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

Yeah, probably not the best comparison samples. How do these do?

But I agree about the affects of sensor size. I was mostly talking about the attributes of the lens. I dunno, I can tell the difference anyway. I think attributes attributed primarily to sensor size REALLY show up in scenes with distant focus points like landscapes and such. Maybe like:

Click For Thread

Where when compared to even a 4/3 sensor the differences are glaring.

Feb 09, 2010 at 08:30 AM

Grenache
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p.4 #23 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

OK...100% crops...

Not a great image from a composition/lighting standpoint, but the angle at which it was shot is conducive to looking at the sharpness of the lens and its smooth transition to blur with definition.

Shot was 1:2 magnification, hand held (so tripod and mirror lock would generally produce a yet sharper image).

Full original frame:

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100% crop, no sharpening in camera or post:

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100% crop, medium sharpening to entire image :
Note the rapid but smooth transition to OOF...this to me is where many other lenses - macro or otherwise - fall short...they go from fairly sharp to chuny, clunky OOF areas unless you have huge subject-background separation. This lens drops to butter <1mm from the focal plane and just smooths more thereafter.

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Jim

Feb 09, 2010 at 05:46 PM

Paul Yi
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p.4 #24 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

I no longer have this lens....but, here is one as well....hand-held.

Original and 100% Crop.

Feb 09, 2010 at 06:05 PM

burningheart
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p.4 #25 · Leica 100mm APO macro - hard to beat

For those that don't follow the Admirable Blur thread this was from the comparision shots I did with other 100-125mm macro lens.

Leica 100mm Macro APO @F2.8

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Centre crop resized down from 2000x1331 to 800 x 532

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Feb 09, 2010 at 06:45 PM


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