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 p.4 #5 · Sony A7r some full resolution test shots | |
turnstyle wrote:
Perhaps an odd request regarding the Lux 50 ASPH...
I saw Ron Scheffler's test shots -- which is partly why I'm curious to see how Phillip's Lux 50 compared.
Can somebody perhaps post a similar photo that shows how the Lux 50 ASPH would otherwise perform on a Leica body? eg, it's "pin sharp" at the corners, wide open, on a Leica body -- but smeared on NEX7 and A7r (and, perhaps, A7).
Thanks, I'm hoping to get a better handle on expectations...
I had hoped to do that when I did my test, but ran out of time with the camera, and the weather turned on me. It would have set a great benchmark for how these lenses perform on a 'native' camera vs. the a7.
I want to comment on the 50 Lux ASPH in general. I think the perception (at least if the one I held prior to actually owning and shooting with Leica glass on an M9) is that Leica's lenses are the art of technical perfection. Most, that I have used, are not. Maybe the new 21/3.4, 24/3.8, 50/2 APO, 75/2 APO, 90/2 APO are close, but the 50 Lux ASPH isn't. My growing impression, especially of the Summilux line, and perhaps also the Summicrons, is that they're about wide open optimization with a certain mix of compromises, along with fairly significant mid zone resolution/sharpness compromises at middle apertures. And by optimization, it's not necessarily about extreme resolution and contrast, rather, a balance of various influences to render a pleasing image.
The 50 Lux ASPH wide open, from my experience, is not the highest contrast lens out there. Especially at near minimum focusing distance, it gives up a fair amount to what seems like spherical aberration (though it doesn't seem to suffer from signifiant focus shifting). As a result, its sharpness wide open is not bitingly extreme. I think this is where that mysterious 'Leica glow' comes into play. Some say its an excuse to make Leica's lenses sound better than they technically are. And I guess the numbers will bear that out when comparing against something like the Otus. But for me, the look is one of balancing the impression of smoothness with sharpness, and works really well with people photos.
That said, on the M9, my experience is that the 50 Lux ASPH wide open will hold very good sharpness out to nearly the extreme edges of the image, though giving up a bit in the mid zones, as seen in its MTF. As the lens is stopped down, the mid zone quality drop gets more pronounced until easing at around f/5.6.
Having looked at my a7 results again, I think the wide open performance on that camera is pretty faithful to results on the M9, though I expect the M9 files would have looked a touch sharper due to no AA filter. The a7 images might also be slightly smeared at the edges vs. what I would expect to see on the M9.
As the 50 Lux ASPH is tested on new cameras with increasingly higher sensor resolution, I think we're going to see it suffer a fair amount compared to lenses such as the Otus and the new 55/1.8 that appear to have been designed with such upcoming sensors in mind. My feeling is the Lux ASPH is comfortable with the M9's 18MP and perhaps even 24MP (don't have any M240 experience to verify this), but 36MP is pushing it. Based on my experience with the lens on cameras such as the Ricoh GXR, NEX-5n and NEX-7, it definitely seems to lose ground against others, such as the ZM50/2, as pixel density increases. (Not to say the ZM50/2 is a 'better' lens than the Lux ASPH. Rather, it seems to retain better contrast at higher pixel densities. It does not hold sharpness across the frame at wider apertures in as flat a plane as the Lux ASPH does.)
I wouldn't be surprised to see a new round of Summilux upgrades from Leica in the next few years...
Lastly, I'm somewhat unsure my a7 results are optimal for the 50 Lux ASPH because the left half of the test images seem to look better than the right half. I have not noticed this on the M9 and without testing it to confirm, suggest there might be something introduced by the Novoflex adapter. Or my lens is slightly off yet still works well on my M9...
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, you pay the price for the best build quality. I agree with Ron, this is the tool optimized for f1.4 shooting. For reportage or artistic rendering, it definitely fulfill that need for its target group.