The Leica YT reviews feature silver finish, but a black one is there too, at BH's product page. The black version may lack the 'vintage' DOF dots unless they carefully arranged the photos to not show them. The lens comes with (I expect) its own hood, a tidy, short and street-compatible round hood, looks like a bayonet fitting - note the smoothed front edging. Very clean transition to the lens body - very useful in tight street/interiors. The lens is quite chunky:
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What's your tolerable minimum image circle? This 75/1.4 is described by DZO/Thypoch as have an IC of 49mm. Full frame is ~43mm.
I just checked it out, it appears the GFX 44mm x 33mm has (no surprise) an IC of 55mm, so individual tolerance comes into play, for you. Not as bad as it sounds, the radii are 24.5mm (lens) and 27.5mm (sensor). Not too bad, even for ultra purity types, it's just a tiny crop.
Bear in mind many or most of these lenses will not see much work at apertures tighter than f2.8 or so - we still have to take advantage of the lack of jaggies from the 16-blader.
It may not happen, for the same reason that the VM 75/1.5 works so well on mirrorless cameras. People make out otherwise, but that is the fact of the matter.
Thypoch recently responded to feedback from their Simera-C users to produce that sister range in M-mount - users wanted the flexibility to use the lenses on various cameras (common in the light cine world as it is for us).
YT: Preview: 'Thypoch Simera-C in M-Mount: the Mini Cine Miracle!' (Nick Salazar)
It would have been very easy for them to release such an important lens in all mounts here, but having seen the importance of M-mount as a 'universal' mount in the C range, they may have decided to wait and see what latent market demand builds for E/Z/RF (and whatever Fuji call itself) before moving on it. They have a 21mm to come, plenty of work.
Is there really much demand from the 'AF mounts' for this kind of lens? How well are the E/Z 75/1.5 Voigtlanders selling? I'm sure Thypoch can find those figures, but we can't.
Dainemeid wrote:
Is there any information about when we will get the e-mount version of the lens?
I am tempted to give these simeras a try!
I'm not sure if they'll release an E-mount version, but it would be an easy conversion for them. There's no need to tweak the optical design since the M-mount performs well on Sony sensors. You could either adapt it yourself or wait to see if they release the lens in other mounts:
Fred Miranda wrote:
I'm not sure if they'll release an E-mount version, but it would be an easy conversion for them. There's no need to tweak the optical design since the M-mount performs well on Sony sensors. You could either adapt it yourself or wait to see if they release the lens in other mounts:
Just to be clear, it is only the 75mm that performs well on Sony sensors in the Leica M mount configuration. If you look at Bastian's reviews at philipreeve.net, the 28, 35, & 50mm Leica M Thypoch Simeras all show notable performance decline when he compares their infinity performance on the Leica M10 and the Sony A7r II.
Steve Spencer wrote:
Just to be clear, it is only the 75mm that performs well on Sony sensors in the Leica M mount configuration. If you look at Bastian's reviews at philipreeve.net, the 28, 35, & 50mm Leica M Thypoch Simeras all show notable performance decline when he compares their infinity performance on the Leica M10 and the Sony A7r II.
Yes, Steve, I'm only referring to the 75mm f/1.4, which I tested on Sony. I'll be receiving the new Simera 28mm f/1.4 ASPH (V2) without the infinity lock and with a tab, and I'll be reviewing it.
Back to the 50mm f/1.4 lens, I was wondering what would be the take of it versus the Zeiss C-Sonnar 50/1.5. Would those complement each other well?
After reading through another thread comparing all the 50mm Lux'es (thanks @lifeandmylens) I really wanted to get a 50 Lux ASPH. Then I found this thread, and got me hooked. I still want the Lux, but I can't really justify the price difference compared to this Simera lens (although I did have the Simera 28mm and was not impressed at all, on Sony cameras. I sold it the very same day my M240-P arrived at my door steps).
I was looking at one of Fred's comparison (only one scene) between 4 50mm lenses (Heliar f/1.5, Sonnar f/1.5, Lux f/1.4 ASPH and Nokton f/1.2) and to my eyes, there was very little (if any) difference between the Lux and the C-Sonnar, in that particular shot (the famous blue car). And this Simera is supposed to render like the Lux ASPH, hence my question.
catacore wrote:
Back to the 50mm f/1.4 lens, I was wondering what would be the take of it versus the Zeiss C-Sonnar 50/1.5. Would those complement each other well?
After reading through another thread comparing all the 50mm Lux'es (thanks @lifeandmylens@) I really wanted to get a 50 Lux ASPH. Then I found this thread, and got me hooked. I still want the Lux, but I can't really justify the price difference compared to this Simera lens (although I did have the Simera 28mm and was not impressed at all, on Sony cameras. I sold it the very same day my M240-P arrived at my door steps).
I was looking at one of Fred's comparison (only one scene) between 4 50mm lenses (Heliar f/1.5, Sonnar f/1.5, Lux f/1.4 ASPH and Nokton f/1.2) and to my eyes, there was very little (if any) difference between the Lux and the C-Sonnar, in that particular shot (the famous blue car). And this Simera is supposed to render like the Lux ASPH, hence my question.
I have C Sonnar, Lux V2 and Lux ASPH. I did have the Thypoch 50 but my biggest complaint was handling, not a fan. Optics were great though.
The C Sonnar in my opinion would best be described as a mix between the Lux pre ASPH and ASPH. First, it isn’t the easiest lens to use. Many copies are optimized for f/2.8, mine is f/1.5. If you have one optimized for f/2.8, nailing focus wide open is extremely hard due to focus shift. On the flip side, if you have it optimized for f/1.5 and stop it down then focus shift will bite you there, too. Best advice, keep it wide open . It is surprisingly sharp in the center with high contrast and I love the rendering in the out of focus areas. The Lux pre ASPH is also sharp dead center, and I like the bokeh better than the ASPH, but the contrast is much lower and doesn’t have the biting sharpness the ASPH does. However, compare portraits taken by ASPH and pre ASPH at f/2-f/2.8 and the bokeh balls highly favor the pre ASPH, the Zeiss retains that similar roundness.
Regarding the Simera, for the most part, change ASPH with Thypoch above. They are similar renderings. If you are going for one 50, I wouldn’t recommend the Sonnar as much as I enjoy the look strictly because it isn’t the easiest to use. It’s a lens to complement others, not replace
Thanks @rsolti13 for your reply. I forgot to mention, I do have the C-Sonnar and like it very much. From my brief testing, I guess my lens is optimized for f/2, when focusing with the RF at f/1.5 and MFD I see the plane of focus being a few milimeters in front of the subject.
So I was sort of looking for a well corrected 50mm lens, actually, as I do have another "character" 50mm lenses (LLL Elcan, Canon Dream Lens). I was thinking the Leica Lux 50mm ASPH is the one I am looking for, and I sort of get set on acquiring one, but its price gave me some pause. This Simera lens seems to be the Lux at 1/3-1/4 of the price, but I really did not like the Simera 28mm at all, from any point of view (look, handling, IQ, barrel design), so I still ponder if I should give this 50mm lens a try or not. I know that no matter the IQ of the lens, if I will not like the lens (handling, visually, etc.), I am not going to enjoy using it.
I do love the Sonnar-C's both handling and output.
I encourage you to look elsewhere, at any of the many fine lenses that are more suited to your particular criteria. Why? Because the Simera are *range lenses* that arrived not as individual items each envisioned, designed and developed in isolation from other lenses marketed by the same maker in the same mount, even at the same time and the same general ergonomic.
Range 'membership' is a key attribute in the cine world, where lens swaps are common and different lens rendering, colour, flare patterns, bokeh, transitions etc. are frowned upon. Uniformity and harmonization are highly valued. When I pick up a 75mm, it feels and works like the 28mm and 50mm - a seamless experience.
We see the opposite effect in Voigtlander lenses, described well recently as 'a series of prototypes'. So, if any one of the Simeras does not meet your needs, the likelihood is very high that the others will not do so either.
Thanks, Philip, for your input, and for steering me away from the Simera, which I really wouldn't like to buy. But it just happened to be, as everybody was pointing out, the Lux ASPH replica, which would really make buying the Leica a completely counter intuitive option.
The fact is I have just bought two Voigtlanders, the Nokton 28/1.5 and the APO-Ultron 90/2 and I was thinking that any of my 50mm "character" lenses would not be a match to these, even thou I was never after a "range" or "family" look on (this specific trio of) lenses. Hence my quest to find a "match" to these (highly) corrected (and ASPH) lenses. And, for some reason, my desire landed upon the 50 Lux ASPH lens. But now, even more than before, I can't justify spending 3k EUR on it.
I would, most probably, look for a 50mm APO-Lanthar to complete the said trio of lenses, which, again, happen to be all Voigtlanders. I liked it very much when I had it on Sony mount, but I have replaced it with the 55/1.8 ZA lens for practical reasons. As for the Lux ASPH, I was worried a bit about its too creamy bokeh, which is not really what I am after. IIRC the APO-Lanthar would have a more structured OOF rendering.
Hi Fred, if I may so bother you. Could you say where you got these shims? I have a 75mm Simera that's similarly mis-calibrated.
I see what you mean that the shims are behind the lens mount. It surprised me because it's different from the Eureka where the shims appear to be in the moving assembly that interfaces with the rangefinder lever. I had to re-seat my copy of the Eureka because I yanked it out too hard one time, and had thought I needed to remove a shim.
Fred Miranda wrote:
My Simera 50mm f/1.4 was perfectly calibrated, but the Simera 28mm f/1.4 I received yesterday was back-focusing. As noted earlier, back-focusing can be corrected by adding shims to either the lens mount or the section of the lens where shims calibrate for the rangefinder. Fortunately, in my case, both infinity and close distances were back-focusing, so I could easily fix it by adding a shim behind the lens mount. This required removing the rear mount. I calibrated it precisely by adding a 0.04mm shim. Now the lens focuses accurately at any distance. For front-focusing, shims need to be removed, but it's a trial and error process to determine the exact amount needed to achieve perfect focus with the rangefinder....Show more →
. It is surprisingly sharp in the center with high contrast and I love the rendering in the out of focus areas. The Lux pre ASPH is also sharp dead center, and I like the bokeh better than the ASPH, but the contrast is much lower and doesn’t have the biting sharpness the ASPH does. However, compare portraits taken by ASPH and pre ASPH at f/2-f/2.8 and the bokeh balls highly favor the pre ASPH, the Zeiss retains that similar roundness.