Fred Miranda wrote:
I think the Simera 50mm f/1.4 ASPH is closer in size and characteristics such as resolution, contrast, rendering, and maximum aperture to the Leica 50mm f/1.4 Lux ASPH than to the Summicron ASPH.
I definitely understand the comparisons between this lens and the Lux given everything you mentioned, but for the "most" part I haven't seen anyone that has both say they would replace their Lux with this lens but I also won't be able to swing a Lux Asph in my kit anytime soon. I just told my wife the price of the average used M10 that I'm eventually gonna buy and she was a bit upset I was going to spend the same price as a used car on a camera (but she didn't say no lol)
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philip_pj wrote:
The Simera 50/1.4 does present as a good alternative to the Summicrons for certain tastes, being very light at 280 grams and a tidy size as well, plus the extra full stop. But that might be an outsider's view, I understand. Mine is very solid at distance too, it's a solid all rounder. Here is a low light image to show its street cred, I am particularly impressed by low light color performance and ease/speed of focus.
That's really great to read, appreciate the response, I saw several posts of people saying they may replace their 'cron with this lens due to how well it performs but I wanted to see if anyone decided to go with it because I totally understand that Leica is not a logical thing and when emotion is making decisions you have to inquire a bit.
shotbytherobot wrote:
I definitely understand the comparisons between this lens and the Lux given everything you mentioned, but for the "most" part I haven't seen anyone that has both say they would replace their Lux with this lens but I also won't be able to swing a Lux Asph in my kit anytime soon. I just told my wife the price of the average used M10 that I'm eventually gonna buy and she was a bit upset I was going to spend the same price as a used car on a camera (but she didn't say no lol)
About half year ago I decided to try, once more, a Leica M body, and it had to be a "P" variant. Hence I was pondering between the M-P and the M10-P (the difference in price between the two was around 2k). Fortunatelly, I chose the M-P (typ 240) camera body (while saving 2k) and, a few months later, I have bought a 50mm Lux ASPH with the saved money/difference. I am so glad I went this route, indeed!
catacore wrote:
About half year ago I decided to try, once more, a Leica M body, and it had to be a "P" variant. Hence I was pondering between the M-P and the M10-P (the difference in price between the two was around 2k). Fortunatelly, I chose the M-P (typ 240) camera body (while saving 2k) and, a few months later, I have bought a 50mm Lux ASPH with the saved money/difference. I am so glad I went this route, indeed!
I do still think about getting a M-P 240 and saving the money to put towards lenses, I had a M240 prior and loved it but I had two issues that are making more me than likely pick the M10.
1.Buffer I know the M-P 240 has a larger buffer so that might mitigate that issue but occasionally I shoot continuous and the camera lock up forcing me to remove the battery is very annoying especially if you're shooting with gloves on.
2.Iso this one can't be fixed by the M-P, being limited a max iso of 3200 is an issue for me because I often shoot indoors and at night.
shotbytherobot wrote:
I definitely understand the comparisons between this lens and the Lux given everything you mentioned, but for the "most" part I haven't seen anyone that has both say they would replace their Lux with this lens but I also won't be able to swing a Lux Asph in my kit anytime soon. I just told my wife the price of the average used M10 that I'm eventually gonna buy and she was a bit upset I was going to spend the same price as a used car on a camera (but she didn't say no lol)
That's a good point and I completely understand. I don't see much reason for anyone to replace their Leica 50mm f/1.4 Lux ASPH unless they have the older version with the 0.7m MFD and want to be able to focus closer using live view. The Simera does offer a de-click option, but that's more relevant for video work and most M body users don't really care about that feature.
It's very hard for me to tell this lens apart from the Leica 50mm f/1.4 Summilux ASPH. In that sense, the Simera 50mm f/1.4 stands out from the rest of the Simera lineup, even though they all share a modern look with clean, well-corrected images and undistracting rendering..
How so?
I’m seeing a much more pleasant image especially in the bokeh, with fewer CAs. The Summilux can sometimes come across as quite harsh. Is the Summilux actually sharper wide open? 🤔
gammarART wrote:
Entschuldige das Missverständnis. Hier ist die korrigierte Übersetzung:
How so?
I’m seeing a much more pleasant image especially in the bokeh, with fewer CAs. The Summilux can sometimes come across as quite harsh. Is the Summilux actually sharper wide open? 🤔
You mentioned CA correction, and while the Leica is well-known for it, the Simera matches it. That's actually one of the biggest differences between the 50mm f/1.4 Lux and the Voigtlander 50mm f/1.2 Nokton. In terms of rendering, there are some differences when you really zoom in and examine the files at 100% at pixel level, which I did in many crops, but in real-world images, they look very similar to my eyes.
Took me a while to read through all y’alls comments regarding so much Leica
But I was sold on this lens on pg. 6 of this thread!
Always wanted Leica-esque IQ and this is good enough for me and my budget.
Received the Simera 50 today from the FM board, Simera 28 and 35 coming on Monday
Heres the first outing: Halloween event at the House of Trikes and Bikes in Fort Myers.
All pics are unedited RAWs (except the simple B/W conversions) compressed to Jpeg
Mounted to Sony A7r3 with the Voigtlander Adapter (non-helicoid)
First impression: very impressed!
-Strange spacing on aperature ring has me composing wide open and then stopping down as needed, without ever looking at the aperature value. Makes shooting “nostalgic” without EXIF - I probably wont ever know what f-stop im firing at!
-Solid build quality: incredible diaphragm with its 14 rounded blades! Aperature ring is by far not as clicky as im used to from my Cosina optics.
-The depth of field dots are pretty useless IMO - the range is just too shallow
Focusing manually is very easy: Plane of focus is much wider than expected, unless shooting up close to MFD
-Amazing chromatic aberration control.
-Bokeh is perfect !!
-LOVE THE Black/White performance very much - competes with my Color Skopars from Cosina.
-was expecting to have to correct the White Balance in post but no need!
Probably dont need a more telephoto portrait prime along with this 50, so just listed my 75 Nokton on the board fyi
Injoy!
Edit: this lens has by far the nicest hood and hood cover of any lens that I’ve ever owned! The lens hood cover sits on snug : no chance of this falling off by accident
all straight out of camera
ILCE-7RM3---- lens1/640s400 ISO+0.3 EV
indoor lighting - wanted to check for purple fringing
ILCE-7RM3---- lens1/80s400 ISO+0.3 EV
ILCE-7RM3---- lens1/20s320 ISO+0.3 EV
My dad sells these, check em out! Best trike available - made in Germany
Just a note, that these were my first pic uploads and my first time compressing such big raw files (85MB uncompressed/lossless) into 2mb JPEGs
Because I don’t use WiFi and only have 1 bar phone reception, I’ve gotten used to only sharing low-res files.
The resolution of these pics looks much much much cleaner/snappier on my m4 iPad Pro with the display
If anyone can guide me on how much to compress pics for sharing,that would be nice
I’m sure there’s a thread on this somewhere here..
Otherwise I’ll just go to a WiFi and upload from there
I use capture one and did the export as “web optimized” jpeg at full quality
Anyhow, thanks for this thread 🧵
Happy Sunday Funday
Dan
(Sorry, I can't help here, Dan, as I use Photoshop to finish off. I hope some kind soul comes along to give you advice. If you can do so, try reducing the full final RAW by 50% increments until you reach around 1300-1500 pixels in width, then save as full quality jpegs, if C1 can do that.)
Below, Matt Osborne takes a comparative look at the Simera-C and its equivalent lens in the Leitz Hugo range. A few inaccuracies in his info but that is a quibble on my part. Note that the Simera 35mm (same in cine and stills vsns) is the weakest in the lineup, a pure character lens most reviewers love to tear down. The comments are priceless.
At around 8:00 he also shows the very secure new Thypoch M-E/Z/RF/X adapter in use, it works like the PL lock it was based on. Anyway, the video went as expected:
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Thank you Phillip!
The pixel width is already a great help!
Yes the 35 is very much a character lens, but the Black Friday sale got me
Tempted and I ordered on BH
It’s either this combo 28,35,50 simera or I keep my CV 40 1.2 instead of the 35 simera
I LOVE THE 40 Nokton but almost always shoot above f2 - so am
Hoping for better performance WO of the simera.
Let’s see what it brings
I see your on top of your research! I won’t watch any more lens reviews - gas needs to end!
;-)
Cheers m8
Edit: OR I’ll stick to the duo 28 & 50 simera and return the 35
28 & 35 coming tomorrow. Had listed the 40 nokton in the FM board and received immediate response, so that one is sold if I confirm after testing the 35.
SO MANY LENSES, so few camera bodies and only one attention and two eyes & hands to make use of so much optical glass options 😂
Got the simera 35 today and I’m stoked!
Also got a used simera 28 on eBay last night so I can return or sell the 28 e-mount without opening the box that came from BH today.
I don’t know why ppl are so picky regarding the 35 simera!
Perhaps because the simeras main competitor : Leica lenses are so expensive that extreme pixel peeping is understandable… I’m more interested in overall IQ rendering and bokeh falloff. And the 35 delivers OMG’
After only a few shots I was set on selling my CV 40 nokton! It’s sold already and with FedEx.
I’ll edit the first impression pics from the 35/1.4 now and post on the simera 35 thread
Just a tip; I got the lens band mini to strap around the mount for extra moisture protection and to differentiate the lenses as both the 28 and 35 for Sony are in black (currently not available in silver)
It fits like “a glove”
I could never live with the field curvature of a m-mount lens on a Sony mirrorless. I did that with all the alpha bodies I've ever owned, and it was just unpleasant. Especially with anything wider than 50 mm, where it becomes more obvious.
Happydan wrote:
Got the simera 35 today and I’m stoked!
Also got a used simera 28 on eBay last night so I can return or sell the 28 e-mount without opening the box that came from BH today.
I don’t know why ppl are so picky regarding the 35 simera!
Perhaps because the simeras main competitor : Leica lenses are so expensive that extreme pixel peeping is understandable… I’m more interested in overall IQ rendering and bokeh falloff. And the 35 delivers OMG’
After only a few shots I was set on selling my CV 40 nokton! It’s sold already and with FedEx.
I’ll edit the first impression pics from the 35/1.4 now and post on the simera 35 thread
Just a tip; I got the lens band mini to strap around the mount for extra moisture protection and to differentiate the lenses as both the 28 and 35 for Sony are in black (currently not available in silver)
It fits like “a glove” ...Show more →
I got the e mount version : even though there’s much talk of the simera 35 performing superior on M
The focus plane of the 35 simera is really wide, so let’s see about that curvature.
As there is no 35 simera thread I’ll post them here
((There should really be a Thypoch simera thread that isn’t in a Leica/nikon/sony sub group)!
First impressions from the Simera 35 after a quick walk with the doggy:
Build quality similar to the 50. But no way near as precise engineering tolerance as CV optics
Depth of field dots are useless - absolutely not visible at all - unlike the 50
Simera where u can see the red dots
Aperature ring is much! Stiffer than on the 50, aperature clicks are more pronounced on the 35 than on the 50.
I preferred declicking the aperature ring to make it turn smoother. Perhaps this will loosen with
Time…
Focus ring is smooth and the focus tab doesn’t have me oddly misshaping my left hand to grab the thin focus ring so close to the mount . Focus throw is short - nice! Focus plane pleasantly wide
No resistance with he focus ring at 0,7m on the 35 - which I prefer since I’m on Sony not a RF
The 50 focuses past infinity! Haven’t checked on the 35 but am expecting the same
Bokehtastic!
The awesome FM member that bought my 40 nokton recommended the 35 ZM, but for the significant prive saving of the simera 35, I’m happy. GAS please be over now
The hood on the 35 mounts really not easy with its bayonet connection. Kinda shows that the 35 was their first lens design…
But the hood is extremely solid - not concerned at all when bumping the lens . Which I did onto a metal frame earlier
I can probably remove the Zeiss protective filter (non-UV coated) that i put on the 35 - as the hood provides massive protection and the lens groups don’t move into the lens like on the 50
Pls tell me If u can see any field curvature here
EDIT: will take more pictures at far distances to check for the field curvature!
Midday STRONG Florida sun up ahead (12pm)
All taken WIDE OPEN
PS: thanks again Phillip, resizing to 1500 pix wide was super easy on C1 and the files are below 1MB!!!
Lenses encourage the kind of photography they are good at doing. The Simeras encourage the kind of photography that is quite different from regular modern stills photo lenses - there are ways of using them that make them very different from the usual fare. Not much of a reveal - it is PEOPLE photography. And these above are a pleasure to see, mate.
On the 35mm, it came out and was met with a storm of derision. It looked different, it was based on an M lens (let's forget all the 'Sonnars' over the decades), it came after the first wave of cheap Chinese lenses that had less than great build quality, and it did not have stellar image quality (as measured by MTF). So nearly everyone dismissed it.
The aperture index marks were oddly spaced - never mind that no one ever bothered to find this was a long-established way of giving the operator more gradation at the wide end where it matters. But it seemed to offend the linear thinking of many people. Thypoch (really DZO, the established cine company) looked and felt to the establishment like an interloper on their turf.
The people that loved it were a few YouTubers who already had the other foot in the door of video and what I call 'light cinema' ('solo operators' in the cine world) - and they loved the qualities it has, things that the stills world did not even see.
I am weakening on buying it too, simply because of the glass these people use - the 35/1.4 has NO ED glass in its nine elements, but it does have three HRI elements and just one aspherical element. No one needs to know this, but I am here to tell anyone interested in it.
Did you know the fancy glass many of the non-Chinese in the field (Leica, Zeiss, Cosina) use for correction these days - 'anomalous partial dispersion' or APD - was almost unheard of only 20 years ago? They are still learning how to make it and use it.
They also haven't even figured out how to include simple aperture mechanisms with enough blades to get rid of the ugly bokeh balls at f2-f2.8-f4! These guys have been around for 50-100 years! WTH. So the new lens makers have already opened up a lead on them, you could say, and they don't even know it.
But the Chinese (and Korean) makers we often see now, they come from and/or are very interested in the cine world, and they are fast learners, where the old brigade are equally fast to forget, and they treat their user base like the proverbial.
The 50mm is an unadulterated gem in my book. Mine works just great on the standard Sony mount, for what it was intended for. But some people, they get a new lens and the first thing they want to see is the last 40 pixels in each corner! No good there, is a lens fail for them! It's unbelievable but that is where we are at. The lens producers are apparently supposed to make corners as good as centers.
At times, I try telling them the Simeras (like many cine lenses) are *designed* to lose resolution/contrast/ sharpness in corners. Their MTF shows this effect very clearly and consistently. It's not poor optical development, it is intentional.
And the really crazy thing is that the Chinese are bringing to stills photography an era of taste and aesthetics - you see it in the great packaging, their customer interfaces, the thoughtful and information-rich websites etc.
Luckily for them, we have an internet (still) so gatekeeping won't work like it once did. And many online people are seeing it unfold in front of their eyes. Good times at last. The ancien regime has been rocked, but their products will have to improve now. Or they won't make it.
Really liking what I see in this thread. The awesome member that sold me his CV 40 also recommended the simeras. I just purchased the 50 in silver. Will contribute to this thread once I receive it.
