Alright everyone, it's time for a friendly showdown!
I've been shooting with the new Voigtländer 28mm F2 APO-Lanthar and wanted to see how it really stacks up against the reigning champ, the Leica 28mm f/1.4 Summilux-M. I've prepared three series of comparison images on my M11 to share.
There's already a great general discussion in Fred's main review thread (link here), but I thought it would be useful to create a new thread just for image comparisons. My goal is to dig into the nuances and answer the practical question: When would you choose one over the other? Arguably, the motives chosen favor the assumed sweet spot for the APO (urban architecture) - no portraits (Summilux territory).
My humble approach:
To keep things as fair as possible, every image was processed identically using the Cobalt 'Repro' profile in ACR for a clean, neutral base. Settings were synced across all comparison shots within a series. The only other touch was a standard pre-sharpening step in Photoshop.
Now for the Fun Part...
I have a lot of my own takeaways, but I'm going to keep my mouth shut for now! I would love to get your unbiased reactions first. What jumps out at you? Any surprises?
Let me know what you think!
Here are the images, for full size, please click on the Flickr links.
I’m only able to look on an iPad right now, but the rendering and use cases of these two lenses are extremely different. Just like the Nokton, the Lux puts more emphasis of sharpness on the center. In doing so, it really makes the subject pop, way more than a flatter field lens like the APO. The APO is so sharp across the image, it’s easy to tell which is which. The mid-zone and edges/corners clearly favor the APO when looking for sharpness. Surprised to also see what I would say is a big difference in colors, I prefer the Lux
Just like how I have a Lux V2 and a Cron APO, there is a valid reason based on rendering to own a Lux/Nokton AND the APO, I believe they serve very different purposes. I bought the APO and will be testing my copy today, but I plan on keeping that and my 24 Lux as they have different purposes for having a spot in my bag.
rsolti13 wrote:
I’m only able to look on an iPad right now, but the rendering and use cases of these two lenses are extremely different. Just like the Nokton, the Lux puts more emphasis of sharpness on the center. In doing so, it really makes the subject pop, way more than a flatter field lens like the APO. The APO is so sharp across the image, it’s easy to tell which is which. The mid-zone and edges/corners clearly favor the APO when looking for sharpness. Surprised to also see what I would say is a big difference in colors, I prefer the Lux
Just like how I have a Lux V2 and a Cron APO, there is a valid reason based on rendering to own a Lux/Nokton AND the APO, I believe they serve very different purposes. I bought the APO and will be testing my copy today, but I plan on keeping that and my 24 Lux as they have different purposes for having a spot in my bag....Show more →
Thanks for sharing, I have similar thoughts. The images I shared were only optimized to showcase details and tonal range to compare both lenses. Conceivably, I would not have otherwise posted them as-is "straight out of camera".
I'm seeing great flexibility to tweak the APO Lanthar look. E.g. here is the shot at f/2, reducing clarity in ACR to -10, adding a vignette, using the Pentax Katen instead of the Repro profile, and adding a small amount of noise and bloom in Dehancer. Quite a difference (subjective if you like it better):
Things I see in no order of preference: Lux's mid zone dip is noticeable and continues to be a factor even at f/5.6. Funny though in regular use I barely notice it in my images, whereas I'm quite sensitive to the same 'flaw' in the 21 and 50 Luxes. I think the point of focus is different between the lenses in the first two scenes; the APO focused a bit farther away. The Lux's purple/LoCA fringing is noticeable at wide apertures in some areas, and as you likely know, that purple fringing never goes away in peripheral areas, even well stopped down. The third scene looks to be identically focused and interestingly the Lux gains more central background sharpness stopped down but the background looks messier in the midfield and edges. One of the things that disappointed me a bit with the Lux back when I got it, coming from the Cron v1, was that the outer third/periphery never got as sharp as the Cron when both were stopped down. But for me it was a tradeoff to benefit from a stop faster light gathering capability.
Have you coded the APO, or applied an in-camera code to it? It has noticeable cyan color shift in the corners, which suggests incompatible in-camera lens correction was applied. Or, if uncoded, might be a side effect of uneven IR absorption by the cover glass (steeper off-axis light rays at the image periphery travel farther through the IR blocking glass, resulting in stronger IR blocking in that area of the image compared to on-axis light rays).
IMO these scenes are the types I would photograph with the sharpest lens I have a given focal length. Which means here I would use the APO. It would be interesting to see some closer distance scenes were the point of focus is maybe within 3-5 feet, and also closer.
What's your impression about viewfinder/frame line blockage between the two?
