If you own this lens, do you find yourself using it frequently for portraits and traveling?
I current have 21mm, 35mm Reissued and 50mm Lux as my full kit and Q3. I love the 50 Lux but find it too close to 35. When I travel with 50 it's usually too tight for walkaround and too wide for distant landscapes. I had 90mm before and find it too tele. 75mm may be the answer for me. Voigtlander has some options at 75mm, but for some reason, they all have oddly designed shapes like the Nokton and Ultron. I'm thinkin about getting the 75 Summarit f2.4 or 75 APO. 75 APO looks like the best of all options with the only down side being its weight at almost 1 lb.
I don't own the the APO, but the 75mm 1.4 Summilux.
You'd probably enjoy that, given you own the 35 re-issue and the 50mm Lux.
The APO's rendering is definitely more modern, with less "flaws" / less character.
Apparently you want to use the 75mm for both travelling and portraits -
it's definitely great for the latter, especially if a 90mm is "too tele" for you.
And it would compliment the 21 and 35mm nicely, if a three-lens-setup is what you're going for.
Still, the 75mm lenses are all heavy by design (the 1.4 Summilux even more so than the APO)..
..so not ideal for travel, but that's kinda the price to have to pay for the extra "reach" 💁♂️
gordec wrote:
If you own this lens, do you find yourself using it frequently for portraits and traveling?
I current have 21mm, 35mm Reissued and 50mm Lux as my full kit and Q3. I love the 50 Lux but find it too close to 35. When I travel with 50 it's usually too tight for walkaround and too wide for distant landscapes. I had 90mm before and find it too tele. 75mm may be the answer for me. Voigtlander has some options at 75mm, but for some reason, they all have oddly designed shapes like the Nokton and Ultron. I'm thinkin about getting the 75 Summarit f2.4 or 75 APO. 75 APO looks like the best of all options with the only down side being its weight at almost 1 lb. ...Show more →
I have never had the 75 APO, but I have always been intrigued by it. It has a design quite similar to the 50 Lux Asph and I think a similar look. The 50 lux Asph was one of my favorite all time lenses which is a lot of the reason I have always been intrigued by the 75 APO.
I have had the 75 Summarit f/2.4, and the Voigtlander 75 f/1.5 both of which I really liked. The 75 Summarit really had very few flaws and was a lens that just consistently produced good shots. The Voigtlander is also a very nice lens and I both enjoyed it character wide open and it excellent performance stopped down. Wide open there is some axial CA and although I generally like the build quality of Voigtlander lenses this lens and the 35 f/1.7 are the two I like least.
I think all these 75s are quite good, so in a way you can't go wrong.
I opted for the M 75/2.4 (higher aperture blade count) instead of the APO or Lux. I previously had the VM 75/1.5 Vintage (and miss it at times). The prospect of what the APO / Lux bring to the table weren't prime motivators for me, for the $$$ / size / weight diff's.
Two different animals in that the SA rendering (and some focus shift) of the VM is different from the Summarit. I like each for different reasons. If want the "more lovely" rendering, the Voigt gets my vote. If you want the "better corrected" optic, the Summarit. Both are good, just different.
I'll give another nod to the 75/2.4 Summarit. I sold mine because I own the Summilux which I LOVE for portraits. But it's big and bulky. The Summarit is perfect for travel, it's small, it's light, it's relatively inexpensive, it's sharp, IQ is excellent and the focus throw is short. I used it with a 35 lux as my main travel kit.
I am using the CV 75/1.5 Nokton (earlier version) option. Optically, the lens is superb and one of my favorite lenses in the short tele lens range. The lens has a 58 mm filter diameter which I find ideal to attach all kind of affordable third party filters. Cons of this lens: the earlier lens version in silver chrome color had a very tiny lens mount attachment mark which is impossible to see in dim light conditions without additional light source. Wish Cosina made a red knob mark on this lens instead! Also the lens hood in silver can cause internal reflections with the lens wide open (plus ND filter) under sunny conditions - maybe the black version with black hood has an advantage here.
I've gone between the 50mm f1.4 summilux ASPH 2023 and the 75mm APO a couple of times and ended up keeping the 75mm APO and preferring it over the 50mm f1.4. I thought I would like the 50mm f1.4 more but I discovered I liked the 75mm focal length more for portraits and for some reason, I find the overall images to be more pleasing even if the MTF charts might say otherwise.
There's an APO quality / clarity in the 75mm images that I think the images from the 50mm f1.4 lacks even if it's supposed to be apochromatic in some way too. Bokeh between the two lenses look identical when I tested it side by side, which is unsurprising since they're related.
I haven't tried the 75mm summarit but it seems to be a very good lens but I decided the 75mm APO was the right one for me so I bought a near new one when I had the chance to buy it again.
I do wonder if I should go 21, 35, 90mm for travel though and I'm going to give the macro-elmar a spin but I think the 75mm is a keeper regardless for me.
tzhang4284 wrote:
I've gone between the 50mm f1.4 summilux ASPH 2023 and the 75mm APO a couple of times and ended up keeping the 75mm APO and preferring it over the 50mm f1.4. I thought I would like the 50mm f1.4 more but I discovered I liked the 75mm focal length more for portraits and for some reason, I find the overall images to be more pleasing even if the MTF charts might say otherwise.
There's an APO quality / clarity in the 75mm images that I think the images from the 50mm f1.4 lacks even if it's supposed to be apochromatic in some way too. Bokeh between the two lenses look identical when I tested it side by side, which is unsurprising since they're related.
I haven't tried the 75mm summarit but it seems to be a very good lens but I decided the 75mm APO was the right one for me so I bought a near new one when I had the chance to buy it again.
I do wonder if I should go 21, 35, 90mm for travel though and I'm going to give the macro-elmar a spin but I think the 75mm is a keeper regardless for me....Show more →
Voigtlander 75mm f1.5 is a nice one. The only thing I don't like about it is very short focus throw and "uglier" look compare to Leica.
It is small, fast and sharp with very nice bokeh actually.
For travel and portrait, I’d take the Voigt 75/1.9 (you indicate you like a modern draw) or MS Optics 73/1.5 if you like character.
The size, price, MFD and overall optical performance of the CV 75/1.9 is awesome.
If not for size, I’d opt for a CV 75/1.5 (modern) or Lux 75/1.4 for character.
While similar, the look of the Leica 75 APO is always too clinical for me, especially for portraits. And size wise I’d prefer something lighter, smaller and faster. Especially for travel.
gordec wrote:
You don't find the APO too heavy. It's like 1 lb.
It’s heavier than the 50mm f1.4 asph but manageable. I decided the 90mm f2 apo was where I drew the line - had an excellent copy of that but just too heavy to carry around regularly.
nehemiahphoto wrote:
For travel and portrait, I’d take the Voigt 75/1.9 (you indicate you like a modern draw) or MS Optics 73/1.5 if you like character.
The size, price, MFD and overall optical performance of the CV 75/1.9 is awesome.
If not for size, I’d opt for a CV 75/1.5 (modern) or Lux 75/1.4 for character.
While similar, the look of the Leica 75 APO is always too clinical for me, especially for portraits. And size wise I’d prefer something lighter, smaller and faster. Especially for travel.
I wanted to get the CVS 75 f1.9. It’s perfect size and IQ and has 0.5 m close focus, but for some reason, all the Voigtlander 75 options have really odd shapes and design. The f1.9 looks like a wine barrel. CV should continue the newer Color Skopar designs. Very clean and smooth.
Leica photography is all about the appearance of your gear not the appearance of the photos you know.
gordec wrote:
All joking aside the CV 75 f1.9 is a very attractive option. With 0.5m close focus it even beats the APO for reproductive ratio.
It’s a nice lens considering size & weight. Just don’t expect 75 APO performance wide-open - it really needs to be stopped down to f2.8 or so to get crisp.
And I find it a bit fiddly to focus near infinity. Focus throw is a bit too short in that region.
I came upon the 75 APO in a rather odd way. I was wondering around Map Camera in Tokyo and I noticed that they had three used 75 APO Asph. I don’t use my 90 APO much due to weight and size. The 75mm does help in this regard. I purchased the lens and sold my absolute favorite lens, the 21mm f/4.5 Biogon-c. My strategy here was that I wanted to force myself to use the 75mm vs waste my last week in Japan and I wanted to purchase the 21mm SEM once back home. This was my first 75mm, so I managed a crash course in seeing things through this lens. I like the lens and it is surprisingly useful. Once home, I followed through on the new 21mm and picked up a 90mm f/4.0 Macro Elmar and took it on a film road trip. Great lens (90mm M-E).. very small/sharp. So, I like the 75mm APO and I like the rendering wide open. This image was from my dining room seat, first use of the lens, the night of the lens purchase. Low Light… M11 Monochrom..
gordec wrote:
All joking aside the CV 75 f1.9 is a very attractive option. With 0.5m close focus it even beats the APO for reproductive ratio.
And the size and shape means good things for the VF versus the Cron or Summarit. It's shorter than either and the taper from the focus ring to the front means less overall blockage. Ultimately, the draw of the Ultron is a little closer to the Summarit than it is the Cron (sharp on the big details, significantly lighter on the little ones until you stop it down some) but at landscape apertures, it keeps up nicely with the Cron.
Aight, I think I'm going to trade my 50 Lux for an APO. Maybe 75mm is my calling. I don't like more than 3 lenses in my kit. 21/35/75 seems to be the best option.
