rico wrote:
The term "King of Bokeh" has been around for a few decades (before digital) but I never saw the justification. It's a pretty ordinary lens that happens to occupy the sweet spot for Leica M (35mm). I own it and prefer the prior v3 for the haptics and cleaner DOF scale. The additional element of the v4 seems to have no detectable effect.
It's interesting that the "King of Bokeh" title actually traces back to a single caption by Mike Johnston when he was editor of Photo Techniques. From that one mention, the nickname took on a life of its own and stuck.
What's even more interesting is that Mike later walked that back and wrote:
'Those two decades ago, I called the Leica pre-ASPH 35mm Summicron "the King of bokeh" in a caption in a magazine, and the phrase still pops up from time to time. Well, it ain't. That lens has very coherent, very pleasing near-o-o-f blur at smaller apertures and middle distances, but at large apertures close-in it sucks.'
For me, I enjoy all the pre-asph cron versions, actually more than the ASPH. But if I had to pick one, my favorite is still the OG v1 "8-Element".
madNbad wrote:
Guess you"ll have to add an 8 Element to the 35 collection.
Honestly, I graduated from all Summicrons after acquiring the Summaron 35/2.8 which is the little brother of the 8-element (and probably superior optically). My copy is the rare factory-issued LTM:
rico wrote:
Honestly, I graduated from all Summicrons after acquiring the Summaron 35/2.8 which is the little brother of the 8-element (and probably superior optically). My copy is the rare factory-issued LTM:
