Kurt, the 75 Lux bokeh looks smoother to me. The Noctilux has that same odd bokeh in your shot which RobSteve's cat shot had, with the pavement in the background. I have seen other shots with smoother bokeh from the Noct though, so maybe it all depends. Do you have a 75 Cron?
Carsten, I'd agree on the noctilux...you sometimes don't know what type of bokeh you are going to end up with in your image. Shooting with the lens is a bit of an adventure.
I had a cron and the lux at the same time. I eventually sold the cron to Guy as I wanted the extra stops.
To show you an image that better represents what the noctilux can do, here is another sample wide open.
Just another one of those pet shots with a blurred background that bothers a few folks. They are my very patient test samples as I work on my rangefinder focusing skills.
I have the 75 lux (haven't even mounted it yet, but it's a long story) and a Noctilux that I bought as a demo from Dale that was out on loan ,getting used, and broken.
I can't believe it , but because of that Dale has ordered me a NEW nocti at the same price as the demo! Those guys are fantastic! (David esp)
Anyway, when I get them going, I am looking forward to comparing the 'looks'
Hi Guy, The highlights look a little "filled in" on the color shot. I noticed that on your DMR vs M8 comparison the highlights blew on the M8 vs the DMR. Are you finding such highlight treatments neccesary on the M8 more than the DMR?
What do the RGB histograms look like? to me it appears as if there is a fault in the white point mapping in the profile? Obviously it can be fixed by simply clipping the levels but then you obviously get pure white ( blown ) highlights - question is what did the camera, profile or RAW processor do with the highlight information which I assume was captured in the first place?
I recall that there was all sort of discussion re: back/front focussing with the 80lux wide open on the DMR- I had some issues there myself, but kind of sorted it out. I'm finding the focussing on the M8 to be spot on, other than related to my technique.
Guy what do you think of the focussing accuracy of the M8 compared to, say, the DMR?
Those last shots are very convincing, very sharp, great tones, and color. I still wish Leica had let the camera bake in the oven a little longer before serving it to the public. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens once all the kinks are worked out. I suspect this will take some time. Perhaps next year I'll feel better about taking the plunge for the M8 (if its current problems have been resolved).
Here is a Leica M8 DNG which is pretty sharp. 50 Lux Asph. It can be white balanced on the camera. I don't have a 5D version of this, but you will see that this file is really smooth, not chunky like Puts' file. I have no idea what he did and don't even want to guess. You can compare with whatever you want from the 5D, 1Ds2 and so on. Try looking at it in Lightroom or perhaps C1.
I got over 100, but this one was 80. The first one was #2, the last one #113. I wonder who took the first one. Leica? I guess I know what they didn't take it off: black velvet! ! On the other hand, if it comes back with more than 113 shots taken, I guess I know what they took it of: black velvet! ROTFLMHO!
They are my very patient test samples as I work on my rangefinder focusing skills.
