rscheffler
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 p.447 #5 · Leica M/X/T/S/Q/CL/SL Picture Thread | |
Ryan, those look really nice!
Tough call on the wide lens options you listed... I agree with Joe, the ZM21 is really nice, especially stopped down and has zero CA. I had the chance to try the 24 Elmar briefly and was very impressed with it and I think you'll like it, even if it's not as fast as a Lux or Cron. It's already great wide open and stopping down brings little peripheral sharpness improvement and just cleans up the slight vignetting. As Joakim and Boris have shown here over the past while, it's an excellent lens.
For me personally, I would go with the 21 SEM, though I have yet to try one. It appears to have the 24 elmar performance and is more compact than the ZM. And as a 21 Lux owner - I would still find use for the SEM, crazy as it would seem to own two 21s. The 21 Lux is a great lens wide open and has pretty strong vignetting that adds to its character. But I find if stopped down around 2.8-4, it can have a certain degree of nervousness in the outer zones. My feeling is it's a lens to use at f/1.4 or f/2 (where it sharpness up centrally and vignetting is drastically reduced), or at f/8 or f/11 for max depth of field. In contrast, the SEM, and what I saw in the Elmar - these appear to let you shoot from wide open without as much of a performance penalty. They seem to be very even keeled. The 21 Lux is more dual personality, which from what I'm reading, can be the case with the Lux lenses. No idea about the 24 Lux - whether or not it has much change of personality as it's stopped down.
Joe - yes, that sucks. From my experience working in retail, talking to various vendors, etc., almost none ship insured and take that risk. But then, they're dealing in huge volumes and a loss or two isn't a big hit, unlike for us where loss of a $5k lens would be extremely upsetting... I my impression is the infinity tuning for the fast lenses is very subtle. After the first tune of the 50 Lux by Leica, I had the opposite problem where it wouldn't reach infinity. Now after the second try, it seems to be fine. Though as Charles hinted, my copy might now have slight back focus at mid distances.
These CV images look very nice. What aperture was the first one and which lens coding are you using?
Michael, I can't speak for Charles or Ryan, but I'm still struggling a bit with 90mm (Summarit) on my M9. The latest Leica tuning is still fractionally off with the 90, which causes focus consistency issues at wider apertures. I still use my Canon stuff to cover the telephoto end of the spectrum. For my applications at least, this is where I find AF to be the greatest benefit, with lenses like the 85L... But the 75 Lux does look great. I see similarities to the 50 Lux, and at least for me, I think the 50 makes more sense for the M9 and the way I use it.
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The focus on my 35FLE passes infinity. I'll have a look again when I have some time but it looks like I'll have to send it in. We all have to go through the "curse" of Leica huh? My problem is that each time I send it to Leica NJ, I still have to pay for insured shipping, so its not exactly free. I do have a hot pixel on the M9 LCD, maybe I can send the camera in as the same time and let them have a look.
Nice images from CV35)
